"Why Did the Guy Buying My Company Make More Than Me?" — Transcript

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1. 0:00Because last interview I asked Leila if
2. 0:02there were any unexpected consequences
3. 0:04of becoming famous on the internet. And
4. 0:07she basically hinted at no, besides the
5. 0:10hate portion. And
6. 0:12uh
7. 0:13I guess I just want to know tactfully,
8. 0:15how do you guys get into an opportunity
9. 0:18and have a really good idea of what it's
10. 0:20going to look like? Because it's kind of
11. 0:22the balancing, I'm going to have to do a
12. 0:23lot of volume to acquire this skill, but
13. 0:25also I kind of know what work it's going
14. 0:29to take. Because content when you
15. 0:32switched, I think you sold Allen and
16. 0:34went to acquisition
17. 0:36pretty quickly after. Had you just been
18. 0:39observing like different private equity
19. 0:40and that kind of thing?
20. 0:41>> Um there was a there was a a few things
21. 0:44that kind of contributed to starting
22. 0:45acquisition.com. One is that Leila and I
23. 0:46had made two investments in 2020 prior
24. 0:48to us selling the company at the end of
25. 0:50'21. So we had we'd almost had, you
26. 0:51know, a year and a half where we'd made
27. 0:53these two investments and they'd gone
28. 0:54really, really well. And I was like,
29. 0:56this is really cool. And then when we
30. 0:58ended up going through the process of
31. 1:00selling Allen and Prestige Labs and Gym
32. 1:03Launch all in 2021, um we dealt with a
33. 1:06lot of private equity firms. And I
34. 1:07remember there was a moment where I was
35. 1:10sitting at the table and it was all of
36. 1:12their team, the private equity team, and
37. 1:13all of my team. And I had a few kind of
38. 1:16like conclusions that I that I came away
39. 1:18from. Number one is that their team was
40. 1:20more talented than my team, and that's
41. 1:21why their team was going to make more
42. 1:22than mine.
43. 1:23And the second was that the guy who was
44. 1:24about to buy the business from me was
45. 1:26going to make more money on my business
46. 1:27than I was.
47. 1:28And I was like, huh? And he didn't even
48. 1:31start it or found it or know anything
49. 1:32about gyms.
50. 1:33I was like, that's weird.
51. 1:35And I was like, he has a better game.
52. 1:38>> [laughter]
53. 1:38>> And so I was like, I should learn more
54. 1:40about that game. And so then I spent I
55. 1:41spent basically all of 2021 talking to
56. 1:45every single investor I possibly could,
57. 1:47um every person in the financial world I
58. 1:49could get my hands on, basically, um
59. 1:51to try and understand a model that but I
60. 1:54was like, how do I enter that game?
61. 1:55Because like I'm not
62. 1:56I don't have 10 people who I know who
63. 1:58went to Harvard and you know have all
64. 2:00these banking connections. Like I don't
65. 2:02know any of those people.
66. 2:03And so I was like, "Okay, well what can
67. 2:04I do that they can't do?" And I was
68. 2:05like, "I'm pretty good at marketing."
69. 2:06And so I was like, "Okay, well I did
70. 2:09hear and I understood better that what
71. 2:11one of the things of making, you know, a
72. 2:13good investor is being a good picker.
73. 2:15But I can increase the likelihood that I
74. 2:17make good picks if I just have way more
75. 2:19to pick from.
76. 2:20And so I was like, "Okay, so it's really
77. 2:22just a marketing problem. So if I can
78. 2:23just get more deal flow that wants to do
79. 2:25deals with me, then I'll have a better
80. 2:26pick and the deals that I'll be able to
81. 2:28negotiate will be more advantageous even
82. 2:30if I'm not the brightest tool in the
83. 2:31shed." And so that was
84. 2:35kind of the the thesis behind it was can
85. 2:37we build and for each and to be fair
86. 2:38when we started I was like I didn't know
87. 2:39if it was going to work. I just thought
88. 2:41of it in likelihoods. I was like, "Well,
89. 2:42there's a few need to believes. I have
90. 2:43to believe that I can make, you know,
91. 2:45content that will get views." So I
92. 2:47didn't know, but I was like, "I'll see.
93. 2:48They they do things. I can try and model
94. 2:50what those people do."
95. 2:52And you know, the second thing that had
96. 2:53to need to believe is like, "Okay, if I
97. 2:54do make content and it does work, that
98. 2:56doesn't necessarily mean that it's going
99. 2:57to translate to people who want to do
100. 2:59deals with me or do business with me."
101. 3:01So that was a second need to believe.
102. 3:02Um and so those are probably like the
103. 3:04two big ones that kind of straddle the
104. 3:06decision overall, but they felt
105. 3:09believable.
106. 3:10And so I was like,
107. 3:12"Worst case scenario, I'll just build an
108. 3:13audience that doesn't generate deal flow
109. 3:15and I'll figure something else out." Um
110. 3:17but that just felt like a pretty good
111. 3:19idea at the time which was uh if you can
112. 3:22build an audience that trusts you
113. 3:25because of the value that you've
114. 3:25provided over an extended period of
115. 3:27time, then
116. 3:29I just had faith that I would figure out
117. 3:31what to do later.
118. 3:33Mhm.
119. 3:33>> Real quick, if you're a business owner
120. 3:35and you are not growing as fast as you
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