WEBVTT - Squire: Turning "Uber For Barbers" Into a $750 Million Company 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.800 I went down and found them at the office and 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:07.880 I was like, yo, I know what you're about, your 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:09.960 full shit like and he's like no, no, no, no, I'm 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:11.159 like that, I don't want to hear any of that. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:13.800 Maybe gave him like two or two thousand dollars. I 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:15.720 was like, you're running that back right now. 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:16.680 Like right now. 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:18.360 He's like, I don't have any cash. All right, let's 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:20.320 go to ATM. So we walked. 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:30.000 I walked him to the ATM. 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:33.879 Welcome to Idea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:40.120 most influential brands and the teams that built them. If 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.560 you're an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing the 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.240 power of collaboration, join me Noah Callahan Bever each week 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:51.000 as we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture, because 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:53.800 the only way to truly understand success is to look 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:58.200 at it from all angles. Idea Generations All Angles is 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:09.759 a Will Packer Media podcast. In twenty fifteen, song Laurn 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.039 and Dave Salvian found at Squire Technologies, a software company 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:19.320 for barbershops. In the years that followed, Squire would grow 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.080 from a simple booking app to a full service barbershop 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.400 back end software with evaluation of a whopping seven hundred 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.680 and fifty million dollars. But along the way, Squire would 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.679 go through several literations, raise money from a variety of 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.640 unlikely sources, fall victim to scam, and even be forced 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.720 to buy a barbershop in order to save their only client. 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:43.800 On this week's episode of All Angles, we talked to 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:48.040 founders Song and Dave, headed product development Armridium, and head 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.840 of Engineering Troy Payne to hear the unique story of 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.560 how they came together to form Squire and how together 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:59.000 they've revolutionized the barbershop industry. But before any of that happened, 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.600 years before they were to enter the y Combinator, was 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.960 secure sixty million dollars in funding. Song Laurn was just 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.080 a kid running around the streets of New York City. 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:14.639 I grew up in a relatively unconventional type of household. 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:18.960 Both of my parents were were artists, very artistic. They 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:21.359 actually separated when I was about two, so I don't 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.040 have any memory of them being together. Both of them 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.440 were very much in my life as a child. I 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.760 grew up in Manhattan in New York in the nineties, 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.880 and I was a real New York City kid, we 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.839 moved around a lot. I lived in like so many 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.280 different neighborhoods in the city, from Harlem to downtown near 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.720 like fourteenth and six. My mom actually had a workout 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.000 studio there, so she was artistic, but also she used 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.320 to work as a personal trainer, and she was I 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:50.560 would say maybe the first or one of the first 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.280 black owned exercise studios downtown that she ran. 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:55.840 When I look back at it now, I. 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.320 Think that may have influenced me as an entrepreneur. Seeing 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.440 that experience her create her own business and run it early. 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:05.680 On, I'm sure had an impact on me. In the 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.000 middle of eighth grade, my mom wanted to move to 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.520 La so packed up and moved in the second semester 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:12.360 of the eighth grade. 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.239 That was a big change. It was a big culture shift. 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:16.919 You know, this is the height of the East Coast 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:20.480 West coast kind of dynamic. So it was really interesting. 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.200 But I ended up really having a great experience in 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:23.880 La as well. 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:24.960 I knew I. 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.519 Really really wanted to be successful and whatever that meant. 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:29.720 I didn't want to be port I wanted to be 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:34.200 financially well off. I didn't know specifically what that required 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:40.000 was that entailed I gravitated more towards humanities, writing, reading, 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:41.080 you know, debate. 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.400 Those types of classes to me made sense. The law 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:45.480 was a good option. 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.400 While in school, Song had a career in law and 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.800 IVY League on the brain. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, another 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.800 Squire partner was also walking the halls of Los Angeles's 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.520 Westchester High. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.120 Song and I actually went to high school together. 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:06.960 This is Troy Payne, head of engineering at Squire. 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.000 So back in LA his locker was next to my locker, 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.600 the year younger than me, but I knew him from 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.000 Jaron Hallways Sharon Lockers. I remember he was a class 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.880 president and I remember him doing like what class president do, 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:21.120 some sort of a speech. 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.400 At the time in high school, I was pushing burn. 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.840 CDs, so out a CD burner when nobody else had it, 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.640 and I would buy blank CDs and ripped albums that 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.880 weren't out yet, like Lil Wayne's four hundred Degree. This 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:35.599 made me a lot of money because I had it 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:36.640 before anyone else had it. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:37.479 I could charge double. 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:38.880 So I was selling CDs. 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.800 I was helping people chip their PlayStations so that they 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.680 can burn the games that I was also selling. 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.960 While Song pursued political science, Troy was into the science 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.920 of technology, from illegal downloads and burning CDs to coding 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.560 and developing apps. Troy fell in love with computing. 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.960 My first computer was given to me by my father 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:02.839 when I was eight. Used to play video games for 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.680 the most part, not a type really, I just knew 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.839 how to use a joystick. One day we installed AOL 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:12.560 because back then it used to just pretty much deliver 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.279 them everywhere in the mail free. We signed up my 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.200 brother and I and we were on it. We were 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:24.160 participants in a chat space called Black Voices. We're at 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.360 this at this point, I'm about eleven or twelve, and 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.880 I'm in a BV team chat talking about things that 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.440 twelve year olds talk about. And there are other people 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.280 that are that age as well from other parts of 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.200 the world Black as well. There were people from Oakland 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.000 and people from down South, and it was interesting to 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.599 be able to connect to these kids that were my 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:50.760 age and had similar interest within computers. 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.960 Troy's fascination with the World Wide Web continued to grow. 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.760 It was a blank canvas and he was obsessed. Song 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.400 knew of Troy and was vaguely aware of his interests, 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.440 but at the time, they were just locker neighbors passing 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:04.320 like ships in the night. 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.720 It was a year headitor, but we kind of knew 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.360 each other, knew each other were running in the same classes. 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:12.760 We weren't, like, you know, in the same crew. But 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:14.520 I always thought it was cool. He was quiet, you know, 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:18.960 quiet guy. I had no idea that he was a 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.880 codeer or a hacker, or was getting into trouble on 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.400 the rush from the law or whatever was going on. 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:26.159 Now. 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.320 Troy was never actually on the run from the law, 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:30.839 but by the time he reached high school, his computer 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.080 skills had evolved substantially, and he did find himself immersed 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.920 in the culture of hacking, which maybe led him into 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.799 some gray areas as far as internet legality goes. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.000 I started playing around with creating my own stuff using 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.279 something called Visual Basic three point zero. It was a 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.279 great tool because it was simple enough for you to 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.320 self learn. It was powerful enough for you to do 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.120 all the things that your imagination wanted you to do. 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:02.040 The software was new, it was full of exploits, and 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:06.000 everyone was pretty much exploiting all of the exploits. From 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:09.280 a happening perspective, From a software perspective, That's what really 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:13.160 sort of got me interested in software engineering and development 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.520 in general, is because I was just trying to look 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.800 for the next edge for me to do what I 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:22.920 was doing as a kid, you know, things that kids do. 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:24.840 Instead of doing it on the streets, I was doing 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.760 it on the internet. So my skills developed really developing 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.360 products that I made a piece of software called trigger. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.000 Happy, and it had a viral effect. 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.040 Back then, AOL had email, and so you could make something. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.480 You can brand it, you can package it, and you 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.280 can distribute it, and it could go viral because people 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.200 started to share it. Every time you launch it, it 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.960 would advertise in the chat room, you know, trigger. 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.920 Happy has been activated or something like that. People would 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.840 see that and say, oh, you know, you know, it's. 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.280 Sort of like a fear fact that people would know 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.400 that you're about to do something malicious to and back 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.960 then it was like either terminating your account or kicking 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.080 you off the internet. I remember I was in a 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.840 chat room and someone used trigger happy and I had 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:10.680 no idea who they were, and that was like that 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:12.720 was it right there. That's when I fell in love 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.680 and I'm like, wow, I can make something like this 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.120 that's distributed that people that I. 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:21.800 Don't know can get a hold of and use and 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:22.360 they love it. 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.520 And ever since then, my focus has really been on 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:27.200 sort of chasing that feeling. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.320 Troy was down the rabbit hole, and we'd spend the 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:35.600 next several years coding, creating games, apps and websites. Meanwhile, 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.040 Songs still had his eyes fixed on law school. 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:42.800 I had in my mind at that point that I 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.120 wanted to go to law school and if not be 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:47.960 a practicing lawyer wherever, at least get a law degreeks. 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:49.720 I thought that would open a lot of doors. 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.000 If you grew up in la like everybody's one step 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:55.720 removed from entertainment. I didn't talk about my dad, but 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.240 he was mostly an actor growing up on Broadway and 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.840 did a lot of plays in theater, so I was 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.280 somewhat familiar with that world. So I thought, you know, entertainment, 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:06.000 law could be a good option. 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.040 Song went to UCLA for undergrad and then to Yale 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.640 for law school. He got the Ivy League experience that 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:14.800 he had dreamed of and also got his first taste 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:15.760 of entrepreneurship. 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:18.920 Junior year of college, one of my best friends and 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.840 I we used to do tutoring on the side. 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.160 We started seeing that there's a lot of demand for it. 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.800 So we ended up starting a tutoring company and hiring 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:32.000 other college students and matching them with the families that 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.000 we knew were in need of tutors, and then like 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.760 charging a percentage as well as tutoring ourselves. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:38.760 So that was my first taste of entrepreneurship. 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.720 Upon graduation, Song moved to New York City to pursue 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:43.520 his career in law. 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:45.880 So I was doing with M and A like Murders 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.880 and Acquisitions law, where I would work on these big deals, 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.240 multi hundred million billion dollar deals. All the lawyers would 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.960 celebrate when the deals were closed. But like, I saw 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.520 who was really getting patient these deals. It wasn't the lawyers. 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.000 And I felt like the guy's on the business selling 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.160 weren't any smarter than us, weren't working harder, and they were. 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.320 Making millions and tens and hundreds and millions of dollars 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:05.720 on these. 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.080 Transactions, and you know, we had our salaries and our bonuses. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:10.880 I was like, why am I on the side of it? 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:13.000 So I knew I want to do something be on 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.120 the business side. I just didn't know what to move. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:19.679 Was at the same time. Dave Salvin, co founder and 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.360 president of Squire, was also in New York City working 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:23.040 in finance. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.680 Grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Mom was a single mom. 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:28.719 I worked a couple of jobs so you know, get 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:33.599 us through. Went to college in New York at the 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:34.640 University of Already. 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.960 Entrepreneurship was something you think about, but you don't know. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.200 Exactly what it is. It wasn't a goal. 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.120 I think growing up was like, Hey, how do I 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:44.720 make money? 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.160 And the folks that I saw make the money were 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:52.600 lawyers and doctors. After I finished college, I started working 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.280 at a market Firman in Rocket County, part of the 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.880 Info group. I started hanging out in New York City. 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.000 It was like a wait nine, and I saw this 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.080 level of wealth that I didn't see before, like young 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.360 guys with a decent amount of capital, and they looked 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:14.240 like me. These guys worked on Wall Street in finance, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.560 and I was like, Hey, this is where we can 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:24.640 make them some money. And then I decided to be 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.480 in finance. Actually moved to the Bronx and I started 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.640 applying for jobs in New York City and I was 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:35.040 lucky to get a job at Dakeon Morgan and the 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.560 job was personal banker or type of thing, but it 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.680 was at one of the more affluent bad branches in 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:43.240 New York. 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.640 With Dave working in finance and Song in the adjacent 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.120 field of corporate law, it was only a matter of 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.000 time before the two cross paths at a downtown happy hour. 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.840 Dave was also young black professionals and finance. We would 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.720 go out a lot with a party a lot and 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:01.680 then at some point I think we both were feeling 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.520 versed in there, like this is just like a rat race, 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.280 doing the same thing over and over again, and we're 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.480 working at these corporations that we're like, don't care about this. 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:12.840 Guy's more life than this. And he was like, yeah, 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.360 I'm feeling the same way. So we would start brainstorming ideas. 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.040 We spent so much time and effort basically going out 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.719 and having fun, why don't we channel that some of 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:27.040 the effort, even a small part of it, into trying 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:28.679 to start a business. 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.440 We were like, what can we do this better than this, 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:33.720 that can be more impactful. They could create a legacy, 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:35.240 and that was the process. 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.280 We actually went to Columbia on Saturday. Columbia had a 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.800 public library. Well, we don't know it's public or not, 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.760 but it was public for us. And we went into 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.479 the library and we got into one of the classrooms 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:49.760 and we used to just sit there for hours on 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.640 end and think about ideas we can create this song, 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.240 and we would actually go through the motions. And the 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:01.880 third or fourth session of that idea of square came about. 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.319 Song and Dave were determined to come up with a 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.440 business of their own. After settling on barbershops as an 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.160 area of opportunity, the two went to work figuring out 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:13.840 exactly how they would break into the market. 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:19.000 We stumbled on this idea of barbershops. It was really 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:20.280 born out of both of our experience. 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:23.040 Havn't gone to barbershops, you know, since we were kids. 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:24.439 You love it, you feel. 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.560 Great, you get a fresh lineup, whatever, But like the 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.600 process was just so antiquated. Sometimes they waited an hour 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.959 or two hours, sometimes not. It was very painful cash 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.320 space businesses at that time, and it didn't make sense that, 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:37.679 you know. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.040 This is like twenty fifteen. 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.200 There's already Huber out there, there's already YELP, there's already 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:42.880 all these. 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:44.200 Software that are improving our lives. 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:45.920 When it came to getting a haircrat there was no 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.599 innovation enough technology. That was an interesting idea and we 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.240 both were like, wow, that's true, Like I've had that experience. 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.280 You've had that experience, Like this is something that I 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.000 think would resonate with a lot of people. 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.280 And thisial idea was finding a way for customers to 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.480 book pay. Here go into a barbershop and you pay, 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:03.320 you walk out. 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:04.600 See what experience. 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:09.160 The ideation of this was solving for what we thought 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:10.400 could work for ourselves. 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.199 And then the real opportunity came was like. 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:17.160 When we started applying it and seeing the feedback and 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:20.920 seeing how users engaged with the platform. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.280 We started trying to learn as much as possible about 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:29.160 our customers. So had the idea then started trying to 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.400 seek we could validate it. We go walk in the 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.280 barbershops and just like try to talk to the barbers, 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.040 talk to the owners, talk to the guys sitting in 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.160 the chairs waiting to get a haircut, and just see 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.240 what were their paying points, what do they want to 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:43.440 improve on, like what. 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.920 Could we solve for them? And then we started getting. 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.360 A picture that painted it was pretty clear that there 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.680 was a lot of frustration on both sides. On the 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.440 client side as well as the barber side, and we 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.240 started trying to figure out how could we solve those frustrations. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.480 The hard part was building the product because neither one 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.240 of us were our developers a coder as a technical 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.640 so we looked at our network and thought of who 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:07.560 could refine to help us build this and that was 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:12.560 a struggle that took almost a year of just back 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.000 and forth and failing until we eventually were able. 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.080 To find somebody that could actually build the first version 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:18.640 of the product. 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.720 The vision for Squire was coming into focus, but they 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.040 needed someone to help them bring it to life. The 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.200 two had no experience in technology, and that learning curve 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:38.600 was leading to some costly mistakes that would threaten to 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:39.880 end the business completely. 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:42.840 It was a shit show. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:44.560 We were hustling and we works. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.760 We met a guy that worked for us startup, but 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:50.720 he ended up being a total fraudster. 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.480 Neither Dig or I are technical, so we immediately started 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.280 trying to think about how we could find somebody to build. 0:15:58.000 --> 0:15:58.480 It for us. 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.040 We wanted to recruit someone and sell them on. 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:03.560 The dream and get them to be part require and 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.880 be like our CTO. Essentially, we would go to meet 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.240 up a man's startup events try to meet people. 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.200 We met this guy that like seemed really interested in 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.960 what we're building. He was an older dude, older. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.640 White guy, and I think he actually was at CTO 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.760 at a company that was working out every work pretty 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:22.880 at that time, established company that had raised a lot 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:23.720 of recent money. 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:25.480 And he was like, you know, I really. 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:26.960 Love what you guys are doing. I want to help 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.320 you guys. I've got my full time day. But on 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.440 the side, I think I can build this app. It'll 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.760 be pretty easy and I'll work with you on it. 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:35.560 And he was like, and I. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.520 Might even want to invest, So of course, you know, 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.400 that was our He is fast forward. This is probably 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.360 like weeks now. We're working with him. He keeps saying 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.280 he's building the app. We're talking about our ideas and 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:50.040 our vision and what product we want. But funny enough, 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:52.040 he would never actually show us if he was working 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.560 on He was just really good at kind of bullshit it. 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:56.920 Stuff wasn't added up, you know. 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.800 He would say he would invest, so say you'll get 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.720 an office space that we were. He also said he 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.600 would use the connections to build and he was working 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.879 on it, and then nothing was happening after the sixty 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.320 to ninety days of this stuff. We gave him twenty 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.119 five hundred of our money to work on this, and 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:17.159 then he didn't produce. 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.879 Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into you know, maybe 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.320 months of him just giving us the run around. Obviously, 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.920 at a certain point start getting more suspicious, like what's 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:28.360 going on. 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:30.680 By this time, we really started like. 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.359 Looking into everything, and it became clear that he was 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:38.720 this total fraud. We actually did some research and found 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.000 other articles that had been written about this dude. His 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.520 picture of a different name, he had present, pretended to 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:43.800 be a. 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.240 Doctor, he pretended to do all kind of shit, but 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.520 his job was real. The job at this tech company 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:51.880 was real. They were getting defrauded too. 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.920 He was boosting him and actually had a CEO RO 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.000 at a real tech company and they didn't know it. 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.760 So at this point I'm pissed. Once I find out, 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.840 I actually wanted to see all that company was like, Yo, 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:03.720 you're dealing with a fraud. 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.919 We actually got him fired from his job and he 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:08.400 actually got busted for this. 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.359 I went down and found him at the office and 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:14.560 I was like, yo, I know what you're about. You 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:16.240 your full of shit, like and he's like, no, no, no, no, 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:17.760 I'm like that, I don't want to hear any of that. 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.200 We maybe gave him like two or two thousand dollars. 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.399 I was like, you're running that back right now, Like 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:24.640 right now. He's like, I don't have any cash. All right, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.560 let's go to ATM. So we walked. I walked him 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:33.520 to the ATM, took out the money and gave it 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.480 to me right there, and I took him from. 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.119 Him, took his mind. I was like, yeah, like I 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.239 never want to see you again. I never saw him 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:39.800 again after that. 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:42.840 We got out twenty five hundred dollars back and he 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:43.679 went on away. 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.880 After their encounter with a grifter, Dave and Song looked 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:50.880 to their own network to find the next key hire 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:54.400 for Squire. They reached out to a ram Irridim, who 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.120 Dave knew from business school. Has a rom learned more 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.760 about Squire, it became a parent that he might be 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.880 the peace that could help build Squire into the global 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:04.480 business that they all imagined. 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.159 Most immigrant families, you are either going to be a doctor, 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.760 an engineer, or a lawyer. At least that's what your 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.560 parents want for you. So I studied computer science. 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:16.399 Believe it or not. 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.359 In undergrad I was good at it from an academic perspective, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.639 but I just didn't see myself as being someone who's 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:25.680 going to, you know, write code twenty four to seven. 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:27.960 I just figured I wouldn't be able to compete with 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.800