WEBVTT - EYL #291: How To Raise $1 Billion: The Hidden Secrets to Building a Billion-Dollar Company ft. Ryan Breslow 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.600 An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:07.480 in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:11.840 accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.840 filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.680 some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:20.159 Donald J. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:21.200 Trump's leadership. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.079 I'm Christy nom the United States Secretary of Homeland Security. 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.200 Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.080 lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.920 aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, your 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.160 next you will be fined nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:42.160 and deported. 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:43.800 You will never return. 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.120 But if you register using our CBP home app and 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.120 leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:52.720 Do what's right. Leave now. 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.840 Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.000 Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security. 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.000 All right, gosh, welcome back, e y l. We are 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:05.400 in Los Angeles. 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.360 An amazing LA time has been had. 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.360 Every time we come to LA, especially for Grammy Weekend. 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.640 It's always a motion picture event for sure. 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.039 To say the least man to say the least is 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.360 definitely most of the picture, and we're going out with 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:19.319 a bang. 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:25.200 It's not over yet, not over, yes, So this is interesting. 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:26.520 I think the first time that we met was with 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.240 Baron Davis briefly for his event, right yep, that was 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.760 all start Lake City and we want to panel together. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:36.640 They were yeah, And. 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:41.600 Then we met in Davos and then we met. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:43.680 You know what. 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:45.200 They were saying like, you got to meet this guy, 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:46.880 you got to meet this guy. And I'm looking like, 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.960 all right, who's the I'm like, oh right, we just 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.240 we know, Ryan, we just be We didn't trying to 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.400 make it happen for probably over a year. Yeah, but 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.080 like any other you know, when the time is supposed 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.400 to to come does and it happens in the right time. 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:03.520 Serious. So we ran into a Davos and it was 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:05.400 it was love and it was like, we. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.800 Have to do it now the time. 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:09.320 Here we are two weeks later. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:16.120 So Ryan Breslo is foundering and chairman of Bolt, which 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.360 is revolutionizing e commerce one click check out, you said 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:21.520 PayPal two point zero. 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:23.320 Yeah, you can look at it as. 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:25.760 That, right, Yeah, I think that's the easiest way to 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:26.360 describe it. 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.280 But you're serial entrepreneur. So you also started a company 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.120 called Love Yeah. Right, that's the newest vibe that you 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.600 got going on. Right, Yeah, that's a marketplace for alternative medicines. 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.680 It's a little different now. I think the last time 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.120 I told you about it, it was but it's actually 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:44.960 even crazier. 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:45.200 Idea. 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:50.040 I was trying to tell Troy at Davos and don't 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:52.800 tell me. Yeah, You're like, don't tell me, So I 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.560 didn't update you or correct. So it's different than that, all. 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.600 Right, So we'll get into it. And then you have Ego, 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.360 right yep. And that's the crypto savings app. 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:09.080 Yeah, Crypto savings app and making crypto easier for the 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:10.600 mainstream consumer. 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.080 Yeah. I feel like that's been your goal. 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.200 When I think about like the history of how you've 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:20.040 built everything, it started there, right, Like it was how 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.359 do I make things more efficient for the everyday person? 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:24.960 Even like the one click payment is how to make 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:26.360 things efficient for the everyday person? 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.440 Exactly? Yeah, how do you make things easy that currently 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:30.320 aren't easy? 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:31.200 Yeah? 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:36.080 And I just I felt that about online check out, 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:40.760 I felt that about crypto and so yeah, those and 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.280 now it's love, which is all about conscious shopping and 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.600 making that easier, which we'll talk more about, but yeah, 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:47.880 making things easier. 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.240 So Forbes last year twenty twenty three, they had you 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.880 had the seventh youngest billionaire in the world. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.160 For Forbes said. 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:03.320 Those guys. 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:06.720 You know, it was also interesting if you ever, like, 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:11.520 like google yourself, which maybe you don't, when people had 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:15.720 like their birth date, their birthdate says twenty nine dash dirty, 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:18.080 so they're not really sure how old you are. 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:18.440 I guess. 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:19.839 Yeah. 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:26.039 There's all types of media press, a lot of things 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:26.640 that are said. 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:30.520 M Yeah. 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:34.680 You know, I got a lot of attention maybe eighteen 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.800 and twenty four months ago because I needed to make 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.800 Bolt and myself known to just get customers. So I 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.880 started doing more publicly, and then Forbes came out with that, 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.200 and there's a bunch of other and the stuff in 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.440 the press, and I realized that the press attention comes 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.080 with a lot of costs. So I've been trying to, 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.520 you know, stay more low profile these days. I'm not 0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:00.400 going completely low profile, dude, you know, I. 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.200 Don't worry nobody's listening. All right, Well, first and foremost, 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:05.080 thank you for joining us. 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.520 Appreciate it and thanks for having me. It's an honor. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:10.039 Yeah. So I think this is gonna be a dope conversation. 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:11.560 We want to talk about raising money, you want to 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.680 talk about business startups, want to talk about pivoting, all 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.760 of these things that we talk about as far as entrepreneurship, 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:19.960 and that's what the platform is based on. So we 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.760 actually just got finished watching one of your videos for 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:24.960 like twenty minutes and Studio told you about it. So 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.039 that actually gave me a lot of questions to ask 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:28.640 based off of that conversation. 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.560 And I think there's a part of the world of 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.919 business and entrepreneurship that people don't talk about, but I 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.520 love that you do. And that's the mindfulness, right and 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.720 the mental health of it, right, because there's a lot 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.480 that comes on number one, being a founder, but having 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.760 the risk to say I'm about to change the world yep, 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:51.000 and having that belief in yourself, but sometimes really lies 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:52.960 in that the people around you don't have a similar belief. 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:54.520 Yeah. 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.440 I mean, I think the world's greatest entrepreneurs had a 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.360 deep sense of purpose and I think a lot of 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.479 entrepreneurs do. And then as you get caught up in 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:11.600 business you start to lose that why, right, and it 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.200 can really suck the soul out of you to a 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.440 point where you're forgetting why you're doing what you're doing 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.000 in the first place. And so you kind of hit 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.560 a glass ceiling. And I think re anchoring in that 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.440 why and staying there as much as you can is 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:30.520 what leads to that continue success, continue reinventing of yourself, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:31.440 as we talked about. 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.720 So yeah, so. 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.080 Let's get into today. So let's talk about bolt start there. 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.440 So what's the idea for both and what's the from 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:46.680 idea to execution to getting it unicorn status? 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:53.680 Yeah, so I started this. I was lucky again in Stanford, 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.120 grow up in Miami. I'll go through this a little background. 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.599 Start with Stanford Bitcoin Group in twenty thirteen, eight of 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:01.200 us on campus. 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:02.400 A bitcoin like investing group. 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:07.440 No, it's just like students doing research and projects around bitcoin. 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.960 We're writing papers, we had some professors. We'd get credits 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:16.600 for researching bitcoin and super cool. Most of the campus 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:18.960 didn't know what bitcoin was or eight of us in it. 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.040 A couple of years after it was hundreds and hundreds 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:23.200 of kids, but we were the first one to really 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:28.200 popularize bitcoin on campus, and I dropped out of school 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.920 to start something and looked kind of like a coinbase, 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.480 like make it easy to buy and sell and all that. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:38.080 And I actually went around the country pitching banks on 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:40.480 why they should work with us, because we need a 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:41.640 bank to work with us. 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.600 And so did that Throughout a year. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.880 We lost a couple banking bids to coin base because 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.080 they had the bigger vcs, they felt more trusted with them. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:53.040 So I'm like, this is going to take me too 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.640 long to get banks behind me. And so I kind 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:01.320 of really have always wanted to build a better PayPal 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:03.440 am I gonna find if I do this, I can 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.400 integrate crypto with it later. And so I had this 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.160 idea of PayPal two point zero. I'd started some e 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.080 commerce sites in middle school and I'm like, the checkout 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.720 is really bad, and so I was like, why don't 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.920 we make a better version of this? And I could 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.120 talk more about how bolt works, but that's that's was 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:21.840 the inspiration. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.520 Where did you Because this is early I know now 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:26.640 everybody bigcoin. 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.400 I mean, if you don't know what it is, it's 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:30.800 like where have you been? 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:34.880 But in twenty thirteen, it wasn't very commonly known I 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.439 kind of was introduced to it because of the music scene, 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:39.959 and it was like that was a way to get 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:43.319 music from sites that you know, it's almost like illegal 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.400 to get music, so you had to have a different 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.320 form of payment. How did you get introduced it and 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.360 then now bring it to Stanford to say this is 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:52.960 something that's going to take over the future. 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:58.160 Yeah, there was this professor whose name was Billagi Shrinovasan 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:03.240 who's kind of infamous in Silicon Valley, and so he's 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.400 teaching this startup engineering class. 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:06.560 So I'm very lucky. 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.680 He's the one that, like always he teaches classes and 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.280 then the kids that in his class pitched and then 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:15.600 he invests in the kids. 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:18.760 Yeah yeah, he like in the class, you work on 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:25.920 different projects and hackathons. He might invest, might not. I 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.000 wasn't a center around him investing. But I got very 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.520 lucky right place, right time. I was very blessed to 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:36.920 get into into great school. And and then there was 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:41.240 about eight of us who would do these hackathons. He'd 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:45.600 have twice a week hackathons because Blagie loved, like, you know, 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.959 young hackers building his crazy ideas. So he'd go and 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.160 we'd build his things. And there are about eight of 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:55.880 us who were consistently there to like five or six 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:59.440 in the morning and everyone else that went to bed, 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.480 and so we just started talking and we get a 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:05.440 lot of time with them. And then eventually the eight 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.840 of us were like, we should just form an official 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.560 club on campus, and this should be around bitcoin. So 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.079 we started Stanford Bitcoin Group. We got it bussed by 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:18.920 the university. We ended up getting like five credits a 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:23.560 quarter for doing research papers on it. So we got 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.000 out of some classes and just was able to focus 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.480 on bitcoin, and eventually I was like, this is all 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:31.640 I want to focus on. And then I ended up 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:36.200 doing the stereotypical dropout Stanford dropout. 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:38.599 So I'm the stereotyped to a t. 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.200 So when you start in a company, you have to 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:44.840 raise money, you have to like get some help. Like 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.920 what's the process of actually starting the company of you know, 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:50.959 from idea to actually get it up and running. 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.800 Yeah, I mean there's a million ways to start a company. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:11:04.800 For me, I I had like a first attempt at 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:09.400 starting a company and ended up complete disaster. I had 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.960 two other co founders. One was a close friend. One 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.320 was like this billionaire who got interested in what we 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.480 were doing, had all this money lined up because of 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.800 this person's name. That person ended up pulling out for 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:26.240 reasons I don't I never was able to uncover my 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.920 other co founders, like this is hopeless. I had already 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.000 dropped out of school, so so now I had no money, 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.520 I had no co founders, and but I'm dropped out, 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:39.880 and so now I look at them like that was 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.400 such a blessing because they weren't the right people to 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:45.800 do the business with. But at the time, I was like, man, 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.920 I'm super square, dropped out of school, got no money, 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.080 can't pay for rent. I mean, I don't have investors. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:57.280 So you know, I built an MVP of an app 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:02.600 over several months, built it my I then had enough 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.760 momentum I got some users on the app. It was 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.640 a crypto app, kind of like a coinbase or some investors, 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.439 you know, took notice. I was pitching tons of investors. 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:14.520 I got a lot of nos, and then I refigured 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.720 out how to pitch, and so I got better. I 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.840 could talk for five hours on fundraising strategy. But you know, 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.720 I started to get some investors on board. Then you 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.120 start to hire engineers that are better than you and 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.960 then you know, you start to get customers. 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.760 You know, we went through some pivots. It was really messy. 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:42.120 It's just extreme perseverance. Sometimes the funding comes first, Sometimes 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:47.520 the talent comes first, Sometimes the customers come first. Both 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.040 early days were not pretty at all. I mean it 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.560 was trying a lot of different things. 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.280 So you are these things all self talk, right, because 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.959 I'm thinking, this is this young man with my. 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.960 Was coding in eighth grade, which is this like incredible? 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.400 But most times there's a difference, Right, There's a difference 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.360 between being the CEO of a company and being an 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.480 engineer or a coder and then somebody who actually actually 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:18.480 raised money for that company, right that picture. 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.280 So how were you learning those skills? 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.640 How you're developing them outside of just saying they told 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.520 me no, all right, I can't do that. Like what 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:28.760 was the strategies and when you were early on trying 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:29.840 to get this money from people. 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:31.360 Yeah. 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.480 Well, the first thing is I got started young in 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.200 terms of being able to talk to business people. I 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:43.680 started building websites, doing online marketing, found some customers in 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.880 Miami doing this in high school. So by the time 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.280 I got to college, I had some business experience. 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:51.360 Not in tech. 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.720 But you know, I had some experience when I started 0:13:55.760 --> 0:14:03.480 raising money. I was doing everything wrong. And like, one 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:05.840 of the first rules that I say in my book 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:11.320 fundraising is, uh, don't say you're fundraising. As the second 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:15.040 you say that you're fundraising and you're on the clock, 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:17.880 meaning people are gonna be like, all right, well his 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:22.280 round should blow up and be over soon. Because if 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.000 this is a hot company, I'm gonna have a limited window. 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.720 So if in two weeks your round isn't done, people 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.560 are gonna be like, why aren't others investing? And so 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.280 they're gonna, you know, they're gonna walk away. And if 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.160 you build up a bunch of no's around your company 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:42.560 people are not investing, then that's you know, the network 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.640 becomes aware that all these people didn't invest, and you're 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.080 kind of screwed. So, you know, one of the first 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.560 lessons that I learned from a great mentor of mine, 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.600 his name is Michael Cartery, as this company play Co, 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:02.240 very successful gaming company. He was giving some talks on fundraising. 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.320 Again he taught me this concept, just don't say you're fundraising. 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:10.360 Just go build relationships first, go and meet investors and 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:12.720 get them excited about who you are as a person 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:15.200 and casually. 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:16.760 Get them excited about your idea. 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.680 Instead of going and saying I'm pitching you, which automatically 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.960 puts them on a pedestal versus you. 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:25.560 Right, you're not peers anymore. 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:29.040 Now they're on a pedestal, and so it sets the 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:34.040 dynamics incorrectly from the beginning. You're not building a relationship 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:39.280 and you can get this domino effect of nose which 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:43.240 could really screw you before you even begin. So I 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.760 did that in the beginning. I learned from those mistakes. 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.120 I had some great mentors who helped me reshape my 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:50.280 fundraising strategy. 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.680 So you said something, or say when you said, if 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.240 you want money, ask for advice. If you want advice, 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:01.520 asks for money, Yep, that's how I said it correctly. Yeah, 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:02.960 so can you elaborate on that. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:08.200 Yeah, it's a pretty common adage in Silicon Valley and 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.840 so I certainly didn't invent that. But if you go 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:15.760 to someone and you say, hey, I want, you know, 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:19.720 to pitch you for funding, they're most likely going to 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.360 give you advice. It's going to say, hey, you know, 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.240 I'm not able to fund you right now, but how 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.960 about I give you some advice. Whereas if you go 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:31.360 to them and you show a genuine interest in their advice, 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:39.720 but also, potentially even more importantly, you really impress the 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.800 shit out of them with who you are. And that 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:48.360 person has money or is an investor, they are going 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:50.360 to organically want to invest in you. 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.240 So let's say I have a company and I'm trying 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.880 to raise money. I know a very wealthy guy. Instead 0:16:57.880 --> 0:16:59.800 of saying, hey, do you want to you know, ham 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.480 I pitched to give me money to put my startup, 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.200 it'll say, you know, I have this idea, da da dad, 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:09.360 and I really respect your your opinion. Would you want 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:10.520 to just hear about it just to kind of give 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.199 me some feedback on it? And then you just do 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:16.840 a really great job presenting it. And then they're like, damn, 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.000 I got to be involved in this situation, but you're not. 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.800 You don't look like you're so eager to just only 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.560 get their money. You really genuinely want their advice. But 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.439 then by you not wanting to take their money, they 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:30.600 want to give you money even more. 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.200 Exactly, this approaches a win win makes it more comfortable 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:39.400 for them, right because they don't like saying no to you. 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.720 It makes it more comfortable for you, because if if 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.159 you're doing a good job, they're gonna want invest. If 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.880 you're talking to an investor whose job it is to invest, 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.960 who invests, they need you just as much as you 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:55.840 need them. So if you're sitting in front of them 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.480 and they're like, oh shit, this dude is going to 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.639 fucking kill it, they will proactively say how can I 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:10.680 get involved? And they're gonna be just as likely, if 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.400 not more likely, than if you came to them explicitly 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:15.240 trying to pitch. 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.400 How intentional are you about it? Before you even go 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:24.480 to get the advice? Are you strategically targeting the people 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:25.880 that you want to get the advice from? 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:26.720 Like, is there a list? 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.520 And it's like if I could meet or get in 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.600 front of this ten or twenty people this month, that's 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:34.119 my target. 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:35.280 Like, how did you go about it? 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:40.240 Well, in the beginning, you know, beggars can't be choosers, right, 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.399 so you kind of will try to get meetings with 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.400 anyone who has money, right. I mean, now you can 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.720 be as you go later, Sage, you could be a 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.199 little more picky, and you should be picking. I mean, 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.520 you should try to avoid putting sharks on your cap 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.399 table who are at odds with you or who are 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.479 very short term istic and they're going to create issues 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.240 for you. You should avoid those to the maximum extent possible. 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:12.440 But you know what I would do is I would 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.960 try to build my network in a very strategic way. 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:21.600 So I would host like happy hours or dinners. I'd 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.000 do this on a college budget. I mean I didn't 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.679 spend I spent minimal money on it. It's like a 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.880 couple hundred bucks that i'd throw together after a few 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.040 this VC would sponsor them, so they'd throw down three 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.240 four hundred bucks on these dinners right and be at 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.439 my place. Or you know, I didn't spend a lot 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.080 of money, and so I was building network. So first 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:47.120 step is build network. If people have interconnectivity to investors 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.560 and play the long game, build a relationship with these folks. 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:53.359 Casually. 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.000 Make sure all these people in your network are impressed 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:01.560 by you, right casually, and then at some point you 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:03.720 can make the asks where you can say, hey, I 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.640 know this person invests in your company. I think they 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:08.800 have this relevant experience of what I'm doing. Do you 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:13.760 mind making the intro? And so you do that with 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.840 you know, all founder friends people will raise money before. 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:20.080 You're trying to build this network to cultivate and then 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.480 eventually make the ask for the introductions. And you know 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.320 you're just doing this on repeat as much as possible. 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.879 So you said something also where it's like you always 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:33.359 want to avoid try and get a know. 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.080 Yes, you don't. You never want to get to know. 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.720 This is a little bit of the opposite advice that 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:42.480 some would give you. 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:43.959 Oh you want to get to know quickly. 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.679 Yeah, that's what I've heard. I need not I know 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:48.720 well because I come from sales. 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:50.240 So that's what I heard all the time, was like 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.040 a no is always one step quicker to a yes, 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:56.240 or get to the know early or stuff like that. 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.000 But so that's an interesting even it feels contradictory. 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.919 It's like it's because you go this is trial right, 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.520 like you're saying, it's because you've got nos. 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.760 Yeah, exactly, nose spread. 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:13.520 So you know, investor community or the community you're raising 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.159 within is small, and so you don't want somebody to 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:19.600 go to someone you just pitched and that person say 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:25.840 be like I passed right you. Now, if you follow 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.520 this strategy, you may have had a meeting with that person. 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.399