WEBVTT - Study Hall: Starting a $250 Million Company with John Henry & Songe LaRon 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 --> 0:00:23.320 Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:28.120 Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.680 crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.960 one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.920 are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:43.000 one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.680 never return. But if you register using our CBP home 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.120 app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:55.240 Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:57.840 border and families will be protected. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.720 Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security, EYL 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.520 University is the biggest online platform for education, but it's 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:05.400 much much more. 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.600 It's actually a community. Our private Facebook group has over 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.880 eight thousand members and twenty infinity groups to students teach 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.280 themselves just as much as the professors do. We have 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.679 weekly webinars. We have over one hundred past webinars. You 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:21.679 get access to MG the Mortgage Guys Real Estate Blueprint. 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.080 You get access to monthly financial planning calls with yours Truly. 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:28.000 You get access to our monthly group chat investment calls, 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:29.080 and much much more. 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:30.120 So. 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.039 Go to eyl university dot com right now and take 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.200 advantage of our limited offer blowout sales sixty five percent 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.840 off of the annual membership eyouniversity dot com right now 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:41.880 and become an earner. 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:48.120 My graduates from my school being forced bad drop. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.480 Drop my drop, bad drop. 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.760 Shout to everybody that's been checking out the Wealth Principles, Man, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.480 everybody has been giving great feedback on so far. Everybody 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.720 has thoroughly enjoyed what we have going on. John, what's going. 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.160 On some boys in l A. 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.160 Somebody's gotta do it. 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:24.880 Flight work the same kriva from last time. Nah No, damn, 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:30.720 you guys are real good. It's a good look on you. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:33.079 But you guys need to have you guys need to 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.400 make some summer swag. Then that's a. 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.720 Fact that's in the works. That chilly out here. It's 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:39.560 still a little chilly. 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.440 Out here, but it can be tank tops. Man, that's 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:44.200 cost of entry. I need some fly. 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:46.800 No, no, we got it. 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:47.360 We got it. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:48.280 Man. You know Who's line? 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:48.680 I like? Who? 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.960 Summer line? I like, uh, honestly not. I'm a big 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.800 nos fan just in general. But history, that history really smooth. 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:58.520 It's not as popular, but it's real smooth. 0:02:59.000 --> 0:02:59.960 Shout out to nods man. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:01.160 I got a few history views. 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.799 On Ziah Jones. All right, boys, let's get into it. 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:06.320 Let's do it. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:10.280 Another week, another episode of The Well Principles Thursday time 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.960 diving into special topics every week. Special guests PDFs available 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:19.560 for download. You already know how it is, man. This 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:23.720 week we got some heat cooking. This week we are 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.160 going to talk about the mandy. Can you fix my 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.920 light and put it more more head on? 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:30.280 Please? 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.480 This week we're gonna be talking about startup secrets. We 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:38.160 made a little pivot. We made a pivot. We did 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:42.119 a pivot. Initially, I was thinking we would talk about 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.840 real estate, but I figured, man, a lot of people 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:48.480 could talk about real estate. But based on the feedback 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.840 from last week, I thought, what are some of the 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.400 things that we could talk about that I feel like 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.320 are unique to my experience, and so we came up 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:03.040 with the startup Secrets. I'm gonna share my screen. Well, 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:04.720 but before I do it, before I do it, before 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:09.920 I do Right now, I'm in the middle of you know, 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.160 I started a company. I raised venture capital. It's called Loop. 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.400 And in this company, you know, when you're a startup, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.680 like Eyl, like Loop, like many startup founders out there, 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:27.239 you have every reason why you're going to fail working 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.040 against you. You have the weight of the market, you 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.919 have downward pressure, you have timing. You may break up 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.520 with your co founder, your team may get unmotivated and quit. 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.800 You may not catch your shride in time. You may 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.400 run out of money, you may have to take a job. 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.440 You may split up with your girl and then have 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.800 all types of shit going on. There's so many going on, 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.000 but I guarantee you when Jeff Bezos split up with 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.560 Mackenzie Bezos, nothing happened to Amazon. I still was able 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:03.800 to get my packaged next day. And that's because that 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:08.080 business hit maturity. But before you hit maturity, you have 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:15.600 to navigate through the seemingly shark the endless, endlessly sharkish waters. 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:22.080 That is navigating a startup. So I am very excited 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.400 to share with the audience here. By the way, I 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.200 announced today that I am making angel investments. I'm making 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.200 angel investments, not the major but I'm throwing ten k 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:34.719 checks out to the different founders out there who are 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:36.800 working on some special shit. So if you hear this 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.679 and you think you got what it takes or whatever 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:41.720 the fact may whatever the case may be, hit me up. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:43.839 I might be an angel investor in your company. 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:44.240 Might be. 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.000 I made two investments over the last few days. 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:47.360 Boys, backups. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.120 Oh yeah, let's not. Let's not breeze over that real 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.359 quick for anybody on YouTube. So you are, you're getting 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.479 back into angel investing world, and you have allocated ten 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.080 thousand dollars for different businesses that you will personally be 0:05:59.200 --> 0:05:59.720 invested in. 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.640 Yes, sir, ten thousand dollars a pop. I hope to 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:08.920 make maybe five seven angel investments this year. And yeah, 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.000 I guess the difference between what I was doing before 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.440 was I was a venture capitalist, so I was investing 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.680 in other people's money professionally. Now I made a little 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:19.520 bit of my own cash, and I'm going to be 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.320 put on my own cash in these companies Now, look, 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.240 tenk K is not going to make it rain for 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.600 any startup. However, you are also going to get a 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.000 little bit of chops that I do have some of 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.080 my knowledge, some of my marketing chops, and I am 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.440 going to put that to work. So that tenk K 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.080 is probably more like one hundred k investment and could 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.600 potentially help some of you founders out there. So get 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:42.960 at me. 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:45.360 How did they get in contact with you if they 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.719 got a business that potentially you know they want you 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:49.360 to take a look at. 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.159 Yes, sir, the best way is the Loop waitlist. So 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.720 head over to loopinshare dot com, slash eyl loop and 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:56.440 shirt dot coat slash you well and joining the Loop 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:01.080 wait list. But secondly, you can hit me on on Honestly, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.640 you can hit me at but maybe I shouldn't have 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:08.760 to make an email called pitch JH. Pitch j I'm 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.560 gonna buy PITCHJH dot com and then you'll be able 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.200 to hit me. But in the meanwhile you could just 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:14.640 hit me direct man Jhi co found Harlem dot com. 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:19.360 Jhi co found Harlem dot com And yeah, man, the 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.600 the the people have been hitting me all day and 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.760 I wanted to open the show with that. So let me, 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:31.280 let me let's get into some concepts. We've been popularizing 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.280 the word framework. Let's get some framework action. This is 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.040 the well principles, and we are on episode three of four, 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.520 three of four. This is it, seventy five percent of 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.600 the way through the series. Get it here why you 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:48.320 can otherwise and these nuggets may not be around for you. 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.160 But today, if you go to lupa sher dot co 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.520 slash ey l, you can download this framework and use 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:58.480 it at your leisure, right, So okay, cool man. So look, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.280 there's a few lessons here. Riches in this which is 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:06.160 riches in niches. This is by far the most prevalent 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.440 theme that we'll be discussing. I'm going to keep this 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.640 particular presentation on the shorter side because we have my boy, 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:16.000 none other than song Lo Wrong, who's going to be 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.600 chopping up with us. By the way, his company Squires 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.480 were two hundred and fifty million dollars. I know because 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.240 it was reported on tech crunch. You ra ay seventy 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.840 eighty ninety million dollars something crazy like that. It is 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:31.760 now the de facto barbershop booking platform that's out there. 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.200 And I know I know my shit. I'm not gonna 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.839 hold you. I know my shit. But Song knows his 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.200 fucking shit like brouh. You guys know me because I 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.800 talk a lot. Song don't talk. He just does. And 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.120 I'm excited to learn from him. Now. Look, I've been 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.960 talking about this all season long with like over love, man, 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.560 But some of you guys, some of you guys out 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.720 there are do you can't resist the temptation. You're thirsty. 0:08:57.800 --> 0:08:59.960 You're thirsty for likes, you're thirsty for shares, your thirty, 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.360 you're just thirsty in general. Man. And when you're thirsty 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:09.520 and you don't resist the temptation to grow quickly for 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:14.400 growing quickly's sake, then you build luke warm products, experiences, 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.959 and services. And that is a losing strategy that will 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.679 get you all the way to bankruptcy. So now how 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.439 do we how do we keep competitors at Bay? You 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:27.120 got to build a. 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:28.199 Moat all right? 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.640 Now, this is something that's often discussed, but we're going 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.320 to break down also what a moat is specifically, because 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:36.400 I hear a lot of people say the frame, the phrase, 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.360 but they don't really talk about it. Okay, So now 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.920 let's explore what most people try to do in my 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:48.679 experience that I've potentially I definitely have made this mistake before. 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.520 I'm potentially remaking the mistake, but to a lesser extent, 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.320 and that is most startups try to boil the ocean. Okay, 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.000 you try to boil the ocean. The market is a 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.440 lot bigger than you ideally. If you're going for it 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:06.400 for two to two niche of a market, then it's a 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.880 no go. But for the most part, any market out there, 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.480 the total addressable market is going to be much much, 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.560 much bigger than you can afford to take on. You 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.800 don't have enough dollars, you don't have enough resources, you 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:23.000 don't have enough time, enough people, enough talent, human talent 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.840 that is to come at it. And so when you 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:34.040 try to boil the ocean, you're gonna dilute your your proposition, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.080 and your resources to no end. You are not going 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:41.839 to heat up the ocean even one degree. So instead, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.439 what I like to do is head into the market 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.880 and find a segment of the market that is more 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.880 comparably sized to the size of your startup. Right, So, 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:56.120 for example, to put it into context, eyl Media is 0:10:56.160 --> 0:11:00.439 a large, large, large business and the vision is to 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.439 take the world by storm. However, you first focused on 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:09.360 a very urban audience, and you do that and you're delivered. 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.079 Whether or not it was you know, of course it 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.320 was intentional. But there are so many things that came 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.840 about as a result of authenticity. For example, the guests 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:19.880 that you would attract on the platform and so on, 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.800 you know from Wall Street Trappa, man is the trap, 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:25.880 you know, you know, like all all the guests, all 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.959 the brand, the swag, the collective ethos that is E 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:34.080 Y L. You you went and found a segment of 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:38.360 the market that leads to this right here, This is 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.280 where you want to be when you're a startup. Okay, 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:45.880 you had the minimum viable product right which which has 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:50.360 been discussed often, but what is discussed less often is 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:56.240 the minimum viable audience. And then the space and that 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.360 overlap in the middle is much much small. All they're 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:01.800 easier to cover territory. 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:03.520 Okay. 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:08.400 So, for example, Loop is an insurance. If we try 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.040 to tackle all of private passenger auto, that's a two 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.640 hundred and fifty six billion dollar a year market. Man, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.319 we only raise a few million dollars. Progressive spends that 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:23.120 in a day, probably more than that so we would 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.280 never win if we were going toe to toe. However, 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.400 what we did do is find a very very specific 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.800 audience within the large field that is insurance, and what 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.760 we're doing is resonating real, real, real, real, real deeply 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.080 with them. And it seems like we're covered, we're making grounds, 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.200 we're making our way, and our dollar can stretch a 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:50.080 lot further here in this particular arrangement, this graphic is 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:55.120 a this shout out to y Combinator song from Squire 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.679 is a y Combinator alum that is the world's most 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:05.040 successful startup accelera They created Airbnb, Dropbox, not created, but funded, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.520 and one of them is Squire. But this I learned 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.000 from them, and that is this is fascinating. Here on 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.400 the left hand side of this graph, this is the 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.800 amount of that people like you. The light blue is 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.320 like the red is love. So here's here's the fascinating thing. 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:24.559 You start out here in the middle with no one 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.280 liking or loving you. Now here's the thing. A lot 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:33.440 of people that scale a lukewarm brand, service product podcast 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:34.440 where people only kind of. 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:35.200 Sort of fuck with you. 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:40.640 It's misleading because when a lot of people like you, 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.080 you think, oh well, all I gotta do is convert 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.840 them to love me. But you're actually much much further away. 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:53.640 Like and love move in the opposite directions. So when 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:55.480 you get a lot of people with a like you, 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:00.719 that lukewarmness, you now have a lot more masks that 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.200 you have to heat up to convert it into a deep, deep, deep, 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.600 deep deep affinity. So when you're a startup, you're actually 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:12.040 much much better off focusing on a small amount of people, users, 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:16.240 listeners that really fuck with your shit heavy, and then 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.040 you can ensure that you grow in the right direction. 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:23.840 And this here is what I believe is the perfect 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:28.080 startup storm. Now, we talked a lot about a moat earlier. 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:30.720 We mentioned a little bit about a moat emote being 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:34.840 something that can keep your competitors at bay. But people 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:36.680 say that, but then they never say what the fuck 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.440 it is? But what is it? And so then people 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.080 have like they talk about IP a lot of patents, 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.720 but patents are I personally believe patents are to a 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.640 large degree bullshit. People say, oh, you need some IP, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.600 I guess, but I was going to invest in a 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:05.880 startup that needed the needed IP. But guess what, you 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:09.680 know what large companies do is they They will surround 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.040 your patent with a portfolio of patents. Patents are very 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.400 expensive to make, and they'll fucking bury you in legal 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:20.320 costs and outdo your competitive edge. So patents are hardly 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.760 ever the answer. The answer more commonly is technology. But 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:29.000 that's only one part of the the equation. A novel 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.440 segment and a unique business model. All three of these, 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.120 or two of these, or just one. Sometimes it is 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.480 enough to be a disruptor. And so for example, a 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.880 great a great example is, in my opinion, is zip Car. 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:48.000 Zip Car, you know, didn't really innovate on a whole lot, 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.840 but the business model, so they you know, you were 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:55.040 able to subscribe to a monthly you know, arrangement with them, 0:15:55.120 --> 0:16:00.960 and and and that was enough for Loop. We have 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:03.760 unique technology. We do not have a unique business model. 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:08.960 We have unique technology, and we're servicing a very particular segment. 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:14.560 So that's been enough for us. So for anyone watching listening, 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:23.920 we'll watch, will listen. Consider these three elements here, these 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:30.680 are the buckets within which you can innovate. So you 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.160 do not need all three. You do not need all three, 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:38.440 but having one or two work in your favor gives 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:46.520 you a reason to have the market, you know, have 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:48.320 it work in your favor a little bit, because it's 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:52.040 hard to break through. So a lot of depth there, 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.920 and I walked through the quickly. These are available for 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:00.240 download as usual at loopinsure dot Co slash eyl. But 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.440 look those that's the frameworks, man, that's the frameworks that 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.359 those are the things that I have thought about consistently 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.240 over the last ten years, easy as I built my 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.200 my respective businesses. I see a number of you guys 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:18.080 raising your hands. I'm happy to take questions. Although first 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.240 I definitely want to chop with my brother's song wrong, 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:29.600 someone asked, Loop Eyl. Yes, oh uh, not looping. Well, 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:31.320 we'll get to that. Well, we're gonna link it up. 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:36.399 We're gonna link it up, link it up in the 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:40.000 in the YouTube. But first you got my boys song 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:40.840 What's good? 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:40.959 Bro? 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:41.840 How you on the wrong? 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:42.480 Man? 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:43.480 Was great? 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:45.440 A living legend. 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:46.320 What's going on brother? 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.120 Watching man? How are you feeling everything? 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:50.360 Good? 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:50.520 Bro? 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.280 I like that new squire swag. Did you guys do 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.080 a brand refresh or is that just like a limited. 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.880 Day we got some new merhout shop like last month? 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:01.960 I can I can get you on. 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.359 Yeah, send me one for real, real real. Also shout 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.240 out Debut Capital, whom as a mutual investor in US, 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.040 I just invested in their fund at today. 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:13.119 Uh. 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.480 And so that maybe the fact that makes me an 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.200 investor of Squire. We'll see it does work out. 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:20.800 It's not always working. 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:21.880 Uh. 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:26.080 So, EYL community, I'm really pleased to bring Song in 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.800 uh into the EYL orbit Song. If you don't know 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.160 these brothers man Rashot and Troy co founders at Earn 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.160 Your Leisure building something real, real, real, real special. Two 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.919 cats came out of fucking nowhere and somehow be Dave Rancy, 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:41.320 Tim Ferris and all these other whack motherfuckers who have 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.080 ripped and we got to bring charge. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:45.520 Bro. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:50.440 I'm stopped everywhere constantly for being on the Earner Leasure 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:55.760 Show like real talk so so so it's great to 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:57.960 make the introduction, and I would love for Song to 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.199 jump on the Earn Your Leasure Show proper. I think 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.720 that having an in depth discussion would be really, really, 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.639 really rich for the community. Now, just as a cliff 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.800 no intro to song and Song and I've been connected 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.560 for a minute in the streets of Hulla, we were bumping 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.640 to each other so many times at random different cafes 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:19.480 and shit. And he was working on the early early 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:21.800 days of Squire, and at that time I was working 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:25.280 at Kofund Harlem. Squire is a platform, I'll put I 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.120 let you put in your own word song, but as 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:29.679 best I understand it, you know, it's a platform that 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.879 at this point has grown to be the end to 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:36.440 end solutions that barbers need to power their barber shops. 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.119 But talk about those frameworks. You might've glossed over them, 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.840 but I was talking about, you know, the MVP meets 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:48.119 minimum Bible audience. Squire started at first as a scheduling 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:52.320 tool and then eventually rolled out additional micro services. Once 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:54.760 they got their foot in the market, rolled out additional 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.639 micro services, and now it's capturing the full value chain 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.920 in the barber in the barbershop industry. And man, you've 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.439 Squire has broken out. It was a tough fight. It 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:09.240 was a tough battle. 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:09.680 Saw. 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.240 I'm sure it seemed many times like I don't know 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.399 if it was gonna shake out in your way or whatever. 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:17.160 You know, I'm in my head sometimes about the shit 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:21.360 too with Loop. But you know, in the last year, 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.639 you definitely have broken through tech Crunch reported, you guys 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.320 have soared to a two hundred and fifty million dollar valuation. 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.159 I hate to focus on evaluation or dollars raise. I 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:34.040 actually love to focus more on the fact that your 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:38.480 product is used. People use your shit. I'm here in Austin. 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:40.240 I went to go book my barber and he was like, 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:44.800 yeah you Squire, Like that's it. You have become the ubiquitous. 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:46.439 Like you broke through, you cross the chasm. 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.840 So John, the crazy part is that when when you 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.879 sent the information, I didn't realize it. But I've been 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.239 using Squire for the past two to three years to 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:57.639 schedule my son's barbershop. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:01.840 Well, I want to thank you because what you have 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:02.840 done is saved us a. 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:06.679 Lot of time of sitting in the barbershop waiting for 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:09.879 hours for appointments that people walk in and say, I 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:16.360 was there before you, So I appreciate you. 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:22.000 Yo, let's zoom in for a moment the people could 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.120 go and find all the info on like the early 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.480 early days of you know, Squire, But let's zoom into 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.959 a moment on the days maybe that it was actually 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:35.240 that maybe it might have been hardest because now you're 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.840 you know, the you've hit escape velocity and you have 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.000 the market dynamics working in your favor, I might say, 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:46.520 but I'm curious, when was the time that it was 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:50.760 most difficult for Squire and you know, just kind of 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.400 double click on into that, zoom into that, and walk 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:56.879 us through, like what the what were some of the 0:21:56.960 --> 0:22:00.480 challenges that could have been existential to the success of 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:02.080 the business, And what were some of the things that 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.600 you felt you did well that that you maybe others didn't. 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:09.359 Yeah, yeah, I mean, like you said, it's it's it 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:14.440 is hard. It's hard building companies, and even at this 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:17.000 level that we're right now, it's still difficult, but it's 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:21.439 just different problems. But earlier on those problems, you know, 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.280 they were existential, you know, like if we didn't figure 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:26.440 out how to raise money in a certain time period, 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:28.400 you know, there's that risk of running out of money, 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:31.600 or if we didn't figure out, you know, how to 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:33.919 find somebody that could actually build the product for us. 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:36.080 So both my co founder or not, neither one of 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:39.600 us our programmers are technical. So when you're when you're 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:41.720 early on, you don't have the money to pay for, 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:44.960 you know, a good engineer to work for you. So 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.920 it can be really hard just getting started and actually 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:50.600 getting your idea out into the real world to start 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:51.760 trying it and testing. 0:22:51.520 --> 0:22:52.160 And selling it. 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:54.280 So those were some of like the really you know, 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:56.919 the really tough times, I'll say, like the first the 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.320 first year. You know, it took us almost a year 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:01.240 to just get an empty f out, you know, that 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:04.800 minimum viable product that actually we could have people start 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:09.560 testing and using. You know, we went through about three, uh, 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:12.879 you know, engineers that we tried to work with and 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:16.399 didn't work out, and you know, it took months for 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:18.640 us to figure out that, Wow, you know, we should 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:20.760 have had something that we could actually see and play 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:22.800 with as we build it. We thought, okay, you're just 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:24.359 gonna send me the app when it's ready, like when 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:26.560 it's finished, send it to me, and I'll start selling it. 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:29.680 But that's not how pod development works. So you know, 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:33.640 we learned that the hard way. But there were many, many, 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:36.320 many challenging, challenging times in the early days, for sure. 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:37.560 Yeah. 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:40.040 Yeah, And and what what were something So when when 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:43.399 the MVP was when you finally they learned that lesson 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:46.439 and got it out there. I'm sure there's a lot 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:48.560 of people listening and me myself, I'm in this phase 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.199 now where I'm like, I'm trying to get people to 0:23:51.359 --> 0:23:54.400 use the damn thing. What were some of the things 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:58.000 that you guys did in those early days to get 0:23:58.040 --> 0:23:59.040 people to use squad? 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:03.880 Those days, those days were fun yc calls that doing 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:06.680 things that don't scale. And in the early days it 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:10.280 should really be the founders doing as much as humanly 0:24:10.320 --> 0:24:14.000 possible to get to know their customers to get people 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:16.920 to try to test it. So we were literally walking 0:24:17.000 --> 0:24:19.320 to barbershops, you know, spend the whole day in the 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:22.600 barbershop talking to customers, talking to barbers. And this is 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:26.760 in New York and New Yorkers are known most friendly, 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:27.800 you know people. 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:30.480 So sometimes were walking in the barber were like, yo, 0:24:30.520 --> 0:24:32.159 what fuck? What do you want? Like you're getting a 0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:33.600 haircut and not sound like what's good? 0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:36.520 We have to like we were like, I'll book a 0:24:36.520 --> 0:24:39.280 haircut or a beer trip or something like just to 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:43.000 get his seat to talk for fifteen minutes, so half 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:44.560 an hour, like I'll pay for your time. 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:47.280 And it was, it was. 0:24:47.320 --> 0:24:51.320 It was tough, but fortunately eventually we were able to 0:24:51.320 --> 0:24:54.200 get some people that were interested in trying it and 0:24:54.880 --> 0:24:55.520 using the app. 0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:59.280 And on the consumer side. Right now, we're much more 0:24:59.320 --> 0:25:00.800 of a B to B company. 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:04.520 We focus on selling to barbershops. We don't really focus 0:25:04.520 --> 0:25:06.680 on building a consumer brand. Maybe in the future will 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:08.840 do that, but right now everything is super focused on 0:25:09.000 --> 0:25:12.679 driving more new barbershops and barbers to the platform. But 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:14.440 at first we didn't know that, so we were trying 0:25:14.480 --> 0:25:17.600 to do like this kind of consumer marketing thing and 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:19.919 trying to get barbers at the same time, and we 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:22.959 were just all over the place. And consumer marketing, as 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:25.080 you probably know this, I'm sure it's shit is hard. 0:25:26.640 --> 0:25:30.119 We have a big budgets. Unfortunately, you're great, you know, 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:33.000 you're really great at marketing, so you'll be able to 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:33.240 do it. 0:25:33.240 --> 0:25:33.879 But like we didn't. 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:37.399 We didn't have, you know, that kind of platform to 0:25:37.720 --> 0:25:39.439 get the word out to the masses. So we used 0:25:39.480 --> 0:25:42.880 to do just random In New York City, I don't 0:25:42.880 --> 0:25:44.480 know if you remember, we used to do like a 0:25:45.040 --> 0:25:47.879 chalk signs on the sidewalk Downholtst. 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:50.639 Wire app It was actually pretty good, like it was 0:25:50.680 --> 0:25:51.320 free marketing. 0:25:51.359 --> 0:25:52.960 We would do it all over the city and people 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:54.600 would be like, yeah, I heard about I saw that 0:25:55.040 --> 0:25:56.359 Union Square. 0:25:57.040 --> 0:25:58.919 So you know, whatever you can think of you have 0:25:58.960 --> 0:26:00.000 to be creative in the early day. 0:26:01.280 --> 0:26:04.920 How did you know? How did you know? How? 0:26:05.160 --> 0:26:08.040 Like when was that moment that you learned like, Yo, okay, 0:26:08.359 --> 0:26:10.560 we're going to cut our losses on the consumer thing 0:26:10.680 --> 0:26:13.800 and focus on like ongoing barbershop because that sounds like 0:26:13.800 --> 0:26:16.240 a pivotal decision in a Squire trajectory. 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:19.879 Yeah, Well, a good thing about being early safe is 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:22.159 that you can get so much information so fast and 0:26:22.200 --> 0:26:25.359 iterate based on the data that you're getting. And it 0:26:25.440 --> 0:26:29.639 was very clear that these individual barbers and consumers was 0:26:29.680 --> 0:26:30.600 not fucking with our app. 0:26:31.119 --> 0:26:33.000 Frank like, we just weren't getting usage. 0:26:33.040 --> 0:26:34.840 You know, they would they would downloaded and just not 0:26:35.040 --> 0:26:37.359 use it because they didn't need it to run their business. 0:26:37.760 --> 0:26:40.520 And when we were talking to the owners, the owners would. 0:26:40.320 --> 0:26:43.480 Be like, yeah, the app look's cool, but is it 0:26:43.520 --> 0:26:45.320 going to integrate with my point of sale system? 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:47.920 Can I track inventory on here? Can I pay out? 0:26:47.920 --> 0:26:49.800 I've got six barbers to work for my shop? Like 0:26:50.320 --> 0:26:51.239 are they going to use it? 0:26:51.600 --> 0:26:53.480 So we were like, wow, you know, we need to 0:26:53.480 --> 0:26:56.879 build something that the owner can use for everything, to 0:26:56.920 --> 0:26:57.600 manage everything. 0:26:57.640 --> 0:26:59.159 And it was pretty clear. 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:01.440 Like based on the feedback from from our customers like 0:27:01.480 --> 0:27:04.040 that's what the market really was needing and would respond 0:27:04.080 --> 0:27:07.560 well to. Uh So we actually ran a barbershop around 0:27:07.600 --> 0:27:10.000 that same time. One of our customers was going to 0:27:10.080 --> 0:27:13.679 close the shop down down to Chelsea Market downtown, and 0:27:13.720 --> 0:27:16.359 we actually took it over for about eight months and 0:27:16.960 --> 0:27:19.320 put ourselves in the shoes of our customers because since 0:27:19.359 --> 0:27:22.000 we couldn't get anybody else to use it, we use it. 0:27:22.040 --> 0:27:25.119 We use it ourselves as shop owners. And during that 0:27:25.200 --> 0:27:27.520 time we were like running the shop and also building 0:27:27.840 --> 0:27:31.000 building the platform, kind of like the B two. 0:27:31.200 --> 0:27:32.680 Of square Sean. 0:27:34.040 --> 0:27:36.920 The beginning stage. Where did the innovation come from? Was 0:27:36.960 --> 0:27:40.240 there a series of experiences that you've been through at 0:27:40.320 --> 0:27:42.200 you know, going into barbershops and saying this is always 0:27:42.240 --> 0:27:43.960 time like what sparked the innovation? 0:27:44.840 --> 0:27:45.800 Yeah, it was exactly that. 0:27:45.880 --> 0:27:46.080 It was. 0:27:46.119 --> 0:27:50.240 It was solving my own pain points that I think 0:27:50.240 --> 0:27:53.880 are very universal that I experienced my co found experience, 0:27:54.000 --> 0:27:56.639 like like most people, you know, I started going to 0:27:56.680 --> 0:27:59.960 the barbershop six or seven if my dad as a kid, 0:28:00.720 --> 0:28:04.919 and here it was two decades later and it hadn't changed. 0:28:05.119 --> 0:28:05.880 It was the one. 0:28:05.720 --> 0:28:09.399 Area of life that innovation and technology was just totally 0:28:09.400 --> 0:28:11.080 overlooking and it didn't make sense. 0:28:10.920 --> 0:28:13.159 To me that you have to just walk in and 0:28:13.200 --> 0:28:17.240 wait for an unknown amount of time every couple. 0:28:17.040 --> 0:28:20.399 Of weeks to get a haircut, that these shops didn't 0:28:20.400 --> 0:28:22.320 take cats, that didn't take card, I had to pay 0:28:22.359 --> 0:28:22.880 cash or go. 0:28:22.880 --> 0:28:24.719 To the ATM and pay that ATM fee. 0:28:24.840 --> 0:28:26.840 So there was just all these little, you know, minor 0:28:26.880 --> 0:28:29.320 annoyances that just seemed like they should be able to 0:28:29.359 --> 0:28:32.679 be improved with technology. And that was the impetus was 0:28:32.760 --> 0:28:35.280 just like solving our own problem. 0:28:36.080 --> 0:28:38.720 At what point did you scale to the point where 0:28:38.760 --> 0:28:43.280 you started to take outside money for people that starting businesses? 0:28:43.280 --> 0:28:45.240 And you know, at what point did you think you 0:28:45.320 --> 0:28:48.120 needed it? And when did you realize, Okay, this is 0:28:48.160 --> 0:28:50.160 this is how we're going to go about doing that. 0:28:50.840 --> 0:28:57.080 Yeah. So I we needed it very early on in 0:28:57.200 --> 0:29:00.440 order to be able to build a product and to 0:29:00.520 --> 0:29:02.400 kind of get that initial attraction. 0:29:02.800 --> 0:29:04.080 But it was it was difficult. 0:29:04.280 --> 0:29:08.440 Yeah, at first I quit my job to work on Squire, 0:29:08.760 --> 0:29:11.680 as did my co founder, and it was about a 0:29:11.720 --> 0:29:15.520 good eight months to a year after that before we 0:29:15.560 --> 0:29:18.760 actually were able to raise some money, which you know, 0:29:18.960 --> 0:29:22.920 going eight months with no paycheck just real really quickly, 0:29:23.360 --> 0:29:26.160 and the personal you know, financial risk. You know, you 0:29:26.200 --> 0:29:28.080 start to really feel it as your bank account is 0:29:28.120 --> 0:29:30.479 going down every month and you're not getting anything. 0:29:30.480 --> 0:29:34.360 In so many of us. 0:29:34.040 --> 0:29:36.920 Meaning like black people, you know, people of color, we 0:29:37.040 --> 0:29:39.240 generally don't have the wealth position in our families to 0:29:39.320 --> 0:29:41.640 kind of go to the rich uncle for friends and 0:29:41.680 --> 0:29:44.560 family around to get a few hundred thousand dollars. So 0:29:44.680 --> 0:29:48.160 we weren't in that position. But fortunately, being in New 0:29:48.240 --> 0:29:52.640 York being professionals, we knew some people from like finance, 0:29:52.800 --> 0:29:55.800 you know, tech, mostly black professionals who did believe in 0:29:55.880 --> 0:29:57.560 us and who kind of like gave us those early 0:29:57.760 --> 0:30:00.640 angel checks that enabled us to get the next level 0:30:00.640 --> 0:30:03.000 so we could raise a bigger amount later on. 0:30:04.160 --> 0:30:05.400 What's that process like. 0:30:07.040 --> 0:30:09.840 Ahead, Yeah, what's the process like of creating how much 0:30:09.880 --> 0:30:12.640 your company is going to need as far as series 0:30:13.760 --> 0:30:15.440 rounds of funding? Like what do you how do you 0:30:15.480 --> 0:30:17.880 think the evaluation in the early stages because you're just starting. 0:30:18.480 --> 0:30:22.000 Yeah, in the early stages, it's very it's much more 0:30:22.120 --> 0:30:22.880 art and science. 0:30:23.720 --> 0:30:25.600 It's it's a balance of. 0:30:27.280 --> 0:30:29.040 You know, coming over with terms that are that are 0:30:29.080 --> 0:30:31.640 reasonable and kind of kind of fair. Like everybody knows 0:30:31.680 --> 0:30:34.360 that there's not a lot of data to really come 0:30:34.440 --> 0:30:37.960 up with a precise valuation very early on, so the 0:30:38.000 --> 0:30:41.560 investors are really just placing a bed on the founders 0:30:41.760 --> 0:30:43.840 and the vision and then they'll be able to execute 0:30:43.840 --> 0:30:47.560 on it. So from when we got that initial check, 0:30:47.560 --> 0:30:51.200 which I think was like twenty fifteen ish till now, 0:30:51.360 --> 0:30:54.840 evaluations have skyrocketed. So like what was normal then for 0:30:54.920 --> 0:30:58.840 like our first money in, you know, precede round. Now 0:30:59.280 --> 0:31:01.440 you know it's like probably three or four x that 0:31:01.920 --> 0:31:04.840 John would know better than me. But you know, at 0:31:04.840 --> 0:31:07.200 the time, when you don't have a lot of options, 0:31:07.200 --> 0:31:08.840 you take whatever you can get. So it was kind 0:31:08.840 --> 0:31:11.040 of the terms that people would agree on and you 0:31:11.120 --> 0:31:13.520 just kind of take it and move on and just 0:31:13.720 --> 0:31:14.920 get back to business. 0:31:15.400 --> 0:31:15.560 Yo. 0:31:15.640 --> 0:31:19.280 What's fascinating to me is the problem that you chose. 0:31:19.880 --> 0:31:21.920 It's like it's a common problem, which means it's an 0:31:22.040 --> 0:31:28.040 enormous problem. But you must have faced undoubtedly and probably 0:31:28.080 --> 0:31:30.640 to a lesser extent now, but maybe you even face 0:31:30.720 --> 0:31:33.960 this qualm at the A round, which is like, yo, 0:31:34.120 --> 0:31:37.160 it's a big market, you know, like it's a me 0:31:37.240 --> 0:31:40.200 too business, like everyone could do it, you know, blah 0:31:40.240 --> 0:31:44.080 blah blah. And I think that similar thing could be 0:31:44.120 --> 0:31:48.320 said of like the industry that I'm in insurance, in beauty, 0:31:48.840 --> 0:31:52.400 in cosmetics and e comm So you happen to pick 0:31:52.440 --> 0:31:55.120 a business or or the business pick you, whichever way. 0:31:55.520 --> 0:31:58.960 But you were in a space where it was it 0:31:59.000 --> 0:32:01.840 was law charge, there was no clear winner. So I 0:32:01.840 --> 0:32:04.440 guess you had that to your advantage. But what were 0:32:04.480 --> 0:32:07.560 some of the ways that you were able to verbalize 0:32:08.280 --> 0:32:11.400 to those initial initial believers that you needed to get 0:32:11.400 --> 0:32:15.360 on board to survive about like why you felt like 0:32:15.400 --> 0:32:16.600 you could you could do this? 0:32:17.960 --> 0:32:22.600 Yeah, earlier on the Marcus host question was was something 0:32:22.600 --> 0:32:26.360 that we had to grapple with, and I think more 0:32:26.400 --> 0:32:29.040 than anything, it was a factor of one this blind 0:32:29.040 --> 0:32:31.760 spots form vcs, Like a lot of these guys are like. 0:32:31.880 --> 0:32:34.640 You know, sixty year old, fifty year old super. 0:32:34.320 --> 0:32:36.320 Wealthy dudes, Like they probably don't go to They probably 0:32:36.360 --> 0:32:38.760 go to some highend salon or something like. They weren't 0:32:38.800 --> 0:32:42.440 very familiar with barbershop, with the barbershop culture and community 0:32:42.440 --> 0:32:45.400 and how important it is. So just convincing them that look, 0:32:45.440 --> 0:32:48.920 this is actually like a big opportunity getting past the 0:32:48.960 --> 0:32:51.480 bias that some people would have. Not everybody, but a 0:32:51.520 --> 0:32:54.080 lot of people would assume oh, this is black barbershop business, 0:32:54.680 --> 0:32:57.120 since my co found and I are both black, so 0:32:57.160 --> 0:33:01.360 we would have to be really proactive saying without saying it. Then, look, 0:33:01.400 --> 0:33:03.400 this is for a general audience, like this is for 0:33:03.480 --> 0:33:06.080 all types of barbershops, which is annoying that it's just 0:33:06.280 --> 0:33:10.560 you know, it's just reality that you face. And another 0:33:10.600 --> 0:33:12.880 thing is just because it is an underserved market. There's 0:33:12.880 --> 0:33:16.080 not a lot of publicly available data out there on 0:33:16.120 --> 0:33:18.320 the number of barbershops in the US. So if you 0:33:18.440 --> 0:33:21.120 like Google search it, you'll see like some department and 0:33:21.240 --> 0:33:24.080 labor number that will say something stupid like there's eight 0:33:24.080 --> 0:33:27.360 thousand barbershops in the US. So like lazy investors would 0:33:27.360 --> 0:33:30.200 just like Google and see that, and they'd be like, well, 0:33:30.240 --> 0:33:32.600 here they say eight thousand barbershops, So how do you 0:33:32.640 --> 0:33:35.400 think this time is I'm like, there's one hundred and 0:33:35.400 --> 0:33:39.280 fifty million men I know that voice, Yeah, one hundred 0:33:39.320 --> 0:33:42.160 and fifty million men in this country. At least you 0:33:42.240 --> 0:33:45.239 think that eight thousand barbershops, like really like it's just 0:33:45.320 --> 0:33:49.240 not as nonsensical. So we would have to really like 0:33:51.040 --> 0:33:53.360 do our homework to say, look, you know, we scraped 0:33:53.400 --> 0:33:55.000 all of your's data and you know, we can show 0:33:55.040 --> 0:33:58.040 that there's at least two hundred thousand conservatively, and then 0:33:58.120 --> 0:34:00.840 if there's two hundred thousand, shops can make this much 0:34:00.880 --> 0:34:03.000 per shot life. Here's how you show, you know, one 0:34:03.040 --> 0:34:05.640 hundred million plus revenue, you know, business, and you have 0:34:05.680 --> 0:34:08.319 to really break it down kind of spoon feed man 0:34:08.560 --> 0:34:11.000 sometimes to get past their vices. 0:34:11.960 --> 0:34:13.520 Let me let me, let me ask you this, because 0:34:13.520 --> 0:34:15.960 I've heard someone the other day, somebodyself out said it. 0:34:16.000 --> 0:34:19.520 But there was like a lot of startups, you know, 0:34:19.560 --> 0:34:22.680 in the A round, that's when they're most vulnerable because 0:34:22.719 --> 0:34:24.000 they need the money the most and they don't have 0:34:24.040 --> 0:34:27.279 any real leverage. So you know, the angel investors in 0:34:27.320 --> 0:34:31.400 the vcs will come and they'll get you know, bad terms, 0:34:31.440 --> 0:34:33.640 so they'll get like seventy percent of the company for 0:34:33.680 --> 0:34:35.359 a couple hundred thousand, and then by the time they 0:34:35.400 --> 0:34:38.920 get to the later rounds, they've diluted their share so 0:34:39.080 --> 0:34:44.120 much and it really hurts them because they took so 0:34:44.239 --> 0:34:45.960 much money. They took a little bit of money at 0:34:45.960 --> 0:34:48.600 the beginning, but now the company is worth a million 0:34:48.640 --> 0:34:52.799 times more. But they're screwed. So what's your what's your 0:34:52.880 --> 0:34:54.200 what's your perspective on that? 0:34:55.760 --> 0:34:59.200 Yeah, I think regardless of the round of this, the 0:34:59.239 --> 0:35:02.880 founders that do advantage if they don't have competition amongst 0:35:02.880 --> 0:35:03.520 the investors. 0:35:03.840 --> 0:35:06.000 So whether it's the A round or the. 0:35:05.960 --> 0:35:09.400 C round, if you need money to fund a company 0:35:09.480 --> 0:35:13.200 and you're not profitable, which most startups aren't, and you 0:35:13.200 --> 0:35:17.200 don't have competing interest amongst investors, then that investor has 0:35:17.200 --> 0:35:19.640 a leverage. They can say, look, here's the terms, take 0:35:19.640 --> 0:35:21.319 it to leave it, and this is what I'm going 0:35:21.400 --> 0:35:24.919 to do. But if you if you have at least 0:35:25.200 --> 0:35:29.840 more than one interested investor, automatically evaluations is going to 0:35:29.880 --> 0:35:32.520 go up significantly because now they're in competition with each 0:35:32.520 --> 0:35:34.480 other and they both want to win the deal. I mean, 0:35:34.480 --> 0:35:38.200 it's basic market market dynamics, like you know, supplying demand, 0:35:38.239 --> 0:35:39.960 Like the more the demand there is for your share 0:35:40.040 --> 0:35:43.560 is the higher the value it's going to be. But 0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:45.359 the way I look at dilution though, is that it's 0:35:45.400 --> 0:35:49.880 really it's if you're going the VC you know, funded route, 0:35:49.920 --> 0:35:52.640 you know, trying to create a gross scale company, like 0:35:53.000 --> 0:35:57.120 you're going to get diluted. But the bigger way to 0:35:57.120 --> 0:36:00.200 look at is like what is the total pod you're 0:36:00.200 --> 0:36:03.200 having a slice of, Like you know, if you only own, 0:36:03.320 --> 0:36:05.920 you know, ten percent or eight percent, you know, of 0:36:06.040 --> 0:36:08.680 a five billion dollar company, Like you're still very rich 0:36:08.680 --> 0:36:12.120 and wealthy, you know, versus you can own one hundred 0:36:12.120 --> 0:36:15.560 percent or ninety percent of a small business and not 0:36:15.680 --> 0:36:19.120 have as much wealth relative to you know, a bigger company. 0:36:20.000 --> 0:36:21.719 So you know that, That's how I look at it. 0:36:21.760 --> 0:36:23.640 But the main thing that you want to do is 0:36:23.640 --> 0:36:25.200 get multiple investors interested. 0:36:25.280 --> 0:36:27.479 That's the best way to not get to looted. 0:36:27.920 --> 0:36:30.120 So can can you take me through the range of 0:36:30.120 --> 0:36:34.239 emotions that you've had over the past year, especially here 0:36:34.239 --> 0:36:37.680 in New York barbershops were closed and so that hurts 0:36:37.680 --> 0:36:40.480 the business. But knowing that you have a product that 0:36:40.520 --> 0:36:43.440 can thrive in that type of environment because you have 0:36:43.560 --> 0:36:48.200 contactless payments, right, you have scheduled appointments which allows people 0:36:48.760 --> 0:36:51.360 the flow of people in and out to be minimized 0:36:51.360 --> 0:36:52.840 so that it can meet restrictions. 0:36:53.360 --> 0:36:55.520 What are your range of emotions over the past twelve 0:36:55.560 --> 0:36:55.960 must Man? 0:36:56.719 --> 0:36:59.040 Yeah, twenty twenty was wild. 0:36:59.040 --> 0:37:02.360 It was a wild year like nothing I've ever seen 0:37:02.440 --> 0:37:03.279 or predicted. 0:37:05.000 --> 0:37:05.160 Yo. 0:37:05.600 --> 0:37:09.480 Also, one thing real quick is song We when we 0:37:09.560 --> 0:37:12.239 hosted so we did a Cadillac, We did a dinner 0:37:12.320 --> 0:37:16.719 for Cadillac called the Driven Ones twenty nineteen at the 0:37:16.760 --> 0:37:21.640 close of the year, and Song was invited and there 0:37:21.680 --> 0:37:23.960 was a moment we was having conversation and Song. I 0:37:23.960 --> 0:37:25.360 don't know if you look back on that, but I 0:37:25.400 --> 0:37:28.680 do sometimes, and I think, Yo, that was at the 0:37:28.680 --> 0:37:31.440 close of the decade, and I remember at one point 0:37:31.520 --> 0:37:33.239 we was all like, yo, twenty twenty. 0:37:33.040 --> 0:37:35.120 Cheers and everyone was just toasting. 0:37:35.280 --> 0:37:37.759 It was, you know, the market was just just kept 0:37:37.800 --> 0:37:39.799 going up. It was so frothy. There was just so 0:37:39.920 --> 0:37:43.560 much money around and even at that point, Song, you 0:37:43.600 --> 0:37:46.000 had just announced your eight million dollar series a round 0:37:46.880 --> 0:37:50.160 and so you know, of course the market had all 0:37:50.200 --> 0:37:53.120 different types of things in store for you all. But 0:37:53.160 --> 0:37:56.840 I wanted to slip that in there for the listeners 0:37:56.840 --> 0:37:59.960 for contexts, like, you know, twenty nineteen was a hell 0:38:00.080 --> 0:38:02.080 a fucking year and we thought that, you know, twenty 0:38:02.120 --> 0:38:05.600 twenty that would continue. But I think to Troy's point, 0:38:05.600 --> 0:38:08.000 your business had all different kinds of interesting dynamics play 0:38:08.040 --> 0:38:09.920 out in twenty twenty. So yeah, we'd love to hear it. 0:38:10.520 --> 0:38:13.160 Yeah, And at that dinner, I don't know if I 0:38:13.239 --> 0:38:15.719 told you before, but like I was already raising to 0:38:15.800 --> 0:38:17.879 be you know, it wasn't public, but we were raising 0:38:17.920 --> 0:38:20.360 to be at that time, and you know, we had 0:38:20.800 --> 0:38:23.879 competitive term sheets and the whole thing was in danger 0:38:23.920 --> 0:38:28.640 of collapsing. Like I was so stressed. You know, you 0:38:28.680 --> 0:38:30.960 know how deals goways go, they're always in danger, and 0:38:31.000 --> 0:38:32.640 like it looked like it wasn't going to happen, and 0:38:32.680 --> 0:38:35.520 it was like very significant. So I was like, man, 0:38:35.560 --> 0:38:36.800 I said, I was going to go to this dinner, 0:38:36.800 --> 0:38:37.360 so I gotta go. 0:38:37.400 --> 0:38:41.680 But in terms, I was stressed that night. 0:38:43.160 --> 0:38:45.880 But it ended up working out, and we were fortunate 0:38:45.920 --> 0:38:49.360 because we closed on the be the second close, like 0:38:49.520 --> 0:38:54.879 in March twenty twenty, right before, so so when all 0:38:54.920 --> 0:38:58.560 the barbershops shut down, we had you know, forty to 0:38:58.600 --> 0:39:01.040 fifty whatever the amount, we had a lot of money 0:39:01.040 --> 0:39:04.800 on the balance sheet. So that relieved the stress because 0:39:04.800 --> 0:39:07.080 we weren't going to be in danger of like running 0:39:07.080 --> 0:39:09.640 out of going out of business, but also allowed us 0:39:09.640 --> 0:39:12.319 to focus on how can we help our customers to 0:39:12.360 --> 0:39:15.480 your point, like, you know, our platform really has been 0:39:15.520 --> 0:39:18.200 preaching a lot of these things, but the pandemic was 0:39:18.200 --> 0:39:22.480 an accelerator and forced a lot of businesses to kind 0:39:22.520 --> 0:39:24.400 of level up and embrace technology. 0:39:25.360 --> 0:39:27.360 So twenty twenty was crazy. 0:39:27.400 --> 0:39:31.680 I mean it was very scary, very uncertain in March April. 0:39:31.880 --> 0:39:34.120 But when the. 0:39:33.960 --> 0:39:37.440 Shops started reopening in like May, June, going into the summer, 0:39:37.520 --> 0:39:41.359 we started doing more numbers than ever, which was like unexpected, 0:39:41.800 --> 0:39:43.359 and that propelled us. 0:39:44.760 --> 0:39:47.000 This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank. 0:39:47.400 --> 0:39:50.160 A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring, 0:39:50.400 --> 0:39:54.239 and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals 0:39:54.280 --> 0:39:57.560 routine shows us how they achieved their success little by little, 0:39:57.920 --> 0:40:01.600 day after day. 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Prescription required restrictions at for 0:42:34.040 --> 0:42:34.680 hers dot com. 0:42:34.719 --> 0:42:37.279 Apply Dave, what's the kind of the momentum to then 0:42:37.560 --> 0:42:40.080 raise the c later in the fall of that year. 0:42:40.200 --> 0:42:42.239 So all in all, I mean it was probably our 0:42:42.239 --> 0:42:45.120 best year just in terms of growth and revenue, and 0:42:45.320 --> 0:42:47.760 you know, we went from about thirty employees to one hundred. 0:42:48.280 --> 0:42:51.440 In point that is during this time is this is 0:42:51.440 --> 0:42:55.040 where you're becoming more innovative with the micro services. 0:42:56.200 --> 0:42:58.839 Yeah, I mean we it was always our vision to 0:42:59.000 --> 0:43:01.719 expand on our offering and build what I call like 0:43:01.719 --> 0:43:04.600 the Squire ecosystem, and you know, to do pretty much 0:43:04.600 --> 0:43:09.080 everything that these businesses need. But the pandemic forced us 0:43:09.080 --> 0:43:11.120 to think of other things that we wouldn't have otherwise 0:43:11.160 --> 0:43:14.040 thought of to help them while they were closed down 0:43:14.080 --> 0:43:14.520 and as. 0:43:14.400 --> 0:43:15.719 They were as they were reopening. 0:43:16.440 --> 0:43:18.440 But yeah, we did launch a few of like uh 0:43:18.760 --> 0:43:21.319 you know, the these these types of businesses during that time. 0:43:21.400 --> 0:43:24.320 One of them, for example, is the Squire Supply, which 0:43:24.920 --> 0:43:28.040 enabled the barbershop owners to like buy everything they need 0:43:28.080 --> 0:43:30.520 to run their business, like the alcohol the next trips. 0:43:30.760 --> 0:43:33.640 We were included like ppe so they could buy like 0:43:33.680 --> 0:43:37.960 the masks and you know, uh disinfecting all that stuff 0:43:38.080 --> 0:43:40.279 on our system and get a direct ship right to 0:43:40.320 --> 0:43:43.319 their shop so they don't have to physically go to 0:43:43.360 --> 0:43:45.640 the beauty supplies Stir or wherever to pick it up. 0:43:45.840 --> 0:43:48.200 So those kind of futures and things we rolled out 0:43:48.239 --> 0:43:49.640 like in the midst of all this chaos. 0:43:49.719 --> 0:43:51.239 So how did you how'd you execute that? 0:43:51.400 --> 0:43:51.600 Was that? 0:43:51.640 --> 0:43:53.960 Like did you buy did you find like a common 0:43:53.960 --> 0:43:57.120 denominator of goods that were needed at scale, Uh, ship 0:43:57.200 --> 0:43:58.840 them to a facility and ship them out or did 0:43:58.880 --> 0:44:00.960 you use a vendor partner in a marginal way. 0:44:01.280 --> 0:44:04.840 Yeah, so that's the first raise that originally we're thinking of. 0:44:04.960 --> 0:44:07.480 And then we were like, you know what, we don't 0:44:07.480 --> 0:44:09.759 want to be holding all this inventory and you know, 0:44:09.760 --> 0:44:11.839 taking on that risk, So we partner with like one 0:44:11.840 --> 0:44:14.920 of the biggest distributors, and then we do we do 0:44:15.040 --> 0:44:18.400 like a reps split, but our customer only is interfacing 0:44:18.440 --> 0:44:20.360 with Square, so everything that they do, they're for filling 0:44:20.400 --> 0:44:23.440 on the back end, and then we have access to 0:44:23.520 --> 0:44:26.200 every sku imaginable that they would need. 0:44:27.239 --> 0:44:29.399 So you pretty much like you did a loss Leader, 0:44:29.400 --> 0:44:34.000 where it was like the scheduling to build your brain 0:44:34.120 --> 0:44:36.920 in the industry and the space, and then you you 0:44:37.120 --> 0:44:41.120 kept kind of introducing more and more services and now 0:44:41.160 --> 0:44:44.200 you're you're at the place where you know, where we 0:44:44.320 --> 0:44:46.160 kind of all want to be as a business, where 0:44:46.200 --> 0:44:50.040 it's like it's the platform play. Now people go to 0:44:50.120 --> 0:44:53.920 Square for anything and you can kind of introduce additional 0:44:53.960 --> 0:44:57.480 services as needed and just continue growing the business. That's 0:44:57.600 --> 0:44:59.480 just that's hot, bro, Like that's why we get into 0:44:59.480 --> 0:45:01.600 the ship for but like, damn hat's up. 0:45:01.719 --> 0:45:01.919 Man. 0:45:02.040 --> 0:45:03.840 Hey, look, we've got a long way to go, but 0:45:03.960 --> 0:45:05.960 that's the vision. That's what we're trying to execute on. 0:45:06.120 --> 0:45:09.080 But we have so much room to grow, man, and 0:45:09.160 --> 0:45:11.719 so many more barbershops to get it on squire. But yeah, 0:45:11.719 --> 0:45:12.840 that's that's that's the vision. 0:45:12.880 --> 0:45:13.800 O heah. 0:45:13.840 --> 0:45:15.600 So let me ask you this because I know we 0:45:15.600 --> 0:45:18.239 don't want to harp on the numbers, but it's not 0:45:18.360 --> 0:45:20.040 every day that we get to speak to somebody that 0:45:20.160 --> 0:45:22.640 is companies valued at two hundred and fifty million dollars 0:45:22.640 --> 0:45:26.360 And I think that that's an inspiring story for anybody 0:45:26.360 --> 0:45:29.759 that's listening. But more so than being inspiring, we have 0:45:29.920 --> 0:45:32.759 to provide information. So how does that how do you 0:45:33.120 --> 0:45:35.440 how do they determine that level of like, Okay, this 0:45:35.560 --> 0:45:38.279 is what your company is valued at. I know John 0:45:38.320 --> 0:45:40.080 has spoken about that, so maybe he wants to add 0:45:40.080 --> 0:45:42.080 it too as far as like valuations for companies. But 0:45:42.280 --> 0:45:44.160 we hear these numbers all the time and this companies 0:45:44.239 --> 0:45:46.680 value that, this company's value at this what is what 0:45:46.719 --> 0:45:48.920 does that mean? And how do they actually determine that? 0:45:50.800 --> 0:45:54.880 Yeah, John is as an investor probably speak more from 0:45:54.960 --> 0:45:57.640 like investors perspective perspective. 0:45:57.120 --> 0:45:57.279 But. 0:45:59.520 --> 0:46:02.479 At this at this stage, what they're doing is they're 0:46:02.680 --> 0:46:06.799 they're they're looking at the company's dynamics, the uni economics, 0:46:08.320 --> 0:46:11.400 and they're looking at the revenue and like the growth, 0:46:11.680 --> 0:46:14.440 like how fast you're growing, and they're applying a multiple 0:46:14.480 --> 0:46:17.000 on that because what they're trying to do is project 0:46:18.000 --> 0:46:19.879 how big this company can get and what it could 0:46:19.880 --> 0:46:21.920 potentially like I po for and what kind of you know, 0:46:21.960 --> 0:46:26.279 returns they can get. So if you can show a 0:46:26.320 --> 0:46:28.680 plain and clear story like this is where we are now, 0:46:28.800 --> 0:46:30.160 this is how we're going to get to you know, 0:46:30.239 --> 0:46:33.000 a billion plus you know valuation, and it makes sense 0:46:33.040 --> 0:46:37.520 because the numbers are defending it, then investors are okay 0:46:38.080 --> 0:46:42.920 giving you multiples that are like, uh, you know, software 0:46:42.960 --> 0:46:45.439 type multiples, meaning that this is bigger than you would 0:46:45.440 --> 0:46:46.239 get if you were just like. 0:46:46.200 --> 0:46:47.840 A regular brick brick and mortar business. 0:46:47.840 --> 0:46:50.560 The way they value is companies is very much like 0:46:51.120 --> 0:46:55.640 projecting future earnings and future growth. So that's that's kind 0:46:55.640 --> 0:46:57.400 of I know, that's that's the kind of vague answer, 0:46:57.440 --> 0:46:59.080 but that's really what it's based on. It's still not 0:46:59.120 --> 0:47:01.440 one hundred percent sign aiences of the art and a science, 0:47:02.160 --> 0:47:04.120 but from my perspective, they look at like how much 0:47:04.160 --> 0:47:06.480 revenue you're doing, how fast you're growing, and they compare 0:47:06.520 --> 0:47:10.120 you to other companies in your industry or in your space, 0:47:10.239 --> 0:47:12.040 and they look at what they've done, and then they 0:47:12.120 --> 0:47:13.640 base evaluation on that. 0:47:13.880 --> 0:47:16.719 I mean, that's John, What do you think I mean? 0:47:17.400 --> 0:47:20.479 You said eloquently, man, I think I think that's exactly right. 0:47:20.520 --> 0:47:23.120 And I think that from One of the things that 0:47:23.160 --> 0:47:26.120 has surprised me is really how much of it comes 0:47:26.120 --> 0:47:29.279 down to storytelling. And I know you've used that word 0:47:29.280 --> 0:47:31.040 a number of times, something that we think a lot 0:47:31.080 --> 0:47:35.600 about in the venture industry. But people I believe mistakenly 0:47:35.800 --> 0:47:40.400 over index on the metrics. But you can never have 0:47:40.640 --> 0:47:44.680 enough sales growth or any hard metric for any VC. 0:47:45.520 --> 0:47:49.640 And I bet you you can take let's say we 0:47:49.680 --> 0:47:51.280 could live in a world we can clone a situation. 0:47:51.880 --> 0:47:55.360 Let's take the same exact business with the same exact metrics, 0:47:55.520 --> 0:47:59.640 the same everything, and then put two founders with the 0:47:59.640 --> 0:48:02.879 same business to go and sell it, and you will 0:48:02.920 --> 0:48:07.080 have different valuation results based on who told the story 0:48:07.239 --> 0:48:10.600 the most confidently, but also who told the grander story. 0:48:11.840 --> 0:48:14.600 And in VC, there's a paradix that I've noticed that 0:48:14.680 --> 0:48:17.480 has adversely affected our communities as a whole, and that 0:48:17.640 --> 0:48:23.359 is that you know, going smaller is safer because it's 0:48:23.360 --> 0:48:28.480 more familiar, but going bigger works better in venture because 0:48:28.480 --> 0:48:32.319 it's harder. And there's something about a bigger vision that 0:48:32.560 --> 0:48:35.680 is grant. It just puts that it puts, It gives 0:48:35.680 --> 0:48:37.359 you that face, it makes it go oh, you know, 0:48:37.400 --> 0:48:39.200 and it makes other people say, yo, dam this shit 0:48:39.239 --> 0:48:42.440 could work potentially, And if you think big enough and 0:48:42.520 --> 0:48:45.560 it's the vision is just crazy enough, then it just 0:48:45.680 --> 0:48:49.120 might work. So this is really a game where it's 0:48:49.160 --> 0:48:52.319 a home run theory, you know, and you go into 0:48:52.360 --> 0:48:54.440 it for you know, to to slam it out of 0:48:54.480 --> 0:48:57.759 the park. Man. So that's that's kind of so I 0:48:57.760 --> 0:48:59.840 agree with you, man, and I guess I want to 0:48:59.840 --> 0:49:02.600 say offishly ask you know. Of course a lot of 0:49:02.640 --> 0:49:06.560 the audience will be in the earlier stages, but man, 0:49:07.120 --> 0:49:09.480 there's a lot of talk on early stage shit like 0:49:09.640 --> 0:49:12.080 I'm curious, like, you know, before we get to audience 0:49:12.160 --> 0:49:14.600 questions like what's what type of shit that you're thinking 0:49:14.640 --> 0:49:18.040 through now? Like you know, there's probably mad decisions that 0:49:18.239 --> 0:49:20.880 like today Thursday, April twenty second, twenty twenty one is 0:49:20.880 --> 0:49:24.680 mad shit that you're thinking, working through put me in 0:49:24.160 --> 0:49:26.879 in your shoes for today, and all the types stuff 0:49:26.880 --> 0:49:27.279 you think too. 0:49:27.960 --> 0:49:30.520 Yeah, man, I mean what I love about this game 0:49:30.640 --> 0:49:35.040 is that you're constantly having to like level up. And 0:49:35.360 --> 0:49:37.560 the company that you're running when you're one to ten 0:49:37.600 --> 0:49:41.640 employees is like fundamentally a different company than ten to twenty, 0:49:42.000 --> 0:49:45.000 you know, fifty to one hundred, one hundred fifty like 0:49:45.000 --> 0:49:47.520 where we are now. So like, if you're going to 0:49:47.560 --> 0:49:49.760 be successful, you have to you have to be learning, 0:49:49.840 --> 0:49:52.600 you have to be I have a very like what 0:49:52.680 --> 0:49:54.680 I call like a flexible mind. Like you can't be 0:49:54.760 --> 0:49:56.919 rigid in your thinking, because the ship that you learned 0:49:56.920 --> 0:50:00.240 that worked, you know six you know, a year ago, 0:50:01.320 --> 0:50:03.239 it stops working, you know, So you have to you 0:50:03.280 --> 0:50:05.000 have to be thinking of like how can I almost 0:50:05.040 --> 0:50:08.400 like reinvent reinvent myself to continue running this company successfully. 0:50:08.840 --> 0:50:11.720 So it's a challenge, but it's also keeps it interesting. 0:50:12.640 --> 0:50:12.839 Yeah. 0:50:12.880 --> 0:50:15.280 I've been working on Square longer than I've done anything 0:50:15.280 --> 0:50:18.520 else now six years professionally. But it never gets at 0:50:18.600 --> 0:50:21.799 least it hasn't gotten stale because it's so dynamic. But 0:50:21.880 --> 0:50:26.200 to answer your question, now, at this level, it's it's 0:50:26.320 --> 0:50:33.239 very much about like recruiting executives, you know, keeping them motivated, 0:50:33.320 --> 0:50:37.960 inspiring them, setting out the vision of the company. There's 0:50:38.080 --> 0:50:40.120 issues that you have to think of that just weren't 0:50:40.440 --> 0:50:43.080 on my radar, Like how important like people is and 0:50:43.360 --> 0:50:46.200 hr like that's that's not something that you think. 0:50:46.000 --> 0:50:47.200 About earlier on. 0:50:47.680 --> 0:50:50.279 I didn't, but you see how important it is and 0:50:50.320 --> 0:50:53.680 how important the culture is. So those are the kind 0:50:53.680 --> 0:50:57.600 of things that that you know are on my mind now. 0:50:59.640 --> 0:51:04.239 It's it's different when you haven't met personally majority of 0:51:04.320 --> 0:51:08.200 employees that work for your company, not because there's so 0:51:08.239 --> 0:51:11.000 many now, but also because they're hired in the pandemic, 0:51:11.600 --> 0:51:14.840 right and we've all been working remotely. So it's like 0:51:15.120 --> 0:51:17.520 thinking about ways to kind of solve of that and 0:51:17.560 --> 0:51:19.200 to keep the culture and to keep a sense of 0:51:19.280 --> 0:51:24.200 community amongst everybody working a squire. It's yeah, there's a lot, 0:51:24.280 --> 0:51:25.680 a lot of challenges, but it's exciting. 0:51:26.120 --> 0:51:26.239 Yea. 0:51:26.560 --> 0:51:28.319 So how do you run teams? Right? Because like at 0:51:28.320 --> 0:51:31.400 this point at Loop the teams are small enough that 0:51:31.920 --> 0:51:33.839 you know, I could pretty much have my hands on 0:51:34.040 --> 0:51:36.440 in in a lot of the product teams, but like 0:51:36.560 --> 0:51:39.640 at this point, there's no way you're interfacing with with 0:51:39.719 --> 0:51:42.399 all the you know, employees, so like do you kind 0:51:42.400 --> 0:51:44.799 of have like a suite of like captains around you 0:51:45.360 --> 0:51:48.120 that and then you trust that they're da da da da. 0:51:48.280 --> 0:51:50.640 But do you ever start thinking, like, yo, fuck, someone's slack. 0:51:50.719 --> 0:51:53.440 You know, someone's not doing their ship somewhere down the 0:51:53.480 --> 0:51:56.280 line or like you know, it would give me nerves 0:51:56.280 --> 0:51:58.440 and like not be as involved. 0:51:58.000 --> 0:52:01.760 Pretty much kind of give up that level of control 0:52:01.800 --> 0:52:05.839 at some point. And you have your executive team, so 0:52:05.840 --> 0:52:08.520 those are usually like your direct reports, and then they 0:52:08.560 --> 0:52:12.040 each have you know, they're people that report to them, 0:52:12.080 --> 0:52:15.600 and it's very like hierarchical, which we never work. We're 0:52:15.640 --> 0:52:18.840 always very flat. But like you almost can't. It's impossible 0:52:18.880 --> 0:52:21.480 to scale to this level like without having some kind 0:52:21.480 --> 0:52:26.719 of systems in hierarchy, uh in place. But I think 0:52:26.719 --> 0:52:28.640 it's okay to still get your hands dirty, but you 0:52:28.719 --> 0:52:31.560 got you have to optimize for like what you're actually 0:52:31.680 --> 0:52:33.200 really the best at. 0:52:33.440 --> 0:52:35.200 Like like I've heard that that. 0:52:35.280 --> 0:52:37.880 Uh you know, I must like still like working like design, 0:52:38.320 --> 0:52:41.680 like like for for like you know, his products and 0:52:41.680 --> 0:52:46.520 space an incredible designer and engineer, so like that that 0:52:46.560 --> 0:52:49.279 makes sense, but like you can't do that for every group, 0:52:49.640 --> 0:52:51.520 like you have. Maybe there's like one or two areas 0:52:51.520 --> 0:52:53.680 that you're still like down to, like get get your 0:52:53.680 --> 0:52:56.280 hands dirty in, but it's not plausible. 0:52:57.320 --> 0:52:59.760 The last question I have for you real quick. Sorry, 0:52:59.800 --> 0:53:03.799 so well, so a lot of people know me, but 0:53:03.840 --> 0:53:07.640 that's because I'm just talking all the fucking time, right, 0:53:08.000 --> 0:53:13.080 But it creates this false perception that in order to 0:53:13.280 --> 0:53:18.080 be a startup CEO that you have to over index 0:53:18.160 --> 0:53:20.239 on the media and be on all the panels and 0:53:20.280 --> 0:53:23.920 things like that. So to me is very fascinating because 0:53:24.360 --> 0:53:27.960 it's almost more rooted in pure skill and execution when 0:53:28.000 --> 0:53:31.799 you're not out there. So what's your thoughts around Like, 0:53:31.880 --> 0:53:37.239 you haven't been a more private CEO, but you've hit 0:53:37.440 --> 0:53:40.960 you know, scale, So what's your your thoughts on that? 0:53:41.200 --> 0:53:44.239 And tips for people that don't see themselves as inherently 0:53:44.640 --> 0:53:45.720 extroverted or whatever. 0:53:46.320 --> 0:53:52.520 Yeah, I mean my thoughts are you should you only 0:53:52.600 --> 0:53:54.600 have so many hours in the day, right, so you 0:53:54.600 --> 0:53:58.000 should optimize your time on doing things that are going 0:53:58.080 --> 0:54:00.480 to move the need of the most for your company, 0:54:00.760 --> 0:54:04.560 and that very very may well be media and that stuff. 0:54:04.640 --> 0:54:07.360 You know, if that's the nature you know your business, 0:54:07.360 --> 0:54:09.319 if you're creating a consumer brand, like you are like 0:54:09.640 --> 0:54:14.040 the return on your time is there. A lot of 0:54:14.040 --> 0:54:15.799 people do it for the wrong reason. They do it 0:54:15.800 --> 0:54:19.600 for the ego and like to feel successful. But my 0:54:19.719 --> 0:54:23.000 thoughts is always like if you build a big company, 0:54:23.080 --> 0:54:25.560 and you build and and you build a successful company, 0:54:25.600 --> 0:54:28.000 like you can always be famous later, like if you're 0:54:28.120 --> 0:54:30.440 rich enough, especially if you're black, like there's so few 0:54:30.480 --> 0:54:33.319 of us, like you can always you can always play 0:54:33.360 --> 0:54:35.160 that card if that's important to you. 0:54:35.840 --> 0:54:37.400 But for me, it's like not. 0:54:37.080 --> 0:54:39.000 Not not really point that I don't mind doing it, 0:54:39.080 --> 0:54:42.320 Like people asking me to speak on things, and generally 0:54:42.440 --> 0:54:44.040 you know, you know, I'll do it, but like I 0:54:44.040 --> 0:54:46.439 don't go looking for it because it just doesn't move 0:54:46.440 --> 0:54:49.839 the needle for for for our business, Like barbers are 0:54:49.840 --> 0:54:52.680 not reading Tech Crunch barbershop owners or not or not, 0:54:52.760 --> 0:54:56.200 they don't care about that. But when it comes time 0:54:56.239 --> 0:55:00.600 to fundraise, you know, I will strategically utilize, utilize, you know, 0:55:00.680 --> 0:55:04.040 these resources and these channels, because, like you do, it 0:55:04.080 --> 0:55:06.200 is important on the investors side to have your name 0:55:06.239 --> 0:55:08.520 bubbling a little bit. But also I'm of the mind that, 0:55:08.640 --> 0:55:10.319 like you don't want to be too accessible. It's good 0:55:10.320 --> 0:55:12.960 to have a little mystery. 0:55:15.440 --> 0:55:17.600 I want to talk really quickly because and what we'll 0:55:17.600 --> 0:55:20.040 open the floor for all our earners to ask questions 0:55:20.160 --> 0:55:22.200 because one of the things I know you're you're very 0:55:22.640 --> 0:55:25.120 proud about it is global expansion, and so I want 0:55:25.160 --> 0:55:27.440 to know if you could just share maybe some strategies 0:55:27.480 --> 0:55:29.919 and some testniques that you're going to use to make 0:55:29.960 --> 0:55:31.600 that vision come to fruition. 0:55:33.040 --> 0:55:33.320 Yeah. 0:55:33.760 --> 0:55:35.360 One of the things I love about our business, and 0:55:35.560 --> 0:55:38.200 I love about just the nature of startups, you know, 0:55:38.280 --> 0:55:41.120 technology companies now is that the world is just so 0:55:41.200 --> 0:55:44.680 much smaller and it's a lot easier to launch in 0:55:44.760 --> 0:55:49.279 other countries, uh successfully, much easier than than it used 0:55:49.320 --> 0:55:53.120 to be. So for us, like I have global ambitions 0:55:53.400 --> 0:55:57.319 for Squire, and I want nearly every barbershop in the 0:55:57.320 --> 0:56:01.560 world to default to using square Fire is, you know, 0:56:01.760 --> 0:56:04.800 is where we would like to go. And we already 0:56:04.840 --> 0:56:08.920 are in Canada, in the in the UK, and you know, 0:56:08.960 --> 0:56:12.680 we have to launch in some other countries. We're starting 0:56:12.719 --> 0:56:16.200 off with, like English speaking, just because it's easier culturally, 0:56:16.200 --> 0:56:19.719 it's easier. We don't have to change the product. But 0:56:19.840 --> 0:56:22.600 there's no reason that eventually we can't have Squire you 0:56:22.640 --> 0:56:25.560 know on different continents, in different languages because everybody gets 0:56:25.560 --> 0:56:28.000 a haircut in the world. It's a universal thing. Just 0:56:28.160 --> 0:56:31.600 barbershops in every country and every city in the world, So. 0:56:31.520 --> 0:56:35.000 Why not is it limited to just barbershops or SALONSA 0:56:35.719 --> 0:56:36.120 is that. 0:56:36.000 --> 0:56:37.680 Next using it? 0:56:37.719 --> 0:56:43.120 But we are very focused on barbershops because uh, you know, 0:56:43.160 --> 0:56:45.000 I think I was talking about this earlier, but like 0:56:45.600 --> 0:56:48.920 that focus is like we look at it as an advantage. 0:56:49.200 --> 0:56:49.920 It allows us to. 0:56:49.880 --> 0:56:54.239 Build a better product, to build with specificity, and there's 0:56:54.239 --> 0:56:57.560 a lot of other salon systems out there, but barbershops 0:56:57.560 --> 0:56:59.839 we could be like the dominant, the dominant player. 0:57:01.400 --> 0:57:04.359 So you guys spoke previously about going public. Is that 0:57:04.400 --> 0:57:07.719 in your plans to go public? And if so, what's 0:57:07.760 --> 0:57:10.879 the blueprint that you are putting forward to take the 0:57:11.000 --> 0:57:11.720 company public? 0:57:12.920 --> 0:57:16.200 I mean, you know, and it's it's it's an option 0:57:16.800 --> 0:57:18.880 at this stage when you've raised as much capital as 0:57:18.880 --> 0:57:22.080 we have after vibrations that we have raised on it's 0:57:22.080 --> 0:57:24.680 always going to be something that's considered. But if so, 0:57:24.800 --> 0:57:29.440 it's probably a ways off. So I always think really 0:57:29.480 --> 0:57:31.920 focus on like the next you know, twelve and twenty 0:57:31.920 --> 0:57:35.240 four months, but ultimately, if we build a big business 0:57:35.640 --> 0:57:38.440 that's doing you know, it's doing type of revenue that 0:57:38.600 --> 0:57:41.560 we want to do. They'll be uh, there'll be options, 0:57:41.720 --> 0:57:44.120 and an IPO would definitely be one of those options 0:57:44.120 --> 0:57:45.000 in terms of exist. 0:57:46.320 --> 0:57:52.920 Yeah here, that's interesting here. But yeah, hats off to 0:57:53.000 --> 0:57:55.360 some man and Dave Salvaon and the whole team. I 0:57:55.400 --> 0:57:57.720 know it's a team effort and we have the chance 0:57:57.800 --> 0:58:00.800 to chop it up with your to it early and 0:58:00.840 --> 0:58:03.280 you guys gave his guidance that loop, and it's just 0:58:04.040 --> 0:58:07.080 I'll forever be appreciative. Of course. Also a song is 0:58:07.120 --> 0:58:10.880 instrumental for the loop Raise introduces to mad investors. Got 0:58:10.920 --> 0:58:15.000 invested himself. And I appreciate you, man, because it's founders 0:58:15.000 --> 0:58:17.600 helping founders, and it's black founders specifically helping black founders 0:58:17.640 --> 0:58:19.720 because we understand, we kind of understand the path. So 0:58:20.080 --> 0:58:21.760 I always see you as a fan of that's around 0:58:21.760 --> 0:58:25.800 the band for me, and you can see further year round. 0:58:25.840 --> 0:58:29.800 And I appreciate you just extending the handback to help 0:58:29.840 --> 0:58:31.760 another founder out as we grow together. 0:58:32.440 --> 0:58:35.040 Man, I love it. We've got to do that. We 0:58:35.120 --> 0:58:35.760 got to do that. 0:58:36.360 --> 0:58:38.520 One hundred percent. Let's get some questions, Troy. 0:58:39.400 --> 0:58:41.080 Well, let's see ern is what you got a question. 0:58:41.120 --> 0:58:43.919 You can raise your hand while they're doing it. I'm 0:58:44.360 --> 0:58:47.320 another one in there. So you briefly talked over you start, 0:58:47.400 --> 0:58:50.520 you had thirty employees during the pandemic, you scale to 0:58:50.640 --> 0:58:51.200 over one hundred. 0:58:51.200 --> 0:58:52.560 I think you said you had one hundred and fifty. 0:58:52.560 --> 0:58:54.760 Now, can you talk about the complexities of doing that, 0:58:54.800 --> 0:58:57.240 because I mean, do you guys you don't have a 0:58:57.520 --> 0:59:00.480 central location. So I'm assuming everybody is spread out throughout 0:59:00.520 --> 0:59:02.600 the country. What what are some of the dynamics and 0:59:02.720 --> 0:59:04.040 difficulties as you've grown. 0:59:04.960 --> 0:59:07.160 Yeah, everybody spread out over the country. 0:59:07.520 --> 0:59:11.840 It's not because of the technological kind of innovations on 0:59:12.280 --> 0:59:14.600 that side, people management stuff. 0:59:14.600 --> 0:59:17.400 It's not as difficult as you might be. 0:59:17.520 --> 0:59:21.720 Like you might think logistically, there's just like so many 0:59:22.440 --> 0:59:25.720 uh uh. You know, there's slack, the zoom, there's there's 0:59:25.760 --> 0:59:28.560 a bunch of you know, cr M tools and different things. 0:59:30.040 --> 0:59:32.640 But for me, this struggles more like just like culturally 0:59:33.040 --> 0:59:35.960 and and and you know, it's hard to get it 0:59:36.040 --> 0:59:39.360 like a pull somewhere around when you're not seeing people physically. 0:59:40.280 --> 0:59:41.920 So those are the things that we're thinking of. Like, 0:59:42.080 --> 0:59:44.800 as as we're reopening, how are we going to incorporate 0:59:44.880 --> 0:59:48.360 some type of in person team events. Are we going 0:59:48.440 --> 0:59:50.480 to open like clubs in different cities have kind of 0:59:50.480 --> 0:59:53.200 reopen some of the offices we had before. So those 0:59:53.240 --> 0:59:55.840 are other things we're thinking through now. There's a lot 0:59:55.840 --> 0:59:58.320 of uncertainty COVID though, because we don't know. It could 0:59:58.360 --> 1:00:01.120 be a new wave or whatever new trained. Hopefully they 1:00:01.160 --> 1:00:04.080 won't be so things go well, we plan on having 1:00:04.120 --> 1:00:06.240 some more in person you know, interactions soon. 1:00:08.400 --> 1:00:10.360 I got I got another one. That's another one. 1:00:12.040 --> 1:00:12.439 I'm thinking. 1:00:12.440 --> 1:00:14.080 This is like so brilliant man, Like I said, you 1:00:14.080 --> 1:00:14.960 saved me a lot of time. 1:00:15.040 --> 1:00:20.760 But so when when you're pitching the app to barbershop owners, 1:00:21.080 --> 1:00:25.200 obviously you're going to have the barbers preferably become part 1:00:25.240 --> 1:00:28.200 of that. Is there any type of brand like ambassador, 1:00:28.280 --> 1:00:31.000 Like I could see you having a like a celebrity 1:00:31.080 --> 1:00:33.160 barber in this space and really taking off. 1:00:33.240 --> 1:00:35.080 Is that something that you guys are have a vision? 1:00:35.720 --> 1:00:36.040 Yeah. 1:00:36.400 --> 1:00:41.920 So in the barber subculture, which is really subculture. You know, 1:00:41.960 --> 1:00:45.120 if you go on Instagram, they live on Instagram. Uh, 1:00:45.240 --> 1:00:47.920 they have barbers who are like celebrities, and some of 1:00:47.960 --> 1:00:50.120 them are celebrities. They cut celebrities here and some of 1:00:50.160 --> 1:00:52.520 them are just celebrities in their own right in the space, 1:00:52.520 --> 1:00:54.800 and they have like a million followers and they're very 1:00:54.800 --> 1:00:58.640 influential for other barbers. So we're working with what I 1:00:58.640 --> 1:01:00.680 would call like some of the most wunch of ones. 1:01:00.840 --> 1:01:03.520 We call them our champions, their squad champions, and they 1:01:03.560 --> 1:01:06.640 represent us when we go back to having advanced. They 1:01:06.640 --> 1:01:08.240 go to the events for us, and they're kind of 1:01:08.280 --> 1:01:12.680 like our our you know, our barber representatives, and they're 1:01:12.720 --> 1:01:15.160 like just some of the dopest, well known barbers. And 1:01:15.240 --> 1:01:17.640 they're all shop owners too, so that's one of the requirements. 1:01:17.640 --> 1:01:19.800 They have to actually own own a shop as well. 1:01:19.880 --> 1:01:22.120 So yeah, it's it's pretty it's pretty cool to work 1:01:22.120 --> 1:01:22.320 with them. 1:01:22.640 --> 1:01:25.840 Yeah, e y, y'all has earners, Buff has his rock Boys, 1:01:26.360 --> 1:01:27.560 squad guys is champions. 1:01:32.280 --> 1:01:34.560 That's that's a fact. So all right, do we have 1:01:34.600 --> 1:01:38.080 any questions from uy University? If you guys have any questions. 1:01:38.080 --> 1:01:40.640 This is the time. Once again, like I said, it's 1:01:40.680 --> 1:01:42.320 not every day that you get to speak to somebody 1:01:42.360 --> 1:01:47.360 that has, you know, future billion dollar business very soon 1:01:47.480 --> 1:01:48.320 on their hands. 1:01:48.520 --> 1:01:51.760 So yeah, I saw Jamie had a question in the chat. 1:01:52.160 --> 1:01:55.600 Billion used to be the main vision and now it 1:01:55.760 --> 1:01:58.800 feels like it feels doable. I used to be scared. 1:01:58.960 --> 1:02:00.720 I used to be scared of Bill, so I don't 1:02:01.240 --> 1:02:03.080 you know, And now it's like, okay, Billy, but. 1:02:03.000 --> 1:02:04.440 Like I think, you know, we can hit that. 1:02:04.680 --> 1:02:09.720 You know, really there's this pressure externally and then internally 1:02:09.760 --> 1:02:12.800 as well. It's always be thinking bigger, especially like you said, 1:02:12.800 --> 1:02:13.920 for black black. 1:02:13.640 --> 1:02:15.160 Founders, founders of color. 1:02:15.440 --> 1:02:17.120 But yeah, when I first started, I was, you know, 1:02:17.160 --> 1:02:20.120 I was thinking maybe twenty thirty million, that'd be huge, 1:02:20.200 --> 1:02:23.040 like that, just sell it through something else. 1:02:23.360 --> 1:02:24.840 And then if you raise a little more and you're like. 1:02:24.840 --> 1:02:29.840 Okay, it's big, like one hundred million, I could And 1:02:29.840 --> 1:02:32.480 now honestly I'm thinking like billion, Yeah, we definitely want 1:02:32.480 --> 1:02:32.760 to do that. 1:02:32.800 --> 1:02:35.320 But I'm like, how do we get the ten billion exactly? 1:02:35.400 --> 1:02:39.120 Yeah that's good. 1:02:39.200 --> 1:02:42.480 Maybe it's bad, you know, maybe that's just evil capitalism whatever, 1:02:42.640 --> 1:02:43.560 but that's what I'm thinking. 1:02:45.880 --> 1:02:47.880 All Right, we got a question. Ao og, my god, 1:02:47.960 --> 1:02:48.520 what's going on? 1:02:48.560 --> 1:02:51.680 You've been hey, I'm doing well. Thank you. Thank you 1:02:51.720 --> 1:02:55.120 guys again for just sharing, always sharing knowledge and just 1:02:55.160 --> 1:02:59.280 be being true to the community. Really appreciate you both. 1:03:00.960 --> 1:03:04.560 I was approached by a business to develop an app, 1:03:04.760 --> 1:03:07.280 and I was we just want some guidance on how 1:03:07.320 --> 1:03:10.600 I can structure that deal in a way that it 1:03:10.680 --> 1:03:16.040 protects my code and also secures me for the revenue 1:03:16.400 --> 1:03:21.160 that the business predicts to receive after building the code 1:03:21.200 --> 1:03:25.080 for them. 1:03:25.200 --> 1:03:27.240 John, you got any suggestions about that? 1:03:28.080 --> 1:03:28.960 Uh? 1:03:29.040 --> 1:03:31.240 Yeah, I mean some would love your t I have 1:03:31.360 --> 1:03:33.560 some thoughts, but would love your take as as someone 1:03:33.600 --> 1:03:37.440 who had to like myself, non technical founders. You got 1:03:37.480 --> 1:03:39.760 to bring a dev in. So how do you approach it? 1:03:41.400 --> 1:03:43.400 So if you believe in the company and you think 1:03:43.440 --> 1:03:46.040 that they can actually you know they're going after something 1:03:46.080 --> 1:03:51.920 big as equity, i'd be my my my suggestion. If 1:03:51.960 --> 1:03:54.360 you need the cash, then you can do a split 1:03:54.480 --> 1:03:56.360 where you say, you know this, this would be the 1:03:56.400 --> 1:03:58.320 cash payment, and then I want some portion of the 1:03:58.320 --> 1:04:01.280 payment equity. That way they protect and your upside if 1:04:01.280 --> 1:04:03.760 they go on to create that next billion or ten 1:04:03.800 --> 1:04:06.000 billion dollar company, you're you're going to do very well 1:04:06.640 --> 1:04:08.240 that That's the first thing. 1:04:08.160 --> 1:04:11.240 That comes to mind. Okay, what's a fair amount? What's 1:04:11.280 --> 1:04:12.400 the industry standard? 1:04:12.440 --> 1:04:16.360 Because I was approached with fifteen percent equity stake in 1:04:16.360 --> 1:04:18.520 the business, I don't know if that's u This is 1:04:18.600 --> 1:04:20.600 my first project, so I don't know if this is 1:04:20.920 --> 1:04:25.040 that's the industry standard, or if I could ask demand 1:04:25.080 --> 1:04:25.640 for more. 1:04:29.120 --> 1:04:31.120 I say that's I mean, that's a good amount. I mean, 1:04:31.280 --> 1:04:35.800 I'm not sure how how you know how much traction 1:04:36.080 --> 1:04:38.760 the business has already. I'm assuming it's like it's just 1:04:38.800 --> 1:04:40.920 an idea, right, It's like PowerPoint. 1:04:40.840 --> 1:04:41.960 It's just an idea for now. 1:04:42.640 --> 1:04:44.320 I think you have leverage to ask for more. This 1:04:44.440 --> 1:04:46.640 is a PowerPoint and there really needs you, and development 1:04:46.720 --> 1:04:49.320 talent is expensive. You know, I'm not sure if in 1:04:49.440 --> 1:04:51.560 New York, but if you are, you know, engineers are 1:04:51.560 --> 1:04:54.760 getting a buck eighty and you know you're you're getting 1:04:54.800 --> 1:04:58.400 stock options at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, any of these companies. 1:04:58.440 --> 1:05:00.960 So they got golden handcuffs. They don't want to leave 1:05:01.480 --> 1:05:03.720 because they're making a lot of money at their cushing 1:05:03.720 --> 1:05:05.960 engineering job. And oh, by the way, there's fucking always 1:05:05.960 --> 1:05:10.040 granola and lunch and dinner at the office, So you're 1:05:10.120 --> 1:05:12.720 luck competing with that as a startup. So I think 1:05:12.800 --> 1:05:15.800 you're if you are technical and you are full stack 1:05:16.000 --> 1:05:18.200 or front or back end, whatever your stack might be, 1:05:18.560 --> 1:05:22.240 I think you're at a position of advantage now. But 1:05:22.280 --> 1:05:25.000 here's the thing though, if you are already thinking about 1:05:25.000 --> 1:05:28.400 how you can exploit the business then keep a pushing 1:05:28.640 --> 1:05:30.600 and save yourself the time and save them the time. 1:05:31.040 --> 1:05:33.960 But I think that your mindset should be and probably is, 1:05:34.400 --> 1:05:38.040 but just spelling it out, it should be. Yo. You know, 1:05:38.640 --> 1:05:41.240 I want to be part of this business and I 1:05:41.280 --> 1:05:44.360 want you guys to see yourselves as a unit. And 1:05:44.400 --> 1:05:47.800 the best thing with the deal is there's no such 1:05:47.800 --> 1:05:49.840 thing as a good deal if you feel good at 1:05:49.880 --> 1:05:52.880 their expense or vice versa, because then it's all that 1:05:52.960 --> 1:05:55.240 friction is always going to come up. So the best 1:05:55.240 --> 1:05:57.640 thing is to cut a fair deal, which means that 1:05:57.680 --> 1:05:59.040 you're going to get a little bit less than you 1:05:59.080 --> 1:06:00.480 want and they're going to give a wagh a little 1:06:00.520 --> 1:06:02.760 bit more than they want. But if you can find 1:06:02.760 --> 1:06:05.400 that middle ground, then you cut the deal and then 1:06:05.440 --> 1:06:07.120 you forget the deal and you can focus on the 1:06:07.120 --> 1:06:08.320 work perfect. 1:06:08.360 --> 1:06:11.480 Thank you very much for that. Appreciate you aog my guy. 1:06:11.600 --> 1:06:14.360 Be well, bro, thank you for the question for yo. 1:06:14.440 --> 1:06:16.640 For those of you guys asking in the chat, if 1:06:16.640 --> 1:06:19.360 you guys, head over to loopinsure dot co slash e 1:06:19.480 --> 1:06:21.840 y l loop insure dot co slash e y l 1:06:22.480 --> 1:06:25.960 that entire PDF framework along with all the other ones 1:06:25.960 --> 1:06:28.400 from the past weeks is available for download, so head 1:06:28.400 --> 1:06:30.120 over to loop insure dot co slash e y l 1:06:30.320 --> 1:06:34.960 to get your pdf. Hot off the press. Let's get 1:06:34.960 --> 1:06:38.440 maybe two more. I want to respect songs time. A 1:06:38.440 --> 1:06:39.800 couple of hands raised. 1:06:39.680 --> 1:06:42.360 Yeah, earners. The link is in the chat in too. 1:06:42.680 --> 1:06:44.520 It's in the chat as well, so you can find 1:06:44.560 --> 1:06:44.760 a day. 1:06:45.120 --> 1:06:47.120 I'm watching the wait list, folks, I'm watching the list. 1:06:47.160 --> 1:06:51.200 I'm watching the downloads, so go ahead and download it downloaded. 1:06:51.200 --> 1:06:55.080 Tough Mountain, Chris, what's going on me yourself? You've been unmuted? 1:06:58.400 --> 1:07:00.600 He yeah, yeah, what's going on? 1:07:00.640 --> 1:07:01.880 Bro? Man? 1:07:02.320 --> 1:07:05.440 Lesson to Kings. I just had a question for Sanja. 1:07:06.120 --> 1:07:09.760 You spoke briefly about having to expand your team from 1:07:09.760 --> 1:07:13.080 the thirty two one hundred and twenty. This was kind 1:07:13.080 --> 1:07:15.440 of a piggybacking off of Troy's question. Was what were 1:07:15.480 --> 1:07:20.240 some of the hiccups for failure, successes, tips or tricks 1:07:20.240 --> 1:07:24.840 that you had about or had with your human resources? 1:07:26.600 --> 1:07:31.120 Yeah? This song, yeah, by the way, just this song, 1:07:31.240 --> 1:07:34.720 just like the word. But uh yeah, man. The first 1:07:34.720 --> 1:07:38.200 thing that I that I I would say is I 1:07:38.280 --> 1:07:42.040 learned how important it is to have an HR leader 1:07:42.200 --> 1:07:43.960 on the on the team, Like, we didn't have that 1:07:45.040 --> 1:07:49.160 for till recently. And I think I under underestimated like 1:07:49.200 --> 1:07:52.400 the importance of that, you know, I just think hr whatever, 1:07:52.560 --> 1:07:55.800 you know, compliance, you know, but it's actually very important. 1:07:56.920 --> 1:08:02.400 So making that higher was a key utilizing good recruiting 1:08:02.440 --> 1:08:05.640 firms because actually recruiting people is a job in and 1:08:05.640 --> 1:08:06.160 of itself. 1:08:07.600 --> 1:08:11.160 It takes a lot of time and energy. 1:08:11.560 --> 1:08:14.400 And at first, the founders we were doing it, but 1:08:14.640 --> 1:08:18.840 it can become a time dream if you're out there 1:08:18.840 --> 1:08:21.040 trying to do it yourself all the time. So eventually 1:08:21.120 --> 1:08:23.840 we started bringing on recruiting firms and their job is 1:08:23.880 --> 1:08:26.320 to go find the candidates for us, bet them, and 1:08:26.360 --> 1:08:28.679 then you know, send them to us to be interviewed. 1:08:29.040 --> 1:08:31.519 So I think those two things really allowed us to 1:08:31.560 --> 1:08:35.240 expedite the number of people were bringing on and hire 1:08:35.400 --> 1:08:38.160 and scale up pretty fast during twenty twenty. 1:08:38.360 --> 1:08:41.000 And what were you paying those recruit those head hunters? 1:08:41.040 --> 1:08:43.479 Song like twenty percent of the salary? Twenty five percent? 1:08:44.080 --> 1:08:53.000 Like twenty twenty five percent? Yeah, too much expensive? 1:08:53.680 --> 1:08:57.120 You have to do it, yes, sir, appreciate you. 1:08:57.200 --> 1:08:58.599 Chris, all right. 1:08:58.600 --> 1:09:00.640 Last one, let's get it in here. 1:09:00.640 --> 1:09:02.519 Uh, Jimmy, we're coming to you. I mute yourself. You've 1:09:02.520 --> 1:09:03.720 been immune. What's going on? 1:09:06.920 --> 1:09:08.400 Good team? Goodness? 1:09:10.960 --> 1:09:16.160 Well Jimmy the matrix you choppy? Yeah type type of 1:09:17.160 --> 1:09:18.679 type Jimmy Again. 1:09:19.360 --> 1:09:23.080 I'm tapping in based on the idea my company. Oh 1:09:23.160 --> 1:09:24.679 my bad give me two seconds? 1:09:24.920 --> 1:09:27.599 All right, yeah you got they got you on the 1:09:27.600 --> 1:09:28.360 Optimus Prime. 1:09:29.600 --> 1:09:30.000 I'm here. 1:09:30.040 --> 1:09:30.600 Can you hear me? 1:09:30.720 --> 1:09:31.320 Yeah? 1:09:31.360 --> 1:09:31.720 Here we go? 1:09:32.640 --> 1:09:33.680 Okay, great, thank you. 1:09:34.160 --> 1:09:39.200 Okay, So my mom, I talked to you about this 1:09:39.360 --> 1:09:46.800 on market Mondays, got my brandy. 1:09:46.080 --> 1:09:49.080 Jimmy Jimmy type Jimmy type in the chat. Yeah, your 1:09:49.120 --> 1:09:52.960 WiFi is crazy right now. They unfortunately we can't. We 1:09:52.960 --> 1:09:53.960 can't actually hear around. 1:09:53.960 --> 1:09:54.519 But I'm trying to do that. 1:09:54.640 --> 1:09:55.519 We have to think towards text. 1:09:55.680 --> 1:09:57.360 We have to think towards you know, in that teams 1:09:57.360 --> 1:09:58.200 being in the market right now. 1:09:59.720 --> 1:10:02.000 Yeah, we can't. We can't hear what you We can't 1:10:02.000 --> 1:10:02.639 hear what you said. 1:10:02.760 --> 1:10:09.400 That was Johnny five talk use Yeah, Jimmy, just type 1:10:09.439 --> 1:10:11.360 in the chat so we can ask the questions. 1:10:11.680 --> 1:10:14.360 Fi. Man, it's a bad time to have bad Wi fi. 1:10:14.439 --> 1:10:16.599 Yeah, somebody actually put in chat, So I'm gonna ask. 1:10:17.320 --> 1:10:19.280 I'm gonna ask you the one that Uh that is 1:10:19.280 --> 1:10:21.799 in the chat it says, in the case of your business, 1:10:22.160 --> 1:10:25.280 could you say, in maybe just a sentence, what your 1:10:25.320 --> 1:10:28.280 mote is in terms of segment, technology, business model, what 1:10:28.360 --> 1:10:30.040 separates you from from everybody else? 1:10:31.280 --> 1:10:35.080 Yeah, so I think it's kind of all it's so 1:10:35.120 --> 1:10:40.040 it's it's the demographic were going after being very specific. 1:10:40.760 --> 1:10:44.160 We're the only ones that are really like so focused 1:10:44.360 --> 1:10:47.760 on barbershops in particular, and that that gives us an advantage. 1:10:48.680 --> 1:10:52.200 It's a product mix, uh, like the ecosystem that that 1:10:52.200 --> 1:10:55.320 that I mentioned. The more things that they're using a Squire, 1:10:56.760 --> 1:10:58.960 the harder it is for them to just leave and 1:10:59.040 --> 1:11:01.960 use something else. And you can't use Squire and you 1:11:01.960 --> 1:11:05.280 know another company, like we're really all all encompassing. Uh 1:11:05.320 --> 1:11:09.839 So as a result, the business operations really just depend 1:11:09.880 --> 1:11:11.360 on being on the platform when they're on. 1:11:11.400 --> 1:11:13.200 It, and it's very integrated. 1:11:13.479 --> 1:11:16.240 For example, we handle their payroll for the shop, so 1:11:16.240 --> 1:11:18.120 when they're paying out the barbers, like that goes to 1:11:18.160 --> 1:11:21.639 the squire, the barbers get their money, you know, directly 1:11:21.680 --> 1:11:24.960 positive into their accounts. So just we just end up 1:11:24.960 --> 1:11:28.320 having a lot of tentacles that's providing. 1:11:27.960 --> 1:11:28.679 A lot of value. 1:11:28.720 --> 1:11:31.599 We think making their lives easier, making their operations smoother. 1:11:31.760 --> 1:11:34.559 But at the same time, it's a product mode. Uh, 1:11:34.600 --> 1:11:38.839 and it provides the defensibility because not many other companies 1:11:38.840 --> 1:11:39.920 can do everything that we do. 1:11:40.840 --> 1:11:44.080 Good old product mode. John Jimmy said he has his. 1:11:44.200 --> 1:11:46.840 Uh, let's just before let's try to get this shot. 1:11:47.240 --> 1:11:52.080 M say, by the Jimmy Jimmy, what's up? 1:11:52.320 --> 1:11:53.080 I appreciate you. 1:11:53.120 --> 1:11:53.760 I appreciate you. 1:11:54.160 --> 1:11:54.639 Are we back? 1:11:54.680 --> 1:11:55.120 Are we good? 1:11:55.160 --> 1:11:55.439 Okay? 1:11:55.640 --> 1:11:57.000 Let me try to make this snappy? 1:11:58.000 --> 1:11:58.639 Okay? Great. 1:11:59.200 --> 1:12:02.000 So my my idea is I'm trying to change in 1:12:02.080 --> 1:12:04.720 the light of everything we've been talking about n ft S, 1:12:04.840 --> 1:12:07.200 about innovation and spaces and about of course what Gary 1:12:07.280 --> 1:12:10.120 v is talking about. I'm changing the hangtags on my 1:12:10.200 --> 1:12:14.640 garments into limited edition collectible art pieces. 1:12:14.280 --> 1:12:15.719 From artists that are around. 1:12:15.840 --> 1:12:18.880 My brand is associated with street art, and I want 1:12:18.880 --> 1:12:21.840 to exemplify street art into living life and you know, 1:12:22.080 --> 1:12:25.440 doing what we do. So I've commissioned a few artists, 1:12:25.600 --> 1:12:27.360 but I want to see how we can create a 1:12:27.439 --> 1:12:30.439 space that's like a a more you know what I'm saying, 1:12:30.479 --> 1:12:33.599 A more innovative space for the garment things. So part 1:12:33.600 --> 1:12:36.200 of the issue was getting rid of waste because we're 1:12:36.200 --> 1:12:38.680 buying hangtags. The first thing you throw away, So I said, 1:12:38.720 --> 1:12:40.840 letstead of it making a hangtag, did you throw away, 1:12:40.880 --> 1:12:41.400 let's make it. 1:12:41.320 --> 1:12:43.040 A collector's item. 1:12:43.600 --> 1:12:45.439 Is in the n FT space and the collectors in 1:12:45.439 --> 1:12:46.479 the collector's card space. 1:12:47.080 --> 1:12:48.679 That's huge, Like, especially if. 1:12:48.560 --> 1:12:50.880 You have an artist over there, like a cryptic or 1:12:50.920 --> 1:12:53.879 a Retina or somebody really dope, you know, Ruben Rojas. 1:12:54.520 --> 1:12:56.880 These cats have ways to move the market in that 1:12:56.920 --> 1:12:58.439 Internet regard. I just wanted to see if we could 1:12:58.439 --> 1:13:00.840 talk about innovation in the space that hasn't really been 1:13:00.920 --> 1:13:04.240 Like we talked about the barbershop being left alone for decades, 1:13:04.880 --> 1:13:06.439 you know what I'm saying, Garments have been doing things 1:13:06.479 --> 1:13:08.360 in the same way and it's very very difficulty the 1:13:08.400 --> 1:13:09.719 physical thing into a digital space. 1:13:09.760 --> 1:13:12.599 Just want to talk about that some more, Okay, so 1:13:12.840 --> 1:13:16.960 content request, Yeah, we can cover that. I mean, we 1:13:17.000 --> 1:13:21.040 always cover new different topics, and there's different industries that 1:13:21.240 --> 1:13:23.840 you know need light over other industries as well. So 1:13:24.439 --> 1:13:26.599 I'm assuming that, yeah, you would like us to have 1:13:26.680 --> 1:13:30.080 more of an in depth conversation on the garment industry 1:13:30.320 --> 1:13:33.559 and fusing you know, it's interesting as far as fusing 1:13:33.880 --> 1:13:37.479 fashion with new age technology. NFTs and all that stuff. 1:13:37.520 --> 1:13:40.519 We've been talking a lot about NFTs lately, so yeah, 1:13:40.560 --> 1:13:41.840 we'll put it on the gin that, we'll put it 1:13:41.880 --> 1:13:44.640 on the do list, talk about fashion and technology and 1:13:44.640 --> 1:13:47.240 how they are coming together and how they can possibly 1:13:47.280 --> 1:13:47.759 come together. 1:13:47.960 --> 1:13:49.880 I think we spoke about it in the early crypto 1:13:49.960 --> 1:13:53.240 days when we were investing. There was a few coins 1:13:53.240 --> 1:13:56.080 that were trying to do that to help counterfeit production 1:13:56.320 --> 1:13:59.080 of merchandise, and so they had technology inside of the 1:13:59.120 --> 1:14:00.880 clothing that you couldn't replicate it. 1:14:00.960 --> 1:14:02.800 Yeah, I was thinking the NFT is gonna be big 1:14:02.840 --> 1:14:06.320 for know that that's actually really big for sneaker world 1:14:06.479 --> 1:14:09.839 because the sneaker counterfeit industry is a billion dollar industry 1:14:10.280 --> 1:14:13.040 and it's hard to really tell if you're getting a 1:14:13.080 --> 1:14:15.599 real sneaker or not. So if they can somehow put 1:14:15.640 --> 1:14:18.880 the NFT in with the sneakers, now you know that 1:14:18.920 --> 1:14:22.719 you have the real Jordans because you have a receipt 1:14:22.720 --> 1:14:25.960 on a blockchain and you know for a fact, so 1:14:26.280 --> 1:14:29.080 that in my brain that will work well with sneakers, 1:14:30.200 --> 1:14:35.280 luxury bags, anything that has counterfeit attached to it. The 1:14:35.400 --> 1:14:38.519 NFT thing, or just any kind of blockchain technology where 1:14:38.520 --> 1:14:41.080 you can certify that. So yeah, it's interesting. We could 1:14:41.080 --> 1:14:44.439 definitely have a more in depth conversation about that. Yeah yeah, yeah. 1:14:44.520 --> 1:14:49.200 Stock Acts actually became a billion dollar business doing precisely that. 1:14:49.240 --> 1:14:52.720 They did annual authentication. When I went to Detroit, they 1:14:52.720 --> 1:14:54.840 tore me around the facility. I try to blog it. 1:14:55.280 --> 1:14:58.439 They had a shit lot down and actually have people 1:14:58.560 --> 1:15:03.320 specifically trained to identify counterfeit babes and shit and it's 1:15:03.360 --> 1:15:05.000 real cool. They school you, and there was like, Yo, 1:15:05.040 --> 1:15:07.960 if you look on the third panel underneath the sweater 1:15:08.040 --> 1:15:10.439 on the inside, then there's always an upside down monkey, 1:15:10.479 --> 1:15:11.960 and that's how you know that the ship is real. 1:15:13.040 --> 1:15:16.320 So so I do find it fascinating, but it's fascinating 1:15:16.360 --> 1:15:21.600 to me how capitalists will do that shit manually to 1:15:21.720 --> 1:15:25.240 create the value and then build brand around having that authentication, 1:15:25.840 --> 1:15:27.640 and it just it kind of reminds me of in 1:15:27.680 --> 1:15:31.800 a similar way, Squire and ey L and any other 1:15:31.840 --> 1:15:34.640 business out there building brain equity. E y L is 1:15:34.640 --> 1:15:36.639 now known as that platform where you get the real 1:15:37.160 --> 1:15:41.080 the real business ship. Squire, same thing on on the 1:15:41.120 --> 1:15:44.640 barbershop side, and Loop hopefully same thing on fair transparent 1:15:44.680 --> 1:15:48.240 inclusive insurance. But Yo, this has been a great episode. Man, 1:15:48.320 --> 1:15:51.880 Thank you song. I appreciate you coming on for the 1:15:51.920 --> 1:15:55.560 folks listening. Man, It's just these are these are rich conversations. 1:15:55.920 --> 1:15:58.360 You will get out of them what you so please. 1:15:58.760 --> 1:16:03.559 The depth is there and oftentimes, you know when I 1:16:03.720 --> 1:16:08.599 was kind of getting started and still today, sometimes like 1:16:08.640 --> 1:16:11.680 a line will breeze by, but if you rewind it 1:16:11.720 --> 1:16:14.280 and just listen to it and unpack it absorb it, 1:16:14.280 --> 1:16:17.360 there's a lot of depth and a lot of these lines, like, 1:16:17.400 --> 1:16:19.200 for example, one that stuck out with me. It's like 1:16:19.200 --> 1:16:21.960 a product mode and they got me thinking, mmm, that 1:16:22.040 --> 1:16:24.280 makes sense, which is why, like an insurance, for example, 1:16:24.280 --> 1:16:26.840 they bundle. You know, they'll they'll give you the loss 1:16:26.920 --> 1:16:30.680 leader and then bundle. So it creates an entire ecosystem 1:16:30.680 --> 1:16:33.759 that's difficult for you to leave, and then it increases 1:16:33.760 --> 1:16:36.519 your lifetime value, your customer and so on. But so 1:16:36.680 --> 1:16:38.840 always a pleasure, man, Thank you so much for coming on. 1:16:38.920 --> 1:16:39.080 Bro. 1:16:39.160 --> 1:16:41.680 I appreciate you. We're all rooting for you. We are 1:16:41.760 --> 1:16:46.320 rooting for you, and yeah, man, we can't wait to 1:16:46.320 --> 1:16:49.080 see your success to the whole EYL community. If your 1:16:49.080 --> 1:16:51.719 barber is not on Squire, ask them to get on Squire. 1:16:52.760 --> 1:16:56.040 Let's show them what the EYL community could do for 1:16:56.080 --> 1:16:57.680 each other. And when you go public, man, we'll be 1:16:57.760 --> 1:17:02.040 right there waiting to buy some shares. So so loot man, 1:17:02.080 --> 1:17:03.720 good luck to you. Of course you and I will 1:17:03.760 --> 1:17:06.760 be in touch, but it was great to have you 1:17:06.800 --> 1:17:08.479 on man, and I hope that you and e y 1:17:08.560 --> 1:17:10.160 L will do we'll do more things in the future 1:17:10.160 --> 1:17:12.000 because they got a crazy barber community for real. 1:17:13.160 --> 1:17:15.240 Sure, thank you, brother, I appreciate your time. 1:17:15.560 --> 1:17:16.200 You for having me. 1:17:17.160 --> 1:17:20.320 For sure, for sure I got shout out to the 1:17:20.360 --> 1:17:24.000 good brother man that does it for this. Yeah, John, 1:17:24.040 --> 1:17:27.439 here it goes there. There was another one man, we 1:17:27.520 --> 1:17:27.960 only got. 1:17:27.880 --> 1:17:34.879 One got so yeah, it's been real man. I appreciate 1:17:34.920 --> 1:17:38.920 you guys. This this uh, this experiment has been has 1:17:38.960 --> 1:17:41.800 been great fun. And for those listening like sometimes you 1:17:41.840 --> 1:17:45.400 gotta experiment. Sometimes you gotta, you know, come together with 1:17:45.439 --> 1:17:48.080 people that you think are doing interesting things and see 1:17:48.360 --> 1:17:50.760 if there's magic to be made and if you could 1:17:50.760 --> 1:17:53.639 strike but one magic moment, then for me, the experience 1:17:53.760 --> 1:17:56.840 is typically have been well worth it. You deep in 1:17:57.000 --> 1:17:59.439 with a collaborator in the space, you bring value to 1:17:59.479 --> 1:18:02.720 the community at large, and you create some magic moments 1:18:03.080 --> 1:18:05.360 and I'm told that when one shoty is is writ 1:18:05.400 --> 1:18:07.120 and he's writing down moments. 1:18:09.280 --> 1:18:09.800 Ship out. 1:18:10.000 --> 1:18:12.560 So you already know, man, I respect you guys, have 1:18:12.600 --> 1:18:14.800 a ton of respect for you know that. Honestly, you 1:18:14.840 --> 1:18:16.320 guys work that think it's ridiculous. 1:18:16.560 --> 1:18:18.240 I was just thinking that today. You know, it's so 1:18:18.280 --> 1:18:19.920 crazy that you say that. And by the way, Jim 1:18:20.000 --> 1:18:22.040 Jones shout out to Jimmy, he told me to turn 1:18:22.080 --> 1:18:23.080 this pad into an NFC. 1:18:25.479 --> 1:18:26.160 That's a good idea. 1:18:26.200 --> 1:18:26.840 That's a good idea. 1:18:27.280 --> 1:18:30.920 Yeah, But I was just thinking that today. Man, I'm like, Yo, 1:18:31.000 --> 1:18:33.559 it's crazy. You know, just we we did a lot 1:18:33.600 --> 1:18:35.680 of stuff today and we still got to do some 1:18:35.720 --> 1:18:38.160 more stuff, and I was just thinking about that. Like 1:18:38.200 --> 1:18:40.960 you know, a lot of times people they don't understand, 1:18:41.040 --> 1:18:43.840 like what goes into being any level of you know, 1:18:44.000 --> 1:18:47.280 success is you know, the consistency and the work you 1:18:47.280 --> 1:18:49.320 can give somebody. You can give somebody the blueprint. Even 1:18:49.360 --> 1:18:51.720 this is a message like we for three weeks, We've 1:18:51.720 --> 1:18:56.080 given you a lot of tools and resources, but the 1:18:56.080 --> 1:18:58.080 ones that's really gonna win are the ones that I 1:18:58.160 --> 1:19:00.880 only apply it, but apply it every single day, day 1:19:00.920 --> 1:19:04.280 in day out. No, there's no breaks, there's no, you know, 1:19:04.479 --> 1:19:06.880 you got to just do the work, and that can 1:19:06.920 --> 1:19:10.799 never be discounted. Whenever we have these conversations, you cannot 1:19:10.840 --> 1:19:14.519 skip over work. Work has to be done one percent. 1:19:14.600 --> 1:19:16.720 And that shit is inconvenient too, right, because you guys 1:19:16.760 --> 1:19:18.919 are in LA and the sun is shining out, there. 1:19:20.479 --> 1:19:23.400 Be a lot smooth to be by the pool that right, 1:19:23.600 --> 1:19:27.639 come alive at night, John, We come alive at night. 1:19:28.200 --> 1:19:28.800 You come alive. 1:19:28.840 --> 1:19:31.160 I got you, got you, but you got to stay 1:19:31.200 --> 1:19:31.960 putting in the hours. 1:19:31.960 --> 1:19:32.080 Man. 1:19:32.160 --> 1:19:34.720 The community takes note. I'm doing the same thing over 1:19:34.720 --> 1:19:37.479 here on this side, and we are excited to close 1:19:37.520 --> 1:19:42.280 out the series strong next week Thursday, six pm Eastern time. Man, people, 1:19:42.760 --> 1:19:45.559 I don't care what anyone says. Man, people will not 1:19:45.680 --> 1:19:49.200 be able to say that we didn't deliver value and 1:19:49.280 --> 1:19:52.080 drop jewels and left the fucking blueprint right there and 1:19:52.080 --> 1:19:54.080 plain sight for people to follow. So if you don't 1:19:54.080 --> 1:19:58.160 follow it, honestly, it's on you, So thank you. 1:19:58.160 --> 1:19:58.400 Guys. 1:19:58.439 --> 1:20:01.200 Head over to Loopinshure dot co slash ey L. Guys. Listen, 1:20:01.240 --> 1:20:04.640 those frameworks are not gonna be there forever we are. 1:20:04.760 --> 1:20:07.439 The moment this series is done is fucking going away, 1:20:07.840 --> 1:20:11.000 all right. These are ship that I've learned, like I've 1:20:11.080 --> 1:20:14.200 wasted a lot of my own money. Fuck producing it. 1:20:14.240 --> 1:20:17.320 Producing it is easy. It's just designing it. Learning this shit, 1:20:18.280 --> 1:20:23.240 internalizing it, putting it to the test, and then packaging 1:20:23.280 --> 1:20:25.559 it in a way that is consumable for you all. 1:20:25.840 --> 1:20:27.439 I wish I would have had these frameworks when I 1:20:27.439 --> 1:20:29.960 was getting started. There's tremendous depth to them. I hope 1:20:29.960 --> 1:20:33.120 that you guys can apply them to your game, and 1:20:33.840 --> 1:20:35.680 if you're finding value in them, let me know. Hit 1:20:35.720 --> 1:20:38.439 me up Jhi Loopinshure dot co. That's my actual email, 1:20:38.479 --> 1:20:41.080 by the way, this one that I use every day, 1:20:41.080 --> 1:20:43.320 so don't fucking spam me. But if you have questions 1:20:43.680 --> 1:20:45.960 Jhi Loopingshure dot co. I would love to uh. I 1:20:45.960 --> 1:20:48.519 would love to chop with you all, and I guess 1:20:48.520 --> 1:20:49.960 to sign it off until next week. 1:20:51.000 --> 1:20:53.080 You have it, brother, Appreciate you all right, y'all? 1:20:53.160 --> 1:20:54.040 Love is love. Listen. 1:20:54.840 --> 1:20:57.360 That's week p that's week it is. 1:20:59.720 --> 1:21:03.519 Brad do it from my school being forced bad drop 1:21:04.120 --> 1:21:16.840 bag drop drop drop drops. 1:21:18.840 --> 1:21:22.760 You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday? 1:21:23.240 --> 1:21:25.599 How can you find amazing candidates fast? 1:21:26.160 --> 1:21:26.519 Easy? 1:21:27.000 --> 1:21:30.360 Just use indeed, stop struggling to get your job posts 1:21:30.360 --> 1:21:34.120 seen on other job sites. 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