1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,600
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the CNS Podcast. Our guest today is Koo

2
00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:12,720
Shong Hirpada, entrepreneur and founder of CLD9. Today we'll discuss how Koo Shong's childhood

3
00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:19,120
shaped his entrepreneurial journey, what sacrifices it takes to make a company as a first-time founder,

4
00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:25,040
how optimizing for happiness can detract from your business, dating as an entrepreneur,

5
00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:30,320
Koo Shong's opinion on AGI, and much more. Thanks for listening.

6
00:00:55,040 --> 00:01:00,080
I'll only drink like three of these a day. It works so well dude like every time I'm feeling

7
00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:04,800
like low energy I'll get one of those you know electrolyte? No. You don't know electrolyte? They

8
00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,920
just sell them at like gas stations and stuff because when I was in Colombia I always felt

9
00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:12,240
dehydrated because it was always hot, humid, and so I would always- Are you from Colombia? No.

10
00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,480
I'm not from Colombia. This would be a good way to for us to like figure out where the hell you're

11
00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:22,000
from. You'll never know dude. It's a secret work for the CIA actually. I won't reveal where I'm

12
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:26,960
from either in case ICE finds out. I recently just got my green card. Big achievement I would say.

13
00:01:26,960 --> 00:01:33,280
Because you were on here with uh the what is it called the visa for study? No no I was just on

14
00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:37,920
visa my dad's visa and I technically like it's a good thing because I wouldn't have been able to

15
00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:43,040
start this without a green card. I literally started the company the second I got a green

16
00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:47,040
card I think like a year and a half ago or like they they give like a pre-green card or something

17
00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:52,080
like that. The US is kind of a tiny bubble like everyone's like personality is so different like

18
00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:57,280
in India and in Europe. I grew up with like one of my friends who's European called Gaia. We had very

19
00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:01,440
similar tastes of humor but nobody could ever get it. They always thought we were like weirdly

20
00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:05,920
like just way too brutal but like it's just our sense of humor like everyone there is so direct

21
00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:10,560
in some capacity. What were you in Europe for? I wasn't in Europe he was from- Oh okay. Yeah and

22
00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:16,000
then I'm from India. I can't reveal that. I'm just kidding. How does your childhood in India influence

23
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:21,200
what you do today? I think it's less about my childhood because I moved when I was like seven.

24
00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:28,240
I think it's more about watching my dad go from like living in India to like trying to figure

25
00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:33,120
everything out here and watching him from a third person perspective that like has really changed

26
00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:38,800
my work ethic I would say. Because like okay if you're like a first generation or was it first or

27
00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:44,160
second generation immigrant I think I think it's first yeah if you're a first generation immigrant

28
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:49,200
and you're really young like your role model is probably going to be your parents because you got

29
00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:54,880
to see them like struggle like crazy just so you could like get to a point where you could like

30
00:02:54,880 --> 00:03:02,240
be a dipshit and like I don't know go to college right. So I got to see his work ethic and seeing

31
00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:08,720
how like the change in culture really affected him which it didn't like he was just a baller about

32
00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:13,280
it. He literally came here he's like I know exactly what I need to do I'm gonna work my ass off I'm

33
00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:17,760
gonna figure this out I'm gonna learn about everything that I can possibly learn about in

34
00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:22,000
terms of building wealth and then got us to a position and now he's just like a chiller

35
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:26,640
software engineer that just like has a great financial life and everything like that that

36
00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:32,480
allows me to like actually pursue like what I wanted to do because he kind of took up the

37
00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:38,880
responsibility of trying to get it get trying to get us set up so he never pushed like oh you need

38
00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:43,360
to be a software engineer you need to be this you need to be that he was always like do what you

39
00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:47,280
want to do because I had no idea what I was doing earlier and I ended up figuring it out so like he

40
00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:53,520
put that trust on me so yeah that's a lengthy answer. What was that struggle like for you

41
00:03:54,240 --> 00:04:00,800
seeing your parents coming as immigrants and not really knowing this new country that they're in

42
00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:06,560
and you're kind of just watching as a young kid what was that like? Yeah well I technically

43
00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:12,880
struggled with them right yeah but I really like the only time I found out that it was the struggle

44
00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:17,040
was when I grew up because then like I talked to my friends and I'd be like oh you guys didn't have

45
00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:22,480
to sleep on the floor that's crazy because as a kid you're just like you don't even see it as a

46
00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:26,720
struggle right like I feel like people overemphasize like oh I went through so much struggle as a kid

47
00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:31,920
generally like even if like you're a kid and you're poor like all the kids back in India

48
00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:38,080
that I grew up with were really happy even if they were like dirt poor so it didn't affect me

49
00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:42,880
until I got older and like I said bringing it back to like saw what my dad went through because

50
00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:46,880
as a kid I just thought oh my dad's like just working and stuff like that and then I got older

51
00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:52,400
and I was like holy shit how did he make that like it seems like a miracle like what he did so like

52
00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:57,680
I really need to step my game up you know it was like struggle like it was a struggle like I got

53
00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:04,640
to like I moved like 18 times as a kid which was like crazy but like I don't know if you're hard

54
00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:10,480
working like it's not that bad in my opinion so you always figure like a way out of it so yeah

55
00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:17,200
what about you my parents both immigrated from Mexico so also first generation immigrants yeah

56
00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:23,280
didn't grow up with a whole lot yeah but I saw the disparity between where I was at and where other

57
00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:30,400
people in the US were at earlier on because my parents were Catholic and they were like you're

58
00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:35,440
gonna get a Catholic education so that was like their number one thing that they cared about really

59
00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:41,600
yeah so they found scholarships and financial aid to get us to go to Catholic private school

60
00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:48,400
okay and at Catholic private school you have people who are pretty well off yeah and so you

61
00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:53,200
come back from like Christmas break and you're like fifth grade everyone's like oh yeah I went to Cancun

62
00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:58,480
oh I went to this place oh I got this for Christmas right yes definitely and then I'm sitting there in

63
00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:04,400
fifth grade and I'm like yeah no I we were at home we didn't do very much my presence came from like

64
00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:09,280
donations dude like we were like at that point in time we were struggling quite a bit so yeah we

65
00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:14,960
would go to the church and essentially get Christmas presents really from as donations from the church

66
00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:20,000
and people who went to my school their parents would donate those presents wow and so there was

67
00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:26,240
like a lot of like oh what's going on like why is my life like this different is different than

68
00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:31,840
everybody else's so I was very in tune with kind of the difference between what I was going through

69
00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:38,160
what others were some people might take that and be like oh life is unfair yeah I was given a bad

70
00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:45,200
hand etc etc but the bigger lesson that I actually ended up learning from that was

71
00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:53,440
that those material conditions didn't really matter to the actual humans behind them and the

72
00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:57,760
connections that you could still make with them right yeah and so for a long time I felt a little

73
00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:03,760
bit like on the outside on the boundaries but I learned that lesson that oh no it doesn't matter

74
00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:08,160
if someone's lived a completely different experience from you like they could be let's

75
00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:14,640
say dirt poor living on wherever and they can still connect to someone who's very very wealthy

76
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:19,920
on that human level yes yeah I think and I definitely went through that observation period

77
00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:24,800
as well when I was like yeah all my friends are living completely different lives right

78
00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:30,160
but it's it's less about oh damn it sucks that my life is like this and their life is like that it's

79
00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:36,240
more of like the act of observing that and seeing like okay this is what the like situation looks

80
00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:41,760
like where do I want to be within all of this you know like um I think that's the better way to go

81
00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:46,800
about it and that's the way to not limit yourself as well you know as a family as a as like an

82
00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:51,600
individual um so I think that's probably why you're in the state that you're in now as well

83
00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,760
because you got to observe that and you're like okay um I'm not gonna whine about this but like

84
00:07:55,760 --> 00:08:02,080
this is where I want to be maybe that's one of the things I often tell people about seeing

85
00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:09,520
that disparity is that as opposed to it being a sad thing it was more like oh you actually see how

86
00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:15,360
high you can go yeah right yeah so like let's say your only communication and connection to other

87
00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:21,680
people is among people who aren't doing super well financially who maybe are struggling you're not

88
00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:28,000
really seeing what is possible out of that right yes and so it can be very limiting you create these

89
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:32,160
stories about what's possible and what's not yeah versus you see this disparity you're like oh that

90
00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:37,680
person did that they built this company and they didn't have anything before yeah that's a possibility

91
00:08:37,680 --> 00:08:42,240
yeah definitely and like the kids might not have done it but the parents were a lot of themselves

92
00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:49,440
made doctors engineers entrepreneurs exactly and so you see that and it just creates a new level of

93
00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:54,960
what you're aiming for which if you aim high way higher yeah you land among the stars right and

94
00:08:54,960 --> 00:08:59,120
that's a gift as well and that's like I think something my parents put a lot of effort into

95
00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:03,520
it's like they didn't have to put me in like a neighborhood that maybe like had an amazing

96
00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:07,120
school and try to sacrifice so much just so I would go to a good school because if you go to a good

97
00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:11,120
school but you might be at the bottom like financially but like you're still seeing all

98
00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:16,160
your friends are like damn like their parents are like really really well off and apparently

99
00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:19,840
they were from nothing because you're probably close family friends with them as well and that's

100
00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:25,520
possible like knowing what's possible is probably the greatest gift not only from like being

101
00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:30,640
surrounded and like going from lower class to maybe middle class but also just entrepreneurship

102
00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:36,240
in general I'd say is like all about knowing what's possible and that most things are generally as

103
00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:41,760
simple as they seem you know yeah because it sets the bar higher right there is no bar there is no

104
00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:47,040
bar but like let's say like your college counselor like I have a friend went to a pretty horrible

105
00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:52,640
school like and there was like no support nothing like the school wasn't great and so goes to the

106
00:09:52,640 --> 00:09:57,200
counselor and they're like oh yeah you're not getting into CU Boulder yeah and that's like the

107
00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:01,200
expectation is that they can't get in oh it's too good of a school for you I go to my counselor

108
00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:05,120
and they're like oh what school do you want to go to and there's putting out all these schools like

109
00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:09,760
oh you could go to Harvard oh you could go to Yale you could go to any anywhere yeah the expectation

110
00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:15,120
wasn't oh what are you going to go to college it's oh where do you want to go what do you want to do

111
00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:19,120
yeah what do you want to do exactly yeah so there there's those people that are actually believing

112
00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:24,880
in you versus being in that in a different community you might not have that right yeah and it's

113
00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:29,120
sometimes maybe it's not even like people believing in you it's just like having such an open mindset

114
00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:33,360
because of the situation you're in where it's just like oh yeah like you can do whatever you want

115
00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:38,160
you know just like having being surrounded by people that think that way because in Seattle I'm

116
00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:43,920
from Seattle and um everyone has a generally very closed mindset and then when I came here it was

117
00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:48,720
it was a nice breath of fresh air where a lot of people here are just like do what you want to do

118
00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:53,520
generally everyone in Seattle is like oh damn you don't have an internship at the age of 12 like

119
00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:57,440
what's wrong with you you don't have an Amazon internship you don't have a startup going at 12

120
00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:02,720
years old and it's so funny because I'll go back to Washington now and all the kids are trying so

121
00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:07,360
hard like I'll be talking to one of these kids and this kid is like 13 I'll be at the gym he'll

122
00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:12,080
walk up to me and be like yo by the way like I have three startups and like I'm trying to get an

123
00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:17,200
internship I'm like bro you're 12 and it's impossible to do three startups at once like I'm telling you

124
00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:21,920
right now why do you feel the need to tell me this like what is the approval here it would be great

125
00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:26,160
if you were 12 and do a startup but I honestly recommend people to do startups at like later

126
00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:31,360
ages yeah enjoy your childhood dude not even yeah I mean like dude it's just too much like this is

127
00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:37,520
like this is very not great for your growth as like a child in my opinion like startup is very

128
00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:42,800
far removed on what you should be doing as a kid yeah I agree I think also just being so

129
00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:50,240
focused on oh I have to build something I have to solve this problem when you're 12 13 years old

130
00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:53,520
like you're you're a kid man you're still growing you're still learning you don't know what you

131
00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:59,680
want to do yet yeah like enjoy yourself learn new things meet new people do all these things don't

132
00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:06,400
go out and try building a startup at 12 years old yeah because if you actually like are tie your

133
00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:13,840
emotions to how well your startup is doing a lot of times then like doing a startup is in my eyes

134
00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:19,040
like choosing to have a mental health illness literally I think we've talked about this before

135
00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:25,920
like literally doing a startup is like being like I'm that normal happy person let me just have like

136
00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:32,320
horrible like depression for the next two years of my life and choosing to do that yeah right so

137
00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:36,800
like that's a choice like you know it's going to be 18 hour days you know like all your emotions

138
00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:41,040
are going to be tied on whether you get the next customer or not do you really want to do like I

139
00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:46,320
would have straight up like trauma if I start did a startup at the age of 12 because also no one

140
00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:50,960
takes you seriously that at that young age as well oh yeah like if you're walking around like oh I'm

141
00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:55,360
building this AI startup and you're 13 well yeah that's what I did with this kid he was like I'm

142
00:12:55,360 --> 00:13:00,240
doing three startups one of them is AI stuff but like dude I don't believe you you know it's like

143
00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:04,560
I don't want to be involved with that because like I you're just too young it's just too young I know

144
00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:09,360
you recommend it you know so maybe there are some kids who have it in them but no they are for the

145
00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:16,400
majority of people it's not the best path to take yeah when you were young were you big into I know

146
00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:20,560
I want to start a business I know I want to do this I did you know exactly what that was going

147
00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:26,240
to be like no I had no idea so I actually was an artist for most of my life like different forms

148
00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:32,160
of art like I wanted to do 3D animation for the longest time I was a painter drawer and then I

149
00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:37,280
was a musical artist for like a couple of years as well so I had no idea I was going to do this I

150
00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:41,760
just knew I really liked building things like and then I did like a little engineering stuff on the

151
00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:46,880
side as well as a kid yeah I was very similar to a lot of my friends at that age and all we cared

152
00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:51,440
about was just building stuff you know or like making something which is a blessing by the way

153
00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:56,080
like which is like most people don't get the opportunity to do that but that's like all I was

154
00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:03,840
into and then this came about because all the art forms that I like really liked I would spend a lot

155
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:08,240
of time on art and then I would get nothing out of it generally because it's so luck-based and with a

156
00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:13,040
startup it's like no it's a startup is a lot like art like you're building something and sometimes

157
00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:18,000
it can be visually like building something but it's a form of art in my opinion but you're getting

158
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:24,160
rewarded proportionally or exponentially based on how much work you put in so it's it's the ultimate

159
00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:29,120
form of building something so that's the reason I went into it so let me plan for that which I did

160
00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:35,840
and how did it become what you're building now with cloud nine how did you find out this was

161
00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:40,880
the problem you wanted to solve this was what you wanted to do for the next two three four five

162
00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:46,800
years I think it was just based a lot of personal experience like just personal experience with

163
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:52,080
like supplementation and I come from an engineering background my whole family is just

164
00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:58,240
like a family of engineers right and I saw this gaping hole of a problem where it's just like damn

165
00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:03,360
this like massive industry is completely broken in my opinion and it's like run by the wrong people

166
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:09,200
and I viewed it as an engineering problem I was just like no if you build the right tech and you

167
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:13,840
create the right solution then you can literally just take this massive industry and put it into

168
00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:19,040
one product right I was just like okay bet let's let's spend two years because the pathway after

169
00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:23,920
that after I really understood the problem the pathway is really clear on like what you need to

170
00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:28,320
do what you need to build so I was like okay we know customers are going to buy this because it's

171
00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:32,560
literally the solution they've been waiting for and solution I had been waiting for for such a long

172
00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:39,360
time so the second I saw the problem I was like no brainer let's go after this yeah can you tell

173
00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:45,680
us a little bit about what the problem is how you're solving it yeah what that looks like right now

174
00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:51,600
for you what state the company's in yeah so the biggest problem I think a lot of people might know

175
00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:57,280
with with supplementation is there's just so much research out there and there's so much there's so

176
00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:01,360
many different supplements and it takes a lot of work to get things right when it comes to your

177
00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:07,120
health and I had gone through that experience myself I was spending 200 hours a year like just

178
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:11,120
researching like these ingredients and I was like watching more plates more days yeah like watching

179
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,360
that watching Andrew Huberman like reading through like research articles on like how what's the

180
00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:20,320
dosage of vitamin d I need to be taking and I noticed a lot of other people were doing the same

181
00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:25,920
thing and what I realized it's like most people are doing the research not because they want to

182
00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:30,080
be because they have to and most people are spending so much money not because they want to

183
00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:36,080
be because they have to so I realized because of my dad's tech background because I've been surrounded

184
00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:43,520
by like founders my whole life um like this problem could be solved if the supplement industry

185
00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:48,400
isn't that lazy and builds the right technology around it so where what we are is basically

186
00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:54,560
we're honestly 80% of tech company and 20% of supplement company users basically go through

187
00:16:54,560 --> 00:17:00,080
like a conversation with an AI that we built and it builds you the most scientifically accurate

188
00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:04,400
supplement formulation for exactly what you need and then we took it a step further and we like

189
00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:09,680
not not just making the recommendations easier for people let's actually ship them a product

190
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:15,120
that's like really easy to use so a lot of the company now is building the robotics and the

191
00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:19,440
manufacturing around building a product that can be easy to drink and it's super personalized

192
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:24,160
towards you so yeah we're doing it right now and we're the only company in the world to do so we're

193
00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:31,120
the only company that somehow builds a manufacturing line that can personalize up to 28 million

194
00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:35,840
different formulations right now up to a mass level scale with a machine that's like this big

195
00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:41,120
so we took a completely different approach to it we launched about a month and a half ago with this

196
00:17:41,120 --> 00:17:47,520
and it's been amazing like this is the dev cycle before you launch is hell like you met me when I

197
00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:51,680
was going through the dev cycle I was just so depressed and then you launch and you're the

198
00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:56,640
happiest like generally for the first couple weeks it kind of sucks but once you launch and you see

199
00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,720
the customer feedback oh my god like it was it was amazing so that's where we are right now we

200
00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:05,440
launched anyone can buy the products go check it out we're growing pretty fast as well and the

201
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:11,040
product is getting significantly better than I ever could have imagined it the fitness industries

202
00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:15,920
changed so much in the in the past few years at least from what I've seen on it at least before

203
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:21,520
it used to be like oh lift weights eat food and there seems to be this huge jump towards optimizing

204
00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:26,000
performance taking the right supplements why do people want that and why is it so important to

205
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:30,480
them yeah I mean I wouldn't even limit it to the fitness industry like we used to be like a fitness

206
00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:36,400
supplement brand now we're like all supplementation but I think it's people are finally wanting to care

207
00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:40,240
about their health and people are wanting not just care about their health but they kind of want an

208
00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:44,800
edge on other people right like they want a competitive edge and they're realizing like if

209
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:50,640
I optimize my biology then I can get that competitive edge that most people don't have in this day and

210
00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:56,960
age because you know people are eating garbage and people are just living not that human lifestyles

211
00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:01,680
the way that we were intended to do which is not a bad thing by the way like maybe this is like the

212
00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:06,160
direction people are supposed to evolve in but we just the technology is not caught up yet which is

213
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:10,240
why people have to take supplements in the first place but I always say like if you don't need to

214
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:14,240
take supplements don't take them like I know I'm building a supplement company but like we really

215
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:20,080
are pushing like just take exactly what you need you know and I think the fitness industry and the

216
00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:27,280
overall like health industry is moving towards like less is more research base less is more like the

217
00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:32,240
bro science doesn't work anymore you know those were some good days dude the bro science the bro

218
00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:38,240
science days just three sets of 12 bench press go eat chicken rice and broccoli and that's all you

219
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:44,160
need dude those I mean maybe like it does kind of work in some aspect like don't over complicate

220
00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:49,920
things you know like just it's it's it's relatively simple like just get the baseline stuff you need

221
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:56,080
which is just lift heavy and eat it's like generally you get 99 of your results from that

222
00:19:56,080 --> 00:20:00,800
and then if you want the extra one percent then like optimize everything about your routine make

223
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:06,640
sure you're doing like dup stuff like that which most people don't need so anytime somebody asks

224
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:11,280
me for fitness advice I'm always like let's go to the gym and train hard and then eat a lot of food

225
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:15,680
because I didn't do that like earlier in my fitness life like I didn't do that much research on like

226
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:20,400
what am I supposed to do in fact I still don't do any research on like what am I supposed to

227
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:27,440
be doing at the gym right it's like I got trained by a marine and he was just like deadlift bench

228
00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:33,520
squat and go to failure until you want to cry and then eat a lot of food I was like okay dad

229
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:40,640
um it just worked have you ever seen the uh the meme with the bell curve and you have on one side

230
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:46,400
the beginner and he's like I go to the gym I lift heavy weights I eat and then I sleep then you see

231
00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:50,800
the middle guy and he's like well actually the research says rep range of six to eight and like

232
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:53,600
you have to take all these supplements then you have the other side of the bell curve who's the

233
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:59,280
advanced guy I lift weights I eat a lot and I sleep yeah yeah it's like that's the journey honestly

234
00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:04,560
yeah and at the end of it like you'll still be interested in the research and I still use a lot

235
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:10,480
of the research like on what I do on my day-to-day life but like I know what's important what's not

236
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:15,360
important right yeah those big levers are gonna get you a lot farther yeah and try and optimize

237
00:21:15,360 --> 00:21:20,960
all the small things I was the smallest when I was like going to the gym and just trying to hit like

238
00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:26,240
one fiber on my rear delt like that was just not ideal what do you like a two inch movement

239
00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:32,080
it's just like no half reps are better now now everyone's doing half reps like our research study

240
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:36,640
comes out yeah everyone's doing partials that's that's usually how it goes dude one new research

241
00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:40,320
study comes out everyone hops on like oh this is the new big thing and then tiktok and instagram

242
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:44,400
are making that even they just make this so much worse that's what we're trying to change as well

243
00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:50,400
where we don't really believe that like influencers or anybody should be talking about the research

244
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:54,480
other than the research which I think or people who are educated on reading the research yeah if

245
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:59,360
they're if they're educated on reading the research that's great I do think now we're reaching a point

246
00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:03,840
where the technology is getting there where you can start to remove some of the bias behind the

247
00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:09,360
research and just base it completely on data right because like your favorite your favorite

248
00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:13,920
researcher your favorite influencer might be super biased to certain research that honestly probably

249
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:19,360
will help them right and companies do the same thing so we have this big like moral thing where

250
00:22:19,360 --> 00:22:23,760
we're like we are never going to talk about what these supplements do like it's just going to be

251
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:28,240
like the ai that that speaks on it like because it I don't want to be a company that's like oh

252
00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:32,480
take creativity and it's going to get you super jacked just to get more sales like people in my

253
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:39,440
opinion are going to buy more cld9 if like we have nothing to do with what the supplements do or say

254
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:43,920
or interact with your life like the data just speaks for them so that that needs to change like

255
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:49,200
I think it needs to completely progress to like influencers are just like talking about how they

256
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:54,480
do things but not trying to educate because I promise you one of these days as much as I

257
00:22:54,480 --> 00:23:00,160
hate ai ai was is is going to do a better job at educating your end consumer about health than

258
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:04,960
your influencer will because your influencer can't memorize five billion studies right neither can

259
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:10,000
your doctor by the way but I don't know that's kind of where I'm at the the whole supplement

260
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:15,600
thing with people funding their own research it just there's a creatine monohydrate which

261
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:20,000
is well studied everybody knows it works yeah but then you'll see all these other companies making

262
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:26,320
like creatine like poly hydrate or creatine whatever and they'll quote one study that's

263
00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:30,640
yeah it's more effective than creatine monohydrate and they funded it yeah and it's like they'll just

264
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:35,600
sell it at a huge amount of money off yeah yeah well the sub the way the supplement industry works

265
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:41,680
is the FDA basically says you can generally do anything you want with the marketing so if I

266
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:46,400
really wanted to I could probably convince people that vitamin c cures cancer and I could get away

267
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:50,880
with it like that's so stupid like as a tech guy like I look at that I'm like I want to stay the

268
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:55,920
crap away from the supplement industry because I'm like that just does not work like that just does

269
00:23:55,920 --> 00:24:02,080
not work whatsoever so yeah it is a very messed up industry which we are keeping a very big distance

270
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:07,840
from in terms of like how we do things like we don't even look at generally unless it's marketing

271
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:12,320
like in terms of visuals we don't really look at what other companies are doing because we're so

272
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:17,280
far removed from it yeah it's a more hands-off approach to letting the research and letting the

273
00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:21,920
ai tell people what to do it's not like I don't know exactly what's best for you yeah I have no

274
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:28,240
idea like me as the founder I have I will not tell you what you're supposed to take like don't rely

275
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:33,440
on me to tell you what what you're supposed to take take unbiased data on what you're supposed

276
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:38,960
to take and like also we don't really operate that much as like a sub like I said we don't

277
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:43,520
operate as a sub company like we really view ourselves more of like a platform and a service

278
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:50,000
where you kind of get exactly what you need and you get out if you don't need us anymore don't take

279
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,000
the product right but if you do need like if you go to your doctor and they're like you have a

280
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:59,120
vitamin b12 deficiency and like you have these deficiencies then we make it really easy for you

281
00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:04,080
to fix that problem and then once it's solved like maybe get off but if you don't want like if it's

282
00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:09,120
for like focus for example daily focus and you might stay on just what does cloud nine expand

283
00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:15,040
into the new tropics space or is that not there yet no everything we're everything um because like

284
00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:20,400
if we're gonna be like as personalized as possible we have to hold a pretty decent ingredient catalog

285
00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:24,480
so we have we have new tropics and we're gonna constantly expand this because the more we

286
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:28,480
expand our supplements the more we can expand our data pool and the more personalized it can

287
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:36,000
actually be right um yeah so what are some of the struggles you face right now being a young

288
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:43,040
startup founder in boulder colorado um i think it's my age a lot of the times and the fact that

289
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:47,440
like a kid like me like i'm 22 i should not be going through this much stress on a daily basis

290
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:54,720
like i just feel like overwhelmed because like my job as the ceo is trying to do the hardest thing

291
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:59,840
possible for a company that's this complicated and that's trying to change the industry this much

292
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:05,680
and i'm very young for that not in a bad way it's just like i'm very young to be taking this much

293
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:11,440
stress and the hardest problems the company is facing honestly i'd say it's it's figuring out

294
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:16,880
the marketing a little bit but like we generally know what we're doing we're not facing that many

295
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:22,320
problems right now like we know exactly what we need to do it's honestly like lack of funding

296
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:28,800
because the vc market is just crap right now um though we are getting funding um but and also

297
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:33,760
we just don't have that many people working on the team the where we are probably should have

298
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:41,520
taken 20 people working every single day and we made it work with four guys so now we're under

299
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:45,680
staff now that we're selling so just getting more people on here like having more people join the

300
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:50,320
team so i can focus on the things i need to and they my my other guys can focus on the stuff that

301
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:57,040
they're supposed to focus on we can outsource maybe like some stupid like integration stuff with the ai

302
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:02,880
right so yeah it's not the old problems we used to deal with yeah now it's the scale problem

303
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:09,280
yeah now it's a scale problem yeah it's a scale problem and just product market fit right because

304
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:13,520
we've only launched for a month and a half the product is there the product is perfect in my

305
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,840
opinion like it's it's gonna get there sorry it's not perfect but it's gonna get there now it's like

306
00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:24,160
figuring out how are we gonna market this to where we don't seem too broad and we don't seem too

307
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:28,480
niche because the product is literally built for any supplement that you would possibly want any

308
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:33,680
any outcome we have research on 60 year olds that would have hyperthyroidism and providing

309
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:40,000
them supplementation for that to like just guys that want to get jacked right so how do you market

310
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:45,280
that because it's an all-in-one solution we built the solution to fix the supplement industry which

311
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:49,680
means that we solve everyone's problems at the same time because we can because no one else could

312
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:56,640
do it so how do you market that yeah most companies start within a niche we're solving this one

313
00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:01,600
specific problem for one specific group of people but what you're doing is solving the whole

314
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:09,360
supplement problem for everyone yeah and in one centralized place right well the question is if

315
00:28:09,360 --> 00:28:15,360
for example you if you were doing a startup right and there was a problem that is as wide ranging

316
00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:23,840
like like servers just don't work and everyone's using servers right would you try to fix a silicon

317
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:30,080
chip inside the server or if you could you would just try to solve the entire problem at once

318
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:34,320
right and just be the only company that solves the entire problem and just fix all the servers in the

319
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:38,800
world that's a stupid example but that's that's what i thought about it's like all my startup

320
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:43,680
professors used to be like oh you need to focus on a niche focus on a very small problem i'm like

321
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:47,360
screw that that's why the startup ecosystem is getting worse because people need to focus on

322
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:52,000
bigger problems and people need to fund bigger problems that's my perspective on it i wanted to

323
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:58,080
solve a big problem and with time we will be able to market it correctly because if enough people

324
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:03,840
get their eyes on it then they'll be like oh okay easy but how do you how do you convince them of

325
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:09,840
that is is the road to navigate people like to keep things the same right it's a homeostasis they

326
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:15,360
like to keep the industries as they go so it's a very tough problem to solve what were things that

327
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:22,000
you faced early on in terms of fears limiting beliefs when you were coming into becoming an

328
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,880
entrepreneur what what kind of internal struggles were you facing there i think i kind of relate to

329
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:31,760
you because we've talked about this before where it's just like you think everything is a lot more

330
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:38,000
complicated than it actually is you have so much fear on damn if this goes to shit what do i do

331
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:44,000
with my life right most people don't put all their chips in one place and then also when you start

332
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,480
like everyone hates you for some reason like they don't want you to start in some capacity like most

333
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:53,040
of your friends like i i had a lot of issues where i lost so many friends along the way because

334
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:58,160
i was so zoned in on this right and they almost didn't like how quickly i was progressing i lost

335
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:03,040
a lot of friends that way because most people are just going the traditional route yeah i think the

336
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:10,960
hard thing there is if you're growing as a person and you're changing very very quickly your friends

337
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:15,520
weren't friends with the person you are now they're friends with the person you were before yeah so

338
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:20,640
eventually some friends are going to shed off yeah and in that in between you don't find the people

339
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:26,080
that are higher than you you can't get into those circles but the people who you're moving past

340
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:32,640
yeah are also kind of falling off so you're left in this lonelier less friends area where you're

341
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:38,080
trying to grow trying to make it big for sure and and even with the friends that want to see you

342
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:44,240
succeed like the biggest issue i had was i would live in a conference room inside university right

343
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:49,120
for like 18 hours a day and my whole job was trying to get to the nitty-gritty details of

344
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:53,920
everything being isolated in some aspect trying to build a product and then they expect you to be

345
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:58,320
really social when you're out of that situation when you've basically tried to force train your

346
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:03,280
brain to getting really good at the details of things so i struggle with that as well where i

347
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:09,680
went from you know i'd go weeks and just living in a conference room to trying to socialize again

348
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:14,960
and then i'd be like damn i totally forgot how to talk to people so that sucked in my opinion that's

349
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:21,440
like like i don't even think like like in hindsight like figuring out the problem building the solution

350
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:25,440
like that's not even the hardest part that's genuine it's genuinely like the emotional

351
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:32,640
execution yeah it's the execution and you have a responsibility to execute as efficiently and

352
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:38,160
as quick as possible to keep your company alive and all your emotions are tied to the company

353
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:43,360
and when the company goes to shit you feel like a dickhead like you feel like ass like you feel

354
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:47,200
terrible when the company goes to crap and then when the company's going really well you'll be

355
00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:51,360
really happy but then you're like i don't want to lose that so i need to be in perfect execution

356
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:55,760
mode and when you're in perfect execution mode you kind of lose friends so so there's a lot of

357
00:31:55,760 --> 00:32:02,160
sacrifices to be made there but it does force you to be a better person forces you to be the most

358
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:07,520
efficient version of yourself the smartest most efficient most put together version of yourself

359
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:12,240
not emotionally maybe but like in terms of the way you live your life um yeah i mean what were

360
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:16,560
your experiences with because you went through a startup as well i worked on a startup for 14

361
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:24,880
months it was a blockchain ticketing app for live events for concerts conferences etc and

362
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:33,360
and so one of the hardest things was balance right because you come in you're like oh i can

363
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:40,720
live a normal life and also do a startup right yeah but you have responsibilities with friends

364
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:45,280
responsibilities with family maybe you're trying to stay healthy you have all of these things going

365
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:55,120
on but then you have to get stuff done yeah so there's a huge conflict of things that make you

366
00:32:55,120 --> 00:33:01,280
maybe happy and fulfilled right now that you can't fully go into because to get stuff done i have to

367
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:09,600
be on 100 on the company right so i'm not even sure if it's possible to have a balance ideally

368
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:13,760
that would be the ideal thing is you can build a startup you work nine to five on your startup and

369
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:18,240
you have a normal life other than that it's not possible it's not even close to possible it's not

370
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:23,360
usually possible maybe eventually yeah but in those hard times when you're trying to get traction

371
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:28,000
trying to get funding trying to do those initial things to make somebody be like oh you have

372
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:33,360
something yeah and now we'll trust you will believe in you and now you cultivate a bit more balance

373
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:37,360
in your life yeah you do have to make those sacrifices i don't think you should make them

374
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:41,920
forever no i don't think you should make them forever maybe if you're like die like i'm a big

375
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:46,560
when i go into something i'm like 100 yeah and i've been like that my whole life the sacrifices

376
00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:50,640
are definitely probably the hardest part about entrepreneurship and a lot of the guys that are

377
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:55,120
in the company right now have had to make similar sacrifices and they they go through that system

378
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:59,200
that i originally went through where it's just like oh damn like your girlfriend's gonna be

379
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:04,800
mad at you if you are working like 14 hours a day and you don't call them right and you don't

380
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:10,720
really if you do it really young then you don't get to live a normal college run through and i do

381
00:34:10,720 --> 00:34:17,280
sometimes look back at it i'm like damn like all my friends were partying and they got to socialize

382
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:22,080
and they have such amazing friend groups they got to have girlfriends and stuff like that and i was

383
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:26,160
sitting in a conference room like the whole time but it's worth it it's i think it's worth because

384
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:30,800
i i really find the most amount of fulfillment in building things and i get fulfillment from

385
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:35,360
watching other people build things based on the company and the company gets to fund whatever

386
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:41,920
they want to build ultimately slowly you get all the stuff you missed yeah right i think you have

387
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:49,760
to have a line where something is asked of you that goes too far and you know where that's no

388
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:53,840
i can't do that so i was talking with david brown and one of the things he said was yeah i worked

389
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:57,840
hard on the business but i was always getting eight to nine hours of sleep every single day

390
00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:03,360
yeah like that was he was going to do that i operate better i feel better i have better

391
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:08,080
relationships i get eight nine hours of sleep i don't care yeah i'm going to do that right yeah

392
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:13,760
and so having those boundaries and not letting something completely take over and then maybe

393
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:18,800
ten years down the line you have a successful company and you're horribly unhappy yes yeah and

394
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:23,440
i'm still learning to draw that line i mean he's completely right about that when it's like you

395
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:28,880
you got to make sure like your health and your sleep is good and i sacrifice the crap out of

396
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:33,440
that like i just threw that at the window for like the first and still i mean i still kind of do some

397
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:39,360
sometimes that's why i'm still learning how to do it but yeah that's that's a good line to to live

398
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:43,840
by and that's what i'm trying to learn learn how to do because i've gone through like weeks where

399
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:50,320
it's just like oh who needs food who needs sleep and then i come out of the week i'm like damn i

400
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:55,440
feel like i'm on the brink of death and now i need to go back to washington and take a break for a week

401
00:35:55,440 --> 00:36:00,240
like imagine if you could just stay you want to like have that threshold and try to get as close

402
00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:06,240
to like unhealthy as possible with maximum efficiency but never you know don't go past the

403
00:36:06,240 --> 00:36:10,560
line don't go past the line because the second you go past the line you'll crash that's where

404
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:16,400
burnout comes from right yeah you see high achievers you see you see michael jordan you see all these

405
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:23,920
people have done amazing things it's really easy to idolize everything they've done but then you

406
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:29,600
actually take a look at it and it's like no they've sacrificed literally every single possible thing

407
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:37,040
in their life yeah to be really really really really good at this one thing yeah and that's

408
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:42,000
probably not the life most people want to live no like you want to have some semblance of

409
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:47,280
happiness in other areas of your life most yeah most people would and those people are built

410
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:52,640
completely differently exactly they're still very admirable for becoming so good at that one thing

411
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:59,040
but it's easy to idolize them but it's important to remember what the cost of doing something like

412
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:03,600
that is yeah i mean i don't know i'm kind of on the i'm i'm a little bit on their side because

413
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:08,720
i care less about like i'm a very objective oriented person and i've talked about this

414
00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:14,240
like on a different podcast before as well but i kind of view the world as there's happiness

415
00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:20,000
oriented people and there's objective oriented people right um and i would prefer if most people

416
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:25,040
picked one because the people that stick in the middle that like want to have a balance generally

417
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:32,320
fail at both and i picked objective because i just internally think i have a purpose to to go to a

418
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:36,720
certain direction and i know people that are happiness oriented and they're very happy like

419
00:37:36,720 --> 00:37:42,080
they're great they surround their entire lives and structure their lives around happiness for me i'm

420
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:46,640
okay with making those sacrifices because i just want to get there like i literally just want to

421
00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,560
get there like that's all that matters like i want to get to the end objective even if that means

422
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:55,520
sacrificing happiness even if that means structuring everything around this one thing which i've done so

423
00:37:55,520 --> 00:38:03,040
far um and i've like the problems have come with it but it's worth it in my opinion like it's worth

424
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:07,360
every single second of it and i felt that during fitness as well like when i went through my fitness

425
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:14,240
like journey and i still feel it to this day where no like focus on one thing and when i when the

426
00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:20,400
time will come to be happy i will structure my life around happiness i just don't i know i have

427
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:26,160
a life purpose and i want to like get there as efficiently as possible yeah i have time i've i

428
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:31,280
have time constraints on myself as well really i think you have seasons you have like the seasons

429
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:36,320
in your life where maybe you do give up some things and you go harder than anyone else and then you

430
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:42,720
oh i did what i wanted to do okay now i i can focus more on happiness maybe on my friendships

431
00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:49,520
maybe on these things yes but if your whole life is just one season not ideally because you do have

432
00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:54,320
an objective you hit that objective you're like okay good you don't continue following the path

433
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:59,120
of giving up everything yeah keep raising the bar because it's really easy to play that game where

434
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:04,240
you just keep upping the bar and you there is no bar yeah exactly like there's there's it's always

435
00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:07,760
going to keep going your bar is whatever you set for yourself i want to hit this objective yeah

436
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:13,920
okay good i hit it yeah i did what i wanted to do and sure i can set another objective but maybe now

437
00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:18,400
i do want to focus on maybe starting a family maybe doing this yeah i mean that's definitely

438
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:23,200
a healthy way of thinking i'm not sure if i'm there yet i'm like there's no there's no limit

439
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:31,120
in the sky like i want to like try to just do what my objective in life is to try to do what luck

440
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:37,280
says i generally can't do i want to try to defy luck to the maximum possible potential are you

441
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:44,000
is your purpose as a human to experience humanity to its fullest or to try to progress it and devote

442
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:48,480
yourself to progressing humanity in some capacity because if you're here to experience humanity then

443
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:52,560
you're gonna like go through college and you're gonna try to just experience everything right

444
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,480
you're gonna go you're gonna go abroad for two months or you're gonna quit your job for a year

445
00:39:56,480 --> 00:40:01,040
like you're gonna do this and i support that and then you have those people that are like okay i'm

446
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:06,320
here just to progress humanity then you need to devote yourself to that and i'd say i'm heavily

447
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:11,200
on one side which i don't find a lot of people are these days i've met a couple people in my life

448
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:16,400
that are similar and a lot of ceos that get to that point are similar but i don't see them on

449
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:22,400
a day-to-day basis so that is also very isolating very very isolating not a lot of people at this

450
00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:27,840
age think that way it's a lonely path to go down yeah when not you're basically doing what nobody

451
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:32,640
else is doing so you're not going to find many people who understand what you're doing for sure

452
00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:37,680
and i definitely envy the other side and look at it through a glass window but yeah what are your

453
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:45,520
your friendships like right now how has that changed since you started i've gone through periods

454
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:49,440
where i had a lot of friends like when the startup was doing really like when we won nvc and we went

455
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:54,080
through the successes like you know you go through those periods where everyone wants to do with you

456
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:58,720
like everyone wants a meeting with you everyone's a friend with you my closest friends i have a very

457
00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:04,240
small group of friends i have maybe three very close friends two of them i grew up with that i'm

458
00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:10,080
heavily inspired by and i have a couple friends in boulder as well and they understand my lifestyle

459
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:14,080
that's the best part like i'm very close friends with the people that understand like we understand

460
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:18,480
each other and we try to make each other feel i'm not friends with that many people that are heavily

461
00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:23,600
involved in my lifestyle i like the contrast because my main objective with a lot of my friends

462
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:28,880
is like i want to not think about the startup at all i'm here to like not think i want to turn my

463
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:32,880
brain off i want to just hang out with you guys like have fun i have like three four very close

464
00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:37,120
friends and then obviously you have you have those acquaintances if you're in a similar position to

465
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:41,760
mine where you have hundreds of thousands of acquaintances on the day-to-day basis and i've

466
00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:46,160
gone to a point where i have to pick and choose my friends very wisely so i keep the circle

467
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:52,880
pretty small how are you choosing them um i kind of just have one criteria like do they either

468
00:41:52,880 --> 00:42:00,560
make me want to be a better person um and do they like kind of i don't know do they make me feel

469
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:05,600
better generally right and the the first one is more important like if i'm talking to one of my

470
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:11,600
friends like am i genuinely inspired by them i might not talk to you every single day i might

471
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:16,960
only talk to you every three months i still consider you my closest friend because every time we talk

472
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:21,600
my perspective in the world like significantly changes and i have like one or two of those

473
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:26,560
friends where they're very high level guys that i'll go to washington and we'll just hang out in

474
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:31,120
like one of their houses and we'll try to predict the next five years of what the world is going to

475
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:37,280
look like and we'll take both of our perspectives and then we'll come out and be like damn like i

476
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:41,760
knew about that i knew everything about that's going on with ai right now five years ago from

477
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:47,280
one guy you know so like i kind of saw it coming that that i view him as one of my closest friends

478
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:51,760
because he inspired the crap out of me and how did you find these friends that inspire you to be

479
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:56,800
better where are you finding them just luck i would say and it's also what we talked about earlier

480
00:42:56,800 --> 00:43:01,520
if you your parents sacrificed so much to put yourself put you in the right position i went

481
00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:07,360
to a school where there were a lot of smart people that had very high standards for themselves and my

482
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:10,560
friends should have very high standards for themselves unless they're just like a friend i

483
00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:14,720
want to party with um those are two different friends you have drinking friends and yeah friend

484
00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:20,240
friends yeah yeah what about you what do you base your your friends off of not that most people

485
00:43:20,240 --> 00:43:25,120
should be having like a checklist on their friends like it should be generally natural

486
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:29,360
they're friends at last yeah like there's probably there's friends that even if you don't see them

487
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:34,640
for two years you're like see them again you're like it's exactly the same right whenever i meet

488
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:40,480
someone and i see something in them that inspires me i see a character trait of them yes that i

489
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:45,520
would want to have like oh you're really really good at that thing maybe like other parts of them

490
00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:50,320
don't click as well with me but i admire this so much about you yes and i find that in them

491
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:55,440
i want to be this person's friends and i'll try to be their friend and that's how most of my

492
00:43:56,160 --> 00:44:00,240
best friendships have come about is i was inspired or admired something about a person

493
00:44:00,240 --> 00:44:04,880
yeah and i want to learn from them so i'm gonna be their friend yeah no that's that's exact i

494
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:10,000
would say that's how i got better my whole life at anything yeah i copy people yeah just like i

495
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:13,600
literally like forced myself to be constantly surrounded by them when i first started the

496
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:18,080
entrepreneurship journey i was like what am i doing one of my friends or now he's my friend but i just

497
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:23,040
saw this dude like named bruce and he would just be grinding away and i was like i like his work

498
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:29,760
ethic i want to be that work ethic so i was just like dude i'm just gonna like live around you for

499
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:34,240
the next year that's what i did like it changed my life but now he's one of my closest friends but

500
00:44:34,240 --> 00:44:39,680
it's because i admired that work ethic day in and day out 12 hours in a conference room and maybe

501
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:43,440
that's not what it takes all the time but i was just like holy shit you can do that you can work

502
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:48,400
you can work he knows how to work yeah bro knows how to work and then i've been inspired by another

503
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:55,360
friend of mine he is so unbelievably good at seeing the big picture and predicting the future

504
00:44:55,360 --> 00:45:01,520
he also is very technically skilled probably the smartest person i've met he was big in ai basically

505
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:07,280
he's he's one of the ai overlords so heavily inspired by him because of his ability to see

506
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:11,680
the future that's very important in entrepreneurship you need to be able to see the future you're not

507
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:15,200
building today's products you're building the products that people are going to want in a year

508
00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:19,600
that's how you're going to build the next billion dollar company i admire that about him him combined

509
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:24,080
with my friend with amazing work ethic is really what built me i think i heard the quote when i was

510
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:29,040
like 15 where you're the sum of the five people you're around yeah i took it way too seriously

511
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:34,480
yeah that's just how all my friends came to me i surround myself with people that have something

512
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:39,760
i want to be like i'll just by diffusion become more like that and so far it's worked what would

513
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:44,080
you say you're the character trait you're trying to look for now in yourself that you're trying to

514
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:53,280
improve being unapologetic in everything you do because i've always been a people pleaser

515
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:59,280
so it it's always been a challenge for me to kind of go up against confrontation to be like no that's

516
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:04,800
wrong i don't want you to do that and confronting people in a way that makes them like me less and

517
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:10,880
i'm no longer pleasing them and so that's something i've been focused on for the past year and i've

518
00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:16,080
made quite a bit of progress on it hanging around people who do do that and seeing how they do it

519
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:21,280
yeah and then taking cues from those things yeah it's just something that's plagued me my whole

520
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:26,240
life is being a people pleaser dude yeah i guess it might come from the childhood stuff we talked

521
00:46:26,240 --> 00:46:32,320
about being kind of a little bit on the outside trying to fit in trying to be like these other

522
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:39,040
people that i didn't see myself as part of so it was a way that i learned to adapt if i'm likable

523
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:44,000
and i'm agreeable people like me and then i fit in and then i don't have any issues and so it's

524
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:49,520
relearning that neural pathway of how i interact with the world yeah it's valid and and you don't

525
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:53,040
want to be friends with people breezers and you don't want to be a people pleaser yourself

526
00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:59,520
generally people are more attracted to like even if it's the wrong thing people that are like

527
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:06,080
stick to their word what would you do differently if you could get rid of some of the fear that

528
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:11,280
maybe you have inside of you what would i do right now well yeah i think that's the that's the trait

529
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:18,000
i'm looking for now is execution speed like i am trying to get to a point where i execute on things

530
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:23,600
as quickly as possible you know that you know that period when you're like i want to do this and then

531
00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:30,560
actually doing it yeah the most successful and the most i view this also as a trait of intelligence

532
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:37,280
is um closing that gap yeah like it should be instantaneous so it's not really fear like i'm

533
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:43,600
not scared of doing things maybe it's a mix of fear and laziness not that i'm a very lazy person

534
00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:49,600
but like internal brain laziness i'm trying to remove that that is what's going to take personally

535
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:56,800
me and the company to really amazing heights oh we have this amazing idea let's execute on it today

536
00:47:56,800 --> 00:48:02,560
get it out tomorrow because i've i've seen the most amount of success from people i really admire

537
00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:08,240
that's what they do that's what my dad does as well like he can he can literally be like we're

538
00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:13,440
going to do this and to most people it will seem like the hardest thing in the world and he'll just

539
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:19,040
be like no we're just going to do it learn it in a week get get it done and it will create value like

540
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:24,400
like this and most people are like damn how do you build a billion dollar company

541
00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:29,440
but it's with people like that it's like people that just like are like okay we need to build

542
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:35,280
we need to build a camera from scratch damn that's going to take four years like no it's not it's

543
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:39,040
going to take a week of learning and we're going to start building it we're going to iterate on it

544
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:42,800
but we're going to do it fast we're not going to let our thoughts get in the way it's all about

545
00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:49,360
execution and me as the ceo that that's the biggest risk of the company failing is if i get worse at

546
00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:54,480
execution speed or if i stay at a terrible execution speed yeah what do you think stops you

547
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:59,840
from executing faster like what what what things are you kind of fighting in that space between

548
00:49:00,560 --> 00:49:07,920
oh i should do this i'm doing it well i think it's experience mostly i think that's the number one

549
00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:13,200
thing is experience and i think when somebody calls themselves experienced at say like i'm really

550
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:18,000
experienced at building tables the first time i'm going to build a table i'm going to really try to

551
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:22,400
think through it instead of try to build it right and then if i've built tables my whole life then

552
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:28,240
i'm going to build it like this so um and then trying to get experienced as quickly as possible

553
00:49:28,240 --> 00:49:34,000
one of the biggest successes i got in execution speed was when the company was going to die if

554
00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:40,000
we didn't release the product and when we were at that life and death situation i had robotics work

555
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:46,000
constantly and i had ai work constantly i don't have a formal degree in either of them and i was

556
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:52,960
forced and my my whole team including jackson was forced to get to the highest expert level that you

557
00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:58,880
possibly can get to and some of these subjects as quickly as possible or the company dies

558
00:49:58,880 --> 00:50:04,160
now we're on the other side we need to get better at whatever we did there and we are yeah i would

559
00:50:04,160 --> 00:50:08,480
say experience is the biggest thing and trying to get experience as quickly as possible and then

560
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:13,600
also time allocation is a big thing i'm learning right now what do i need to delegate and when i do

561
00:50:13,600 --> 00:50:20,160
spend my time is this the best use of my time to move the company as forward as i need it to be

562
00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:23,920
right so like this week has all been about like a new software update that we're doing

563
00:50:23,920 --> 00:50:29,760
and also building out the second version of our machine right so how am i going to allocate my

564
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:35,360
time and how do i make the people around me execute faster as well that's also a big job

565
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:42,400
of the ceo where you need to create an environment where everyone else's execution speed is as fast

566
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:47,840
as possible as well and you need to build a culture around having really fast execution speed and when

567
00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:52,560
i mean execution speed i also don't mean like oh just like dilly dally stuff and just go to the

568
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:58,160
like dilly dally stuff and just like get shitty work done like i'm still talking about highest

569
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:04,720
quality possible work but executing on that as quickly as possible yeah yeah i think i was

570
00:51:04,720 --> 00:51:09,200
watching a youtube video the other day where this entrepreneur was giving advice and he was saying

571
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:17,120
number one thing he ever learned was do an adequate job in an inadequate amount of time yeah and that's

572
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:21,680
the secret to execution yeah you have a time crunch and you're still going to do an adequate job

573
00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:27,200
it doesn't have to be perfect but you have to do an adequate job yes and you and people will be

574
00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:33,920
really surprised on how much work you can really get done like there's i have this thing in my

575
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:39,440
brain where i know there's a frequency there that sometimes i can hit where i can just get shit done

576
00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:43,280
but it doesn't usually last that long and i've only hit it a couple times throughout my life

577
00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:48,080
and when i hit that frequency it's just like i just got done what i was supposed to get done in

578
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:57,440
a year in a week i need to get back to that like as quickly as possible and and the people i try to

579
00:51:57,440 --> 00:52:02,800
keep myself away from as much as possible are the ones that restrict themselves on like oh no it's

580
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:08,000
going to take me three years to get there i like no i can you know these people are so much smarter

581
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:13,600
than me like i can't do that i'm like biologically there's not that many differences between you and

582
00:52:13,600 --> 00:52:21,440
i right like okay like one person might have better endurance in running but it's not that big that as

583
00:52:21,440 --> 00:52:26,640
much as people think like elon musk is not that much smarter it's just how he built his life that

584
00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:32,720
made him smarter but biologically he's not there so if anybody can do it you can do it that's how i

585
00:52:32,720 --> 00:52:37,920
kind of think the biggest thing too is there's so many people that don't execute yeah that even let's

586
00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:42,400
say all these people are smarter than you but where they will they execute as fast as you will

587
00:52:42,400 --> 00:52:47,200
will they fail and learn in that fast iterative cycle as fast as you will you might not be that

588
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:54,640
smart yeah but if you can go in execute fail execute fail really really fast yeah you're going

589
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:59,840
to be so far ahead were you a technical founder or were you the business side of things it was the

590
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:06,320
ceo so i was business side of things but i'm technical as well because i was going to say like

591
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:13,600
i noticed with really smart technical guys they the the execution speed does get reduced by a lot

592
00:53:13,600 --> 00:53:18,080
because you focus too much on the technicalities and you don't understand like i've noticed a lot

593
00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:22,720
of the technical guys i've worked with is that we'll spend too much time on the technicals

594
00:53:22,720 --> 00:53:27,040
and then we'll like literally come short of the actual goal yeah that was one of the things that

595
00:53:27,040 --> 00:53:34,080
i had to learn not letting the perfection of engineering something get in the way of

596
00:53:34,080 --> 00:53:38,720
executing and it's actually quite difficult when you like to build something yes and you want it

597
00:53:38,720 --> 00:53:43,120
to be really really good oh i have this great idea it's i'm going to build this awesome product and

598
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:49,600
you have a vision of what it's going to look like and you can't build it perfectly yeah you can't

599
00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:54,080
yeah if you want to deliver something in a timeline you will never build it perfectly you can always

600
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:59,360
find a way to make it better to make it better to make it better you get stuck there you you have to

601
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:05,440
learn that skill if you're a technical founder yes and also a lot of the times if you are like a

602
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:11,760
first-time founder and you are kind of on the technical side then it's more fun to build the

603
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:17,600
thing than sell it in the beginning because there's a fear of selling as well when you first launch

604
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:23,200
you're like you are still going into the dark where you're like it's more fun going through

605
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:27,840
like really shitty dev cycles and trying to figure this out there's definitely that fear as well

606
00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:32,560
which i think i've eliminated and i want to continue to eliminate as much as possible

607
00:54:32,560 --> 00:54:38,080
learning to sell is hard dude dude i know just we're doing a good job at it but like it was hard

608
00:54:38,080 --> 00:54:44,800
it's hard like that is the number one skill that will take you so much farther yeah but it has a

609
00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:49,760
huge learning curve at the beginning yeah like you go outside and you're like why am i i'm gonna ask

610
00:54:49,760 --> 00:54:54,880
them to give me money yeah why would they give me money yeah and it's hard like oh you want to

611
00:54:54,880 --> 00:55:01,120
look at my demo no why do i want to look at your demo having all these asks to people can feel like

612
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:08,560
you're demanding things but ultimately it comes along with if you're obsessed with this problem

613
00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:13,680
and you know that your solution is going to be good even if it's not good yet then you don't have to

614
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:18,480
worry about oh i'm asking too much if i have a million dollars behind my back and i'm like

615
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:22,800
yo kushan can i give you something i'm not gonna be scared to ask that question bro i have to give

616
00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:28,480
you something like i'm excited to show you this because i believe so much in it and i think that's

617
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:35,600
one of the things that stops founders that don't have this passion or obsession behind what they're

618
00:55:35,600 --> 00:55:40,400
building is they won't be able to sell like that they won't believe in it so much that they don't

619
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:45,120
have a problem with going out and asking people yeah and also the problem does have to be really

620
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:48,880
important as well if you are going to be selling to people like i see so many technical founders

621
00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:52,960
that just build stuff thinking that it's going to work out because it's cool why are you building

622
00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:56,880
this really cool thing if it only matters to three people in the world that aren't going to pay for

623
00:55:56,880 --> 00:56:01,360
it you have to build really cool things for really important problems it has to solve a problem it

624
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:08,640
has to solve the problem i know and i see so many startups oh we're building a an ai something ai

625
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:17,920
building gmail with ai yeah like ai gmail and i'm like okay do i need that though in my life yeah

626
00:56:17,920 --> 00:56:22,160
what problem are you solving if i really did need that then you would probably have to make the

627
00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:26,640
problem for me first so that you could sell it back to me that it wouldn't be like fully like

628
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:31,840
you're trying to solve a human problem that's where like i hate it when all the vcs are too scared to

629
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:38,320
try to invest in big problems like they're they they would rather invest in a really well-rounded

630
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:44,560
technical solution to something that doesn't even exist then big problems maybe i'm just better

631
00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:51,360
because of vcs and invested in like they won't invest in me man i know god damn it we're way more

632
00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:56,320
technical than any other like like e-commerce company so it's like the e-commerce guys are

633
00:56:56,320 --> 00:57:00,800
just like no we don't give a shit about what product you're selling i need two to three

634
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:06,400
million in revenue before i invest anything and then the technical side of it it's like oh you

635
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:09,840
aren't going to get sales for seven years you don't know whether the customer is going to buy the

636
00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:14,320
products but you need 50 million dollars to do rnd for the next seven years all right here you go

637
00:57:14,320 --> 00:57:19,200
and i met like i've met like crazy like entrepreneurs that have had gone through that

638
00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:26,400
and that's also what's creating the vc bubble right now why do you expect agi from pre-trained

639
00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:32,080
transformers no it's it's literally like you limit it's like i don't even know how to explain it it's

640
00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:36,640
like the math problem's already already been solved it's literally a math problem that's already been

641
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:42,560
solved and it's so bad at reasoning it's not built to reason so you need to start from the ground up

642
00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:50,720
from the technicals based on what your goal is like their goal with most let's call it ai was

643
00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:56,320
to build these statistical probability machines and they did a great job at doing that and then

644
00:57:56,320 --> 00:58:01,280
they noticed like oh my god if we like train it on a bunch of words it kind of sounds like a human

645
00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:06,640
and then now they're calling it ai but if we just take the text prediction algorithm yeah we take

646
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:14,960
that and we apply it to every single possible piece of data that a human experiences in every

647
00:58:14,960 --> 00:58:21,920
mode of experiencing we take oh physical experience i feel something we take the experience of an

648
00:58:21,920 --> 00:58:27,600
emotion we take all these different data points yeah and then we try to predict then that's what

649
00:58:27,600 --> 00:58:33,440
we are is it do a better job at it though we're a predicting machine off of every single stimulus

650
00:58:33,440 --> 00:58:39,360
we ever experienced that's how we make our thoughts i wouldn't say that because i that's

651
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:45,600
what i used to think when i first started ai and then i'm in a different state now where yes like

652
00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:50,480
we are predicted machines we're heavily based on like um like what we experience on a day-to-day

653
00:58:50,480 --> 00:58:55,360
basis let's say text prediction can do that or even image prediction then let's say you create

654
00:58:55,360 --> 00:59:01,520
this big multimodal thing that can do that ultimately the the pure form of like consciousness

655
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:06,320
is not a prediction system we have no idea what it is yeah so you have to start with building the

656
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:12,240
medium of consciousness and then observing what consciousness looks like then it will be useful

657
00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:16,240
but they haven't even started with any of the research that's that's gonna happen yeah i mean

658
00:59:16,240 --> 00:59:21,440
i don't want to reveal all my secret plans by ten year vision but like yeah it has a lot to do with

659
00:59:21,440 --> 00:59:28,320
that there's a lot to do with that i want to try to build out many neural structures i i shouldn't

660
00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:34,080
even be speaking on this i i can't have a camera like but it's gonna be cool yeah that's that's

661
00:59:34,080 --> 00:59:37,360
that's what it needs to be it needs to be trying to understand what the medium of

662
00:59:37,360 --> 00:59:42,560
consciousness is and then build the technology off of it and i do believe that we will be able to

663
00:59:43,280 --> 00:59:51,200
replicate um consciousness on a computer one day are you collaborating with anyone on the research

664
00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:58,240
side of things for the the consciousness agi um well yeah obviously jackson yeah because he does

665
00:59:58,800 --> 01:00:04,560
like the actual like integration of it it's mostly like the ethical dilemma of whether we want to do

666
01:00:04,560 --> 01:00:08,240
this or not and that's less about because i know for a fact i could probably do it you should watch

667
01:00:08,240 --> 01:00:14,400
the video ai dilemma i will because i honestly these days i'm less in a dilemma of oh is this

668
01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:18,640
going to be possible i already have a path laid out on how we can get there it's like whether i

669
01:00:18,640 --> 01:00:25,120
want to do it or not because based on my prediction if agi happens there's going to be a lot of suicide

670
01:00:25,120 --> 01:00:30,720
like a significant amount of suicide i might just build it just to see if i can and see what it

671
01:00:30,720 --> 01:00:35,280
looks like and then throw it in the trash like that maybe that's what the question is for a lot

672
01:00:35,280 --> 01:00:42,320
of ai researchers yeah is should we build this not can we yeah but i also hate the hype around it and

673
01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:47,120
there's so much politics around ai now just too much marketing hype yeah the hype is like it's

674
01:00:47,120 --> 01:00:52,400
going to take all the jobs it's going to make text prediction will not take your job but even if it

675
01:00:52,400 --> 01:00:56,720
did there would be like a one-year period where it takes all the jobs and then it's so good that it

676
01:00:56,720 --> 01:01:01,920
can actually just do everything for you yeah and there's no need for jobs there's ubi everyone can

677
01:01:01,920 --> 01:01:06,320
just actually just live and it does all the manual labor all this stuff they can just think be

678
01:01:06,320 --> 01:01:10,640
creative all these things like people what people want to do yeah i think we actually will get close

679
01:01:10,640 --> 01:01:14,480
to that with the current like statistical prediction algorithms i think we could do we

680
01:01:14,480 --> 01:01:18,960
can get a good chunk of that where it replaces a lot of things it's not what the things that they

681
01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:23,040
are marketing as it's not what they're saying they're trying to do it's going to be the small

682
01:01:23,040 --> 01:01:28,960
stuff we're going to automate we're going to create robotics that know how to build entire houses

683
01:01:28,960 --> 01:01:33,840
without any human intervention with just uploading like a schema that's what it's going to be it's

684
01:01:33,840 --> 01:01:38,960
not going to be like oh we're going to build ai god not with this i think it'd be so funny to

685
01:01:38,960 --> 01:01:45,040
watch what like people that look smart think about but that's like actually really stupid be like

686
01:01:45,040 --> 01:01:51,680
damn did i put my contacts in yesterday oh never mind i have glasses i have

687
01:01:52,720 --> 01:01:57,680
someone's like holy shit that dude's like probably really smart bro there's the opposite i look like a

688
01:01:57,680 --> 01:02:01,680
fucking dick like i just look so stupid bro that's the problem with getting jacked dude everyone's

689
01:02:01,680 --> 01:02:06,880
gonna think you're stupid no they do just because you have muscles on you yeah well also like it's

690
01:02:06,880 --> 01:02:12,720
like the meathead stereotype you're like a bimbo or what's it a himbo yes a himbo yeah if you were

691
01:02:12,720 --> 01:02:17,760
taller you'd be a himbo i think oh what a himbo you've never heard that one so a himbo is what

692
01:02:17,760 --> 01:02:24,160
girls call guys who are like tall and like jacked but they're like stupid oh shit yeah it's like the

693
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:30,320
meathead basically is a himbo damn you can't have both though tall and jacked you can't be tall

694
01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:34,400
jacked and smart just doesn't work out yeah so if you're tall and jacked you're gonna be stupid

695
01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:38,240
thank god i got fucking nerfed bro thank god you wouldn't be able to do a business dude i would

696
01:02:38,240 --> 01:02:44,560
hate i would hate being super tall that would suck the reason i like going on dates is because

697
01:02:44,560 --> 01:02:51,280
i'd like to look at like whatever their perspective of their life is because it's so different like i

698
01:02:51,280 --> 01:02:54,800
like to turn my brain off and just like live through their lives for a little bit it always

699
01:02:54,800 --> 01:03:01,680
ends up working out because 90 percent of time like we're talking so much right now if you can

700
01:03:01,680 --> 01:03:07,200
just turn off your brain like listen to a podcast hear someone else talk it's better same with the

701
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:11,680
date so it always works out with girls when when they're like oh my god i love talking that makes

702
01:03:11,680 --> 01:03:18,240
it easy for me exactly all i'd do is see if you're not intent yeah i mean i always ruin things by

703
01:03:18,240 --> 01:03:24,160
talking more so these days i've just been like no i'm just here for the mysterious vibe you can

704
01:03:24,160 --> 01:03:30,320
you can tell me all about your life i will be extremely interested if you just did that in

705
01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:35,200
almost every interaction you had with another person everyone would be like this guy's so awesome

706
01:03:35,200 --> 01:03:39,120
and you've never said a single thing about yourself how is he so cool and you're just like

707
01:03:39,120 --> 01:03:43,120
yeah i sat there and i listened to you well i want to do more of that that's also a trait i'm

708
01:03:43,120 --> 01:03:48,240
trying to be better at it's just like listening to people and not trying to insert myself into

709
01:03:48,240 --> 01:03:53,600
anything the the people i've hated the most in my life are the ones that insert their own lives into

710
01:03:53,600 --> 01:04:00,640
like everything in every conversation like i do this no what is the topic at hand like do you really

711
01:04:00,640 --> 01:04:04,800
have anything to do with the topic at hand do you have to insert yourself into everything like maybe

712
01:04:04,800 --> 01:04:11,280
it doesn't have to be about you in every conversation which is what most people like don't realize

713
01:04:11,280 --> 01:04:16,000
it's the classic dale carnegie you know uh that book how to win friends and influence people

714
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:21,760
really fucking old book like 1900s like one of the biggest things that he gives is like just listen

715
01:04:21,760 --> 01:04:26,960
to people stop talking about yourself just sit there ask questions and listen intently and that

716
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:31,840
will make you friends yeah and the law of mystery really does work the less people know about you

717
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:39,040
they're much more likely to idolize and really admire you for not much of a reason as long as

718
01:04:39,040 --> 01:04:44,160
you expose only the good things and you choose very carefully what you expose about yourself

719
01:04:44,160 --> 01:04:48,800
that's a very closed way of living but if you have a certain objective where you want to move

720
01:04:48,800 --> 01:04:53,680
up a social ladder like that's definitely the best way to do it just be as mysterious as possible

721
01:04:53,680 --> 01:04:58,960
put yourself in every social situation as possible but like you don't don't reveal too much about

722
01:04:58,960 --> 01:05:03,920
yourself you know and like just listen to people because people like being heard what is your dating

723
01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:10,720
life like as an entrepreneur it's fucking non-existent oh no why is that you don't have

724
01:05:10,720 --> 01:05:16,400
time and a lot of women don't really understand that i can't i will not be able to pick up a

725
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:21,680
phone call in the middle of the day i can't go on dates every single day as as much as i was as i

726
01:05:21,680 --> 01:05:28,640
used to so i love going on first dates because i really still want to be exposed to the dating

727
01:05:28,640 --> 01:05:33,920
world and listen to other people's perspective i just can't most people don't want to be dating

728
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:37,840
an entrepreneur people are like oh my god that's so cool do they really want to date an entrepreneur

729
01:05:37,840 --> 01:05:43,520
like it's a lot of commitment i think the best relationships i've had while i was doing this was

730
01:05:43,520 --> 01:05:47,920
when like the girl understood what my lifestyle looks like it's like they need to understand like

731
01:05:47,920 --> 01:05:52,080
hey i might not talk to you for a full week at a time it doesn't mean that i don't like you but

732
01:05:52,640 --> 01:05:57,120
there's just priorities most people can't get that unfortunately what about you what's your

733
01:05:57,120 --> 01:06:02,080
dating life been like as an entrepreneur while i was working on the business it was pretty

734
01:06:03,040 --> 01:06:09,280
so so yeah i wasn't going on a ton of dates right now it's not horrible go on dates occasionally

735
01:06:09,280 --> 01:06:14,720
but i don't i'm not a big fan of any dating apps i like to meet people in person get to know them

736
01:06:14,720 --> 01:06:21,200
yeah be face to face so it's harder to find people that way you find less people but yeah the culture

737
01:06:21,200 --> 01:06:27,040
isn't really built around that anymore it's way more enjoyable yes way more enjoyable and like

738
01:06:27,040 --> 01:06:30,400
what's the point of dating as well it depends on what the point is like if you're trying to

739
01:06:30,400 --> 01:06:34,720
find your life partner then like you're really going to enjoy those conversations like in person

740
01:06:34,720 --> 01:06:40,320
you know and then if you're just trying to find something fun then it's gonna be significantly

741
01:06:40,320 --> 01:06:45,040
different and then maybe the dating apps will be useful i was talking to eddie and he was talking

742
01:06:45,040 --> 01:06:49,920
about how he doesn't really he's like oh i don't have time for stuff and he and we were like oh

743
01:06:49,920 --> 01:06:56,080
then how do you find dates and he's like i do the approach in person method and it's very admirable

744
01:06:56,080 --> 01:07:00,640
to see people still doing that like how many dudes do you know who actually in the middle of the day

745
01:07:00,640 --> 01:07:06,480
go up to someone and they're like oh i wanted to meet you you were pretty yes like how many dudes

746
01:07:06,480 --> 01:07:10,880
actually have the balls to do that these days yeah i used to be better at that when i was surrounded

747
01:07:10,880 --> 01:07:15,680
with my friend bruce like he was so good at that where he would just be like oh that girl's kind of

748
01:07:15,680 --> 01:07:19,840
cute let me go talk to her that person's like pretty admirable let me go talk to them that's

749
01:07:19,840 --> 01:07:25,440
the trait i want to be better at um that's awesome though it doesn't matter what happens you don't

750
01:07:25,440 --> 01:07:29,040
care about the outcome i'm gonna strike up a conversation with someone because i want to

751
01:07:29,040 --> 01:07:34,080
yeah if it doesn't go anywhere i don't care that's a great perspective because i'm always like i

752
01:07:34,080 --> 01:07:38,160
always only care about the outcome most of the time and then you get hyper fixated on that and

753
01:07:38,160 --> 01:07:43,520
then you get so nervous when it comes to social situations just learning how to follow your

754
01:07:43,520 --> 01:07:49,360
intuition follow your intuition just do it and i've gotten lazy with it where my method is just trying

755
01:07:49,360 --> 01:07:54,720
to be like if i'm like known for doing something most of the time people just walk up to me like

756
01:07:54,720 --> 01:07:59,120
when i was like pretty heavily into fitness like people know me from my instagram and they just

757
01:07:59,120 --> 01:08:03,680
like walk up to me so i never would have to do any work when it comes to social stuff yeah honestly

758
01:08:03,680 --> 01:08:07,440
i'm pretty lazy socially maybe that's why i'm so isolated when it comes to entrepreneurship it's

759
01:08:07,440 --> 01:08:11,600
just because i never put in any effort like most people know me for the startup so they like

760
01:08:11,600 --> 01:08:16,720
will walk up to me and will become friends that way i actually never put in any effort into social

761
01:08:16,720 --> 01:08:22,720
stuff now that i really think about it i probably should get better at that that is the way to stay

762
01:08:22,720 --> 01:08:26,720
connected as an entrepreneur is talking to people everywhere you go maybe you don't see people very

763
01:08:26,720 --> 01:08:31,280
often but yeah you go outside to go buy groceries talking to people there maybe you're talking to

764
01:08:31,280 --> 01:08:35,600
the cashier you're striking up conversation yeah maybe go to the gym and you see some people and

765
01:08:35,600 --> 01:08:41,600
you make some new friends and it won't take up a ton of your time like anything else would because

766
01:08:41,600 --> 01:08:46,640
it's just a part of your normal life you're just actively engaging with the world around you yeah

767
01:08:46,640 --> 01:08:52,000
that's true you got it you should see how cracked out i am about being being efficient though like i

768
01:08:52,000 --> 01:08:57,680
don't even make i try to remove that for my life these days as well small talk give me the coffee

769
01:08:57,680 --> 01:09:04,560
right now yeah like i'm serious like i have i'm in a situation where i'll wake up i'll gym the rest

770
01:09:04,560 --> 01:09:10,720
of the day i'm here i'll order food out so i save time like i don't even cook not because i don't

771
01:09:10,720 --> 01:09:15,920
want to cook but it literally just takes up too much time i'd rather eat one meal a day and have

772
01:09:15,920 --> 01:09:21,440
more time in the office than eat two meals a day having to cook one of them yeah and that's where

773
01:09:21,440 --> 01:09:26,160
the health sacrifice comes in as well because i'd rather eat that one meal instead of two meals

774
01:09:27,120 --> 01:09:32,240
if i can spend more time in the warehouse spend more time working on stuff always grinding man

775
01:09:32,800 --> 01:09:39,120
yeah it sucks it works the closing tradition we have on this podcast is we'll ask the guests

776
01:09:39,120 --> 01:09:43,200
to make a small little challenge for themselves that would make me maybe improve their lives a

777
01:09:43,200 --> 01:09:48,400
little bit in an area that they are currently struggling with and then hold them accountable

778
01:09:48,400 --> 01:09:54,000
you set a little deadline on it and then i'll keep you accountable to it okay i like that yeah i

779
01:09:54,000 --> 01:09:57,760
actually like that a lot we call it a carrot and then there's a stick involved if you don't do it

780
01:09:58,320 --> 01:10:04,400
go to a murph or something hard i'm down um maybe it's maybe it's

781
01:10:06,960 --> 01:10:11,680
i would say i want to be significantly better at marketing what about that that's like did you say

782
01:10:11,680 --> 01:10:16,160
a goal what was it no no it's a challenge a challenge you can do within like one to two

783
01:10:16,160 --> 01:10:20,880
weeks once in two weeks that will put you in the direction of creating that snowball towards

784
01:10:21,440 --> 01:10:28,480
what would make your life better i'd say i'd say going out and forcing myself into at least three

785
01:10:28,480 --> 01:10:33,920
conversations maybe in the next week of people i have never met before just like saying hi to them

786
01:10:34,480 --> 01:10:39,840
i think that's what most men struggle with these days in general so no it doesn't have to be a

787
01:10:39,840 --> 01:10:44,160
girl like just no yeah just people in general yeah just like walking out to be them and be like hey

788
01:10:44,160 --> 01:10:49,120
you look like you're doing something interesting or like you look like an interesting person

789
01:10:49,120 --> 01:10:53,280
what are you up to these days etc something like that because i'm so socially awkward like i

790
01:10:53,280 --> 01:10:58,160
actually have unless like i put on a personality i'm like okay today i'm gonna be charismatic

791
01:10:58,160 --> 01:11:04,960
great like sometimes i'll go out and i'll be like not like energetic so i can't like do that

792
01:11:05,520 --> 01:11:09,600
it's just such a bum to go out because everyone views me as like really socially awkward and then

793
01:11:09,600 --> 01:11:13,680
they'll like a week will go by and be like oh kushong's actually not that socially awkward

794
01:11:13,680 --> 01:11:18,000
but it's just because he ate like three meals in a row and like actually has the energy to like

795
01:11:18,880 --> 01:11:23,360
say hi and talk to people yeah so it's that okay i want to have a challenge i want to have three

796
01:11:23,360 --> 01:11:28,800
conversations random conversations random people just put myself out there okay cool so two weeks

797
01:11:28,800 --> 01:11:34,320
from now what's gonna happen if you don't do it i'll actually go running with you guys how about

798
01:11:34,320 --> 01:11:42,400
that you'll do the sf marathon where is it in what time july 28th if i can get a ticket maybe

799
01:11:42,400 --> 01:11:46,640
but i would have to train for it i'll run a marathon with you guys here and i haven't ran

800
01:11:46,640 --> 01:11:51,680
in like years okay i'll run a full marathon let's do it i'm serious okay because i hate running yeah

801
01:11:51,680 --> 01:11:56,000
me too dude that's why i started running yeah because you don't like it for the hard well i

802
01:11:56,000 --> 01:12:01,200
used to love running but then i got like i gained so much weight that like fucking running sucks now

803
01:12:01,200 --> 01:12:05,280
let's do that i had a 15 minute mile in eighth grade i've been horrible at running really

804
01:12:05,280 --> 01:12:12,720
yesterday i ran 852 for my half marathon damn i had a uh what's it called i think i got to 530

805
01:12:12,720 --> 01:12:17,280
when i was a kid i was so skinny people run 530 on marathons dude it's insane dude i know

806
01:12:17,920 --> 01:12:23,840
i couldn't do it but they're also like 90 pounds and they're basically flying when they're running

807
01:12:23,840 --> 01:12:28,080
dude have you seen those super jack guys that run now yeah all the hybrid athletes they're

808
01:12:28,080 --> 01:12:32,560
fucking insane yeah i cannot do that they squat 500 pounds and then they'll go on like a marathon

809
01:12:32,560 --> 01:12:37,520
crazy builds man i wish i was like that but sadly maybe in a couple years i'm not that i like i think

810
01:12:37,520 --> 01:12:43,280
i like lifting too much to want to do other stuff like it's lifting is the most efficient use of

811
01:12:43,280 --> 01:12:48,400
like trying to be physical because i used to be a swimmer and it takes so much time like going to

812
01:12:48,400 --> 01:12:54,400
the pool getting set up swimming a bunch of laps yeah it's just too much work and then you have to

813
01:12:54,400 --> 01:12:58,960
shower same with running it's just like and then you're exhausted for the rest of the day when i

814
01:12:58,960 --> 01:13:03,680
run like i'm so tired with lifting i like lift lift lift i still have so much energy for the rest

815
01:13:03,680 --> 01:13:10,400
of the day so yeah that's the deal cool well in two weeks you'll have had three conversations with

816
01:13:10,400 --> 01:13:15,760
some random persons hopefully that i engage in out of my own doing not that they walk up to me

817
01:13:15,760 --> 01:13:19,920
it doesn't count if they walk it doesn't count yeah okay awesome thanks for coming on man thank

818
01:13:19,920 --> 01:13:24,000
you always a pleasure talking to you i hope to see big things from cloud nine thank you people

819
01:13:24,000 --> 01:13:30,880
find out about you your company stuff like that go to instagram cld9.ai or type in

820
01:13:30,880 --> 01:13:40,400
www cld-nine.com with me um i don't know i want to start a startup like channel but uh kushong does

821
01:13:40,400 --> 01:13:46,160
life if you actually watch this and want to follow me on instagram all right awesome fuck yeah dude

822
01:13:46,160 --> 01:13:59,040
all right great job

