Discover Why Timing is The Most Crucial Factor for Success in Business (Episode...

Transcript

Jeff Bullas

00:00:07 - 00:01:54

Hi everyone and welcome from all around the world and this is what I love about tech today is that you need to think global rather than just local and today I have with me Frederick Cary. Now, Fred's got a very varied extensive career in business. He was confused about whether to be a lawyer, an entrepreneur or just have a lot of fun. And I think he's had a lot of fun along the way. He's the powerhouse entrepreneur CEO of IdeaPros to help the outsiders be go to the inside of the opportunities in business and come to the guys, qualified entrepreneurs through the complexities and pitfalls of the startup world, which is what everyone wants to be today. They want to start a startup. So as an operational executive and CEO and Chairman, he's built high growth businesses in finance, enterprise software, mobile tech, Web services, digital TV and the list goes on and on. And we're gonna find out much more about some of those micro and not so micro heroes journeys. He oversees development growth of over 250 startups and that's why he gets up at 4am every day. And he has led many mergers and acquisitions to both as executive and as counsel. Frederick received his JD degree from Thomas Jefferson in California where he is today completed post-graduate studies at Harvard Law School and obtained his international MBA with Honors from University of Liverpool. So obviously, he knows how to cross the Atlantic, which is fantastic. So his goal is to help build successful businesses that can make a positive difference in their sector. So, welcome to the show, Fred, it's an absolute pleasure to have you. And I'm looking forward to hearing the stories and I think there's gonna be way too many to actually cover. But welcome to the show, Fred, it's an absolute pleasure.

Frederick Cary

00:01:55 - 00:02:04

Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to be here and, you know, I kind of felt like my mom was introducing me. So thank you for that. I'll see if I can live up to a fraction of it.

Jeff Bullas

00:02:05 - 00:02:35

Well, we always get a mum that believes in you so there you go. Nothing like a good mum that does believe in you. In fact, just parents that believe in you. So Fred, let's go back to the inspiration of becoming an entrepreneur. Was that always there like at 13 where you're running like, you know, a cookie, you know, business or something? I don't know what, where did the original inspiration come from? And where were you living at the time?

Frederick Cary

00:02:36 - 00:04:03

Well, the original inspiration, I did not realize it until many decades later, I was, there's a, this is not a plug, it's called newspapers.com. And it has newspaper stories from back to the early 1800s, probably even earlier than that. And I was looking for me when I was in a rock band in high school to see if I could find a story because I know there was a story written about me. And instead I found a classified ad of Fred Cary when he was 16. And in that ad, it said basically, I'm available seven days a week, 24/7. I'll mow your lawn, I'll watch your kids, I'll wash your dishes, I'll help get back up. Literally, I had this big long list of everything I would do to try to make a little bit of extra money. And I realized when I look back at that, shit that's something that I've been thinking about all the time. And then after that, I was kind of forced into entrepreneurship because I hated working for other people. I didn't fit in that mold, right? I didn't take orders well and my ideas were always stolen by my boss, you know, it would be like, hey, boss, I got this great idea and they're like that, go back and scrub the dishes. And then three months later, as a team, we have this great idea that I just came up with and it was my idea that happened three times and I was 21. That's the last time I worked for anybody else.

Jeff Bullas

00:04:03 - 00:04:26

Wow. Okay. Yeah, I don't like being told what to do, but I sort of kicked back as well. So, and we used the term before that, one of the reasons you are doing IdeasPros today is because you want to give the opportunity to the outsiders to get on the inside of the opportunities and the connections that the insiders who have the money and connections have. So it sounds like you were born as an outsider right from the word go.

Frederick Cary

00:04:27 - 00:05:22

I was and that's how I always felt. I always felt like I didn't really fit the mold. And when you look at my quote unquote pedigree, you know, law school, MBA that on the surface, it says, oh yeah, you're an outsider buddy. But inside I became a lawyer by accident. When I was 28 and I had three lawyer, two lawyers. Tell me, hey, if you become a lawyer, we're gonna give you a third of our business. And I'm like, yeah, and I didn't, I only had a year and a half of college at that point and I had to go take all these exams to get the rest of my college going to law school and become a lawyer. I didn't want to, I was really good at it. And then when I got my MBA at the University of Liverpool, I'd already started three companies and taken one public before I got that MBA. So, everything I did was backward and did not fit the norm of doing it. I just wanted that validation so I did it.

Jeff Bullas

00:05:22 - 00:05:35

Okay. Well, yeah, this is sort of like, it's that sort of getting that ticket if you like, isn't it? It's like the validation that you can actually sit down and concentrate for more than 30 seconds.

Frederick Cary

00:05:36 - 00:05:38

Yeah, people don't do that anymore, by the way, just a news flash.

Jeff Bullas

00:05:38 - 00:05:59

Yeah, social media has got a lot to blame for that. So we live in a world of distraction while we're seeking focused attention. So that's really difficult. So let's wind back to, alright, boss stole your idea three times. You said fuck it, I'm actually gonna go and start my own business. What was that?

Frederick Cary

00:06:00 - 00:06:42

Well, the very first business I started, I was about 24 years, 23 years old. I started a company called Concerts America with another friend and we found a guy in his 40s who had been making a lot of money and he agreed to invest in us and it was a concert production business that we did for a couple of years, you know, people ask me, when did you make your first million dollars? And I respond two years before I lost it all. And so that's what happened with that. And, you know, cars and girls and homes and then from there, I started another company and then became an attorney and then started 10 more.

Jeff Bullas

00:06:43 - 00:07:05

Right. So what was, so the inspiration for being a lawyer you mentioned was the fact that you just wanted the validation of having a degree, which obviously you left college and a year and a half through by the sounds of it. So you did the law degree. Did you go and actually become a partner or you just said, fuck it again.

Frederick Cary

00:07:06 - 00:07:38

Well, no, I didn't get the law degree for the paper. I got the law degree because they said if you go to law school, we'll start giving you a third of everything we make immediately even when you're in law school because I was already a maker. I could attract business and they love that and then they, by the way, they're both dead so I can squeal on them now. And, they were paying me illegally basically one third of everything they were making from the time I was in law school. So I got my degree simply so I could get that money that I wanted.

Jeff Bullas

00:07:39 - 00:07:43

Right. Okay. And how long did that last? As in that focus?

Frederick Cary

00:07:44 - 00:08:13

Yeah. I was a and by the way, I'm still an active attorney right now. I don't practice law but, I don't want to give that up either because I worked really hard to get it. And, for about a decade I kind of left entrepreneurship, really got into being an attorney, was really good at it, but hated it because I love creating things and it's part of the entrepreneurial spirit is you're creating things and I was more in the destruction field as an attorney.

Jeff Bullas

00:08:13 - 00:08:58

Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? So, my partner's a corporate lawyer, in other words, she puts deals together rather than tear humans apart. I just made that up by the way. But yeah, it is, she's more in construction and creativity with deals rather than the other way around. So it's really, really good. So I totally get it. And, yeah, when someone hears you're a lawyer, they're going, oh, shit okay, so when are you in court? And you go, well, you don't have to be in court. It's just, but I do love the fact that talking about agreements it's actually just putting together a paper that helps you when it doesn't work out. Basically, it's about organizing a disagreement.

Frederick Cary

00:08:59 - 00:09:33

Exactly. And, you know, even with our partners here with IdeaPros, when people join up with us, they become our partner and I tell them, I don't even care of what's written on this agreement. I'm gonna put it away and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get you from your idea to a nationwide launch of your first product in your new company. And so I, as you said, agreements on the, where the hell is that agreement. Because things are not going well and you have to see what your rights are and what your obligations are. But other than that sign it and put it away.

Jeff Bullas

00:09:33 - 00:10:14

Yeah. So, alright. So you became a lawyer. What were some of the next significant moments in your journey in terms of as an entrepreneur? You talked about the fact that two years after you got your first million, you lost it. That's typical of a lot of entrepreneurs. So overnight success is overrated because it never is an overnight success. It's like 10 years down the track, suddenly an overnight success. But what were the, some of the next significant moments, entrepreneurial moments that you found exciting along the way?

Frederick Cary

00:10:15 - 00:11:53

Well, I was sitting in South Florida which is not a great place to start an entrepreneurial journey. But at least for me and the internet was really starting to blossom. 1997, I decided to move to Southern California where I still am in San Diego area. If anybody's local come visit, and I started a company called Box Lot, which was in the auction space, eBay had come out 6-9 months earlier, they were really starting to make a lot of traction and I thought there was room for a couple of players in that space. And I started that company, I raised a bunch of capital. I got a bunch of employees and we couldn't catch them. We really couldn't. It was one of those impossible journeys that the lead horse had all the worst stuff and was really had incredible attraction. I was gonna close the company down and instead, and this is important for your listeners. Instead I really looked at fundamentally the sector that I was in and was there a different opportunity for me and the technology that was driving that sector was primitive at best because there was no auctioning on the internet before, there was no variable pricing, there was no buy or bid. There was no, you know, put in your maximum bid and we'll automatically incrementally increase that bid for you. None of that existed. And so we doubled down in the space and became a technology company. And 18 months later, we were sold for $125 million on something that I wanted to give up.

Jeff Bullas

00:11:54 - 00:12:00

Yeah. So in other words, sometimes a journey is lasting long enough to actually realize the opportunity that's locked within it.

Frederick Cary

00:12:01 - 00:12:10

Yeah, once you become expert enough in the space, you can understand all the components of what drives that space and where those weak spots are within that sector.

Jeff Bullas

00:12:11 - 00:12:15

You think a lot of people give up too early? As an entrepreneur?

Frederick Cary

00:12:16 - 00:13:17

Well, if you give up at all, then you've given up too early because the entrepreneurial journey never ends. I am, right now, well into my career, many successful companies, successful at exits. I'm raising capital for my company IdeaPros right now. Now, you know, we're slowing down our burn rate, slowing down, bringing in new partners while we're revamping what we're doing. There are fires all the time as an entrepreneur, even when you get really, really big, I mean, the Airbnb guys were kicking ass and then COVID happened and they went down 85% and their bookings overnight one night, boom, 85% and they were really killing it after seven years of not doing well at all. And so even when you think you're there and you're on top of the world, Apple, they were public, they were getting ready to go bankrupt. So it never ends. So if you give up, you're giving up too early because you're gonna have these fights.

Jeff Bullas

00:13:18 - 00:13:26

So after selling that you obviously had a, you were able to hang on to that million or two or three. Is that correct?

Frederick Cary

00:13:27 - 00:13:39

Yeah. however, unfortunately with the .com bust the, you know, it shrunk by about 70% but still, it was not a bad day.

Jeff Bullas

00:13:39 - 00:14:09

You're right. So you saw the opportunity of the digital age and the internet early. What excited you about it? What was it like? What was crossing your mind as you looked at it as an entrepreneur and had come up against, you know, a big competitor that basically had shit technology, but it got out of the gate first. What were some of the ideas and concepts that excites you when you saw the internet?

Frederick Cary

00:14:10 - 00:15:10

Well, you know, I was telling you before we started here that, well, before the internet had really, really taken up, I'd done my MBA paper entitled Born Global. And my argument was that any company of any size could have a global presence by being able to take advantage of the technologies that the internet was going to allow. And it's gone even further than that because now more than ever, you can get a complete analysis of any competitor that you want, big or small. You don't have to wait for a public company and get their 10 ques. You can look, you can see the reviews, you know, where are all the one star reviews in the competitive place that where I'm playing and how can I make those one star reviews my five star reviews. It's so easy now to do well. You can ship all over the world, you can present yourself as a major organization and have two employees and it's an opportunity like never has existed before.

Jeff Bullas

00:15:10 - 00:15:51

Yeah, that's for me when I saw the internet, I got excited and I actually registered a company in Australia called Media Now because it was the ability to deliver and I looked at, you know, basically trying to get distribution rights to video cassettes, VCR, you know, videos. But what I did realize was that even though the idea was good, the bandwidth was crap. So it wouldn't be able to deliver streaming video back in the ‘90s like we do today. So, sometimes you get great ideas, but there, it's bad timing. Have there any experiences you've had of that? In other words, great idea, bad timing?

Frederick Cary

00:15:52 - 00:17:12

Oh yeah. I had one that what you would have loved it if you did this Media Now and this stuff, we had a company called Azure. I couldn't get funding for that damn thing no matter what. And it was brilliant because cellphones were not, you know, the cellphone wasn't the be-all do-all my life is on my phone place yet. We were still very much into PCs and Apple products and laptops. And we created this technology that would allow you to create your own web page. It doesn't sound like much, but you could go and find five, six, seven things you were really interested in New York Times, the Fox Sports, Fashion Week, whatever it was and you could go clip out the trending news on each one of those sections or whatever that main component was and you put it on a page, simple page, it was your page when you logged on your computer and all those things would show up real time on one screen. So the best of everything you wanted would be playing for you real time on that screen, it was brilliant, but nobody wanted it. I couldn't get funded. And now if you cut and paste anything on your Microsoft device, probably your Apple device as well. It's our underlying technology that enabled that in the first place. I couldn't get a penny for it.

Jeff Bullas

00:17:12 - 00:17:44

Yeah. Its timing can be everything. I think I read a TED Talk, watched a TED Talk recently and it was like an entrepreneur that had been involved with startups. And he said the biggest factor in success was timing. And that was even bigger than raising buckets of money. So where did you get good, when did good timing show up for you? Let's look at the flip side. How did good timing work for you and when? Have you got a story to share on that?

Frederick Cary

00:17:44 - 00:19:32

Oh, yeah, I got a great good timing story. We started this company called Imagine Communications, still exists, imaginecommunications.com. And we started the company, it was me and two Israeli engineers and the HD was really coming into vogue at that time and cable companies around the world were screwed because their cable infrastructure could only support one megabit of data, which was one standard definition channel coming into the home. You needed one and a half for HD at that time. So they couldn't do HD, they couldn't do anything. We approached the cable industry and basically said we can fix your problem. We can increase your data throughput so that you can do HD. And basically, they said we're here, we'll buy a shit ton of your stuff if you can do that, we left and the engineers were like, we can't do that. And I said we can do that and nine months later, all thanks to them, nothing, no thanks to me. They created a technology that quadruples the throughput. So not only could you do an HD channel, you could do two HDs and one SD all going into the same household using the same pipe that was going into that same home. And so we did 20 million in revenue. Our very first year had one product, the company now has hundreds of products. They're on every single continent except Antarctica and they deliver content to about 52% of the household television households all over the world. And that was a perfect timing moment that there was gloom and doom for the cable industry and we fixed that problem.

Jeff Bullas

00:19:33 - 00:19:34

What year was that?

Frederick Cary

00:19:35 - 00:19:39

Oh, God. I don't remember 2001 or something.

Jeff Bullas

00:19:39 - 00:20:11

Ok. So early, basically early two thousands. So, yeah, because if you look back at old sort of videos and stuff here, you know, cable and you just look at it on TV, you're going gee the quality of the, you know, video or screen was just shocking. But the other thing, not only the quality you increase but the ability for them to actually to sell other product because if you were doing able to do two or three HD and one standard SD when then you could basically can sell more product.

Frederick Cary

00:20:11 - 00:20:12

Yeah, exactly.

Jeff Bullas

00:20:13 - 00:20:17

So, where's that company today?

Frederick Cary

00:20:18 - 00:20:38

They're doing about 800 million a year in revenue now and they have tens of thousands of employees and they're delivering about $52 billion worth of ad content for clients around the world. So it's thriving, still private, doing very, very well.

Jeff Bullas

00:20:38 - 00:20:43

So why did you exit or have you or you just have a share in it?

Frederick Cary

00:20:44 - 00:21:03

Oh, well, I exited as CEO, it got way too big for me. I don't like to wear a suit and I don't like to deal with companies once they get that big, you know, I'm good from zero to 100 million. And then after that, then I got to get out of there.

Jeff Bullas

00:21:04 - 00:21:06

In other words, they put suits on and gets a bit boring.

Frederick Cary

00:21:07 - 00:21:21

Yeah. It gets big boring. The growth isn't as enticing and that's just not where I play and frankly I'd probably be a disaster trying to run a billion dollar company. .

Jeff Bullas

00:21:22 - 00:21:26

Yeah. Well, I think you've worked at. So you worked at what you're good at and what you're not good at. Is that right?

Frederick Cary

00:21:26 - 00:21:31

Right. Or my ex-wife would probably add a lot of things to them not good at.

Jeff Bullas

00:21:31 - 00:22:20

Yeah. Well, guys, but just his ex-wife's channel actually joined us. So I had to get rid of her before we started that. So, the next project and it sounds like you've had a bit of, I'm a bit of a Joseph Campbell fan boy. And it's been mentioned, you know, Joseph Campbell talks about the hero's journey. So, what you've had is you've had actually sequential hero’s journeys, which I think most of us as humans actually have. So, what was the next significant hero's journey? Was that IdeaPros that we can share before we get to IdeaPros and where that came from and why you're doing it today. What else?

Frederick Cary

00:22:20 - 00:23:31

I'm not sure if you have like a four hour show but I'll, other companies, I'll just kind of blast through them other companies that I started as one was called POP1, which was that company was actually doing real time HD quality live back hauling from sports arenas. So the first HD live sports that your audience saw on television was through our product. That's another product where we got laughed off the stage while I was presenting it because nobody thought you could do back calling using the internet. And when I say back calling, that is basically think of a big trunk. Not what's going into your computer or your phone or anything is a shit ton of data that is being delivered real time to studios in New York and in LA and that company went public on the American Stock Exchange. We did quite well with that one. We had another company called Home Bistro. That was a cooked food delivery company that went public as well. And then we, I'm speaking the royal we, then after that, I started IdeaPros about four and a half years ago.

Jeff Bullas

00:23:32 - 00:23:38

RIght. So where did that idea come from for IdeaPros? Pardon the pun.

Frederick Cary

00:23:39 - 00:25:35

You know, I got to the point, they say the first part of your career, you're building up your resume and the second part, you're building up your legacy. And it was a legacy moment for me. I wanted to have one more ride at the rodeo and I wanted to do something that was impactful. My whole journey at this point is try to change the lives of 10,000 people in an impactful enough way to get them to carry forward. So if I could do 10,000, they can do 1000 and those next ones can do 100, that's a billion people. So if I get tenth of the way there, I'm still doing pretty damn good. And so I looked at the heart of where I came from and that is that entrepreneurial journey that we talk about and that you talk about in your show and the reality is we look at that journey and we all want to be entrepreneurs now. There's a massive exodus from corporate America and I'm sure it's the same all over the world. We have 550,000 new entrepreneurs are born every single month in the US. 300,000 babies are born that it gives you an idea of the size of that market. And yet, well over 90% of them are outsiders and they don't have that inside track. They didn't go to a prestigious school, they don't have an MBA from those schools, they don't have a professor that can make a phone call and give them $10 million for a paper napkin idea. They're outsiders and they don't know what to do, when to do it, how to do it, who to speak with and even if they do everything perfectly, they don't have the connections to go get capital speak like a finance person, open up doors at the different big box companies or get distribution networks. They just don't know how to do that. And so I decided to work harder than I ever have in my life and start IdeaPros.

Jeff Bullas

00:25:36 - 00:26:06

So IdeaPros, tell us a little bit about how it works in terms of its structure and processes just to give us some context of because it sounds to me a little bit like you're running a coaching company for entrepreneurs, but I'm sure it's a bit more than that. So tell us a bit about how IdeaPros, how do you on board them? How you look after them and how do you help them, you know, make?

Frederick Cary

00:26:07 - 00:30:21

Yeah, I wish it was a coaching program because I'd be able to sleep at night. But the reality is the very first thing you wanna do, I suppose you want to build an app is, you know, I'm working in corporate America. I've even reached upper management. My life sucks. I'm gonna go out and do something you can't do in Australia, go out and buy a gun and do myself in or I'm gonna completely change my life and we grab the latter half of that equation. And those people that want to completely change their lives, they jump into this cesspool of how do I build an app or where do I find an app company? And it's the worst thing you could do. It's just like I need brain surgery. Where can I get brain surgery equipment? You know, and that's typically what happens with an outsider. You just like, I don't know how to do it, but I'm gonna do it. I fucking hate my life and I'm gonna start something new and, by the way, I said, fuck because you said I had permission to say it. So okay, thank you. So, in any event, when those people type in, I wanna, you know, when I get an app company, I have an ad that shows up and basically says you're about to make the biggest mistake you've ever made in your life. You don't need an app. You need to know how to be an entrepreneur. You need to know how to start a business and then that app is just your roadway that's gonna take your very valuable content and deliver it to the people you've discovered really need that. And so that's how we bring people on. And typically this is the flagship product. I have a bunch of other stuff now, but this is a flagship product. They would come on with a raw idea and they would pay me $100,000 or more upfront. And I know the audience is gonna say, wow, it's a lot of money, but hold on just be patient and about 30% of the equity of the company we're gonna form together and in exchange, we literally do everything. We train you how to be an entrepreneur. We have five phases that we go through from the discovery phase, naming, branding, positioning phase all the way through to nationwide launch at the end of that. And we do all the work. We have all the context we build from an engineering standpoint, if it's a physical product from an app development standpoint, if it's an app, you know, naming branding, positioning, market research, competitive analysis, who's your target customer? How to go after them, go to market strategy, building out your web pages, your advertising content, your social media presence and launching. And so $100,000 is a ton of money, but it's 500,000 to a million dollars to do that on your own and you're gonna make a ton of mistakes. So that's what we do and that's become overwhelming. So now I do a lot of other things too because in, you know, less and I don't wanna take all the rest of your time here. So I'll be done in just a second. We got 100,000 applications in the last two and a half years and we've taken on 400 entrepreneurs. So 100,000 people saying that they're pay you $100,000 is a $10 billion market. And if 90% of them are bullshitters, it's a 1 billion dollar market. And if it's 99% it's still $100 million market. So it's a nice market and there's a big ass demand and we just can't create enough infrastructure to serve them all. So I put together more appropriate funnel that starts with free, you know, all sorts of free content, seminars, webinars to few $100 to get a master class, 15 modules on how to be a real purpose driven entrepreneur and all the elements of what it really takes to think very strategically, how you're gonna go set yourself apart from the competition. It's like a few $100 and then for about $1500 that you prove to me, my idea doesn't suck, which is basically extensive research and we could get you a 40 page report and tell you what you, where you wanted to be, where you should be, what to watch out for, how to go to market and the pitch stack of how to go out and raise the capital you need to go be a kick ass entrepreneur. And we have stopping points all the way up to full partnership. So now I can serve most of those 100,000 people that wanted to work with me.

Jeff Bullas

00:30:21 - 00:30:44

Yeah, because that's what crossed my mind. I mean, initially, you mentioned IdeaPros and the fact that you're taking all these, you know, people through a journey because that is incredibly time intensive. A lot of hand holding a lot of, you know, smacking them around to get them behave, you know, all that stuff. So, what you've done is you've created a more scalable product.

Frederick Cary

00:30:45 - 00:31:46

Right. Because look, not everybody has $100,000 but everybody is gonna end up spending that over time. So if I can take somebody right in the very beginning and teach them how to be a really good entrepreneur for a few 100 bucks, then they're gonna have a lot more capacity to go out and understand how to go raise capital. If I can take somebody for $1500 right up front and tell them, hey, your idea sucks, man. To stick in the corporate world you're not gonna make it which very rare I do that but I have because, you know, there's some crazy ideas out there. But, most often it's basically okay, you want to do this, you need to do this instead and really give them a prop in the right direction in the very beginning. It's very, very valuable. So, even though you can't afford that 100,000 right up front, there's a pathway to get there, whether it's your own money or whether it's us showing you how to go get money from people that will believe in you.

Jeff Bullas

00:31:47 - 00:32:04

Yeah. So it's, and that's true. You're actually asking for a small commitment first to actually, then for you to, I suppose, to show them what needs to be done. And once and as we know, small commitments can lead to a lot bigger commitments, which is what the end goal is, isn't it?

Frederick Cary

00:32:04 - 00:33:07

Yeah. Look, if you're an entrepreneur, you're always gonna be an entrepreneur. Maybe to your point what you said about failing too soon. And I said, if you leave at all, you've left too soon. If you go back to corporate America within about six months, you're gonna hate yourself again and you're gonna wanna come back out there, right? So it's not like somebody is going out. I found that there's a toaster oven. I can toast and bake in one thing. That's awesome. And you go out and buy a toaster oven. Well, you're done. That's the end of your journey, you know, you might go out to buy a full oven next. Who knows? But that's the end of your journey, if you're an entrepreneur, you're taking another bite of the apple all the time because it goes on forever, this journey does not end. And as long as there's valuable information and content that you can provide to people on that journey, it arms them, it enables them to do a lot better than they were otherwise gonna do. So if you have a customer or client or a partner, that's an entrepreneur, they're likely to continue to be your client at the very least because they need you.

Jeff Bullas

00:33:08 - 00:34:22

Yeah. So you're saying that the entrepreneur is basically softwired, as we say, rather than hardwired with internally to be an entrepreneur. So what drives you? Is it a multiple range of things like is it curiosity? The thing I really get, I'm curious about is at different stages of your life, you get so motivated that you get up early, you do stuff now do what it takes. Sometimes you pull back from that and then you might get back in it but different levels of intensity. We also get older, less energy and so on. For four years, for example, I started my media company, the blog and so on. I got up at 4:30AM and wrote every morning before I started my day job, which was a side hustle. So what drives Fred? What gets him up in the morning going, shit, I wanna get this stuff done. I want to start a new project and because I'm curious about that for all of us, like and almost a self flagellation as well because he got up at 4AM this morning to try and do another round of funding. What drives Fred?

Frederick Cary

00:34:23 - 00:35:08

Inadequacy. If I had to pick one word, the fact that I never feel like I've done enough, no matter how many things I work on, no matter how many projects I have going on in the day, no matter how much money I've raised yesterday, I always feel like I can do more. So when I wake up in the morning, I kind of jump at the day ahead of me because I feel like yesterday, I didn't do quite enough. And that's really my driver that coupled with the fact that there's a real beauty in the creation process. And when you have one of your partner companies go out and do a launch and write to you and say that you've changed their life forever. It's pretty rewarding and I have 400 opportunities to do that right in my own little portfolio.

Jeff Bullas

00:35:09 - 00:35:31

So as that motivation just evolved a little bit. In other words, you feel like you're making a difference now, as opposed to making money and also curiosity, obviously, you had curiosity otherwise you wouldn't have done what you've done. So, making a difference is a big component of what drives Fred today.

Frederick Cary

00:35:31 - 00:37:14

Yeah, I'm making a difference. I'm not making money. I don't pay myself. I invest in our company and I know that there will be a big payday here near the end. But right now my focus is on enabling others and all of you out there that have a startup, you know how painful that is on a day to day basis. You can have glorious moments. And a week later, there's something that happens. Some fire you have to put out, some pivot you have to make, some pain you didn't expect. I have that times 400 because not only are we a startup but every single startup that we have, that's, you know, a little baby startup. They have tons of pain and despite the training that we give them, they don't have 40 years of experience to rely upon to find the right solution. So it is interesting conclusion to my professional career choosing this as the last. I'm giving the most, I'm getting a ton back in positive reinforcement. Also by the way to be completely open kimono, I'm gonna get, I get negative stuff too because there's a subset of people that when you're handling so many people, there's a subset of people that are not successful fast enough or the product isn't built fast enough or engineering got to a certain point then they have to change it. There's a subset of people that want to blame you because they came to you to change their lives and now their lives aren't changing as fast as they wanted to. And so you're the bad guy and that happens as much as if you can help 10 people. And one is complaining, you go to sleep at night thinking about that one who thinks you did them wrong.

Jeff Bullas

00:37:15 - 00:38:42

Yeah exactly. So it's always the two opposites. It's a good with the bad. It's good versus evil. It's being human. So what I'm curious about is as well, sort of curious sort of guy, you've been in the tech industry, you've noticed trends, you've sensed trends, you've seen, you're a pattern recognition animal. Okay. So today we have maybe one of the biggest trends in tech that has turned up since November 30, 2022 which is AI, ChatGPT. ChatGPT gave a human simple interface to AI which is become the fastest growing tech human interface platform ever created in the history of the world. It went from zero to 100 million users in about eight weeks, much quicker than Facebook, much quicker than any other tech. I've been curious about and you are seeing, you're overseeing 400 startups entrepreneurs. I've been intrigued by your insights about AI, where it is today and where it is going. I'd be, are you willing to talk about that?

Frederick Cary

00:38:43 - 00:41:37

Yeah. AI is what you call a Black Swan event that when it happens, like you said, 100 million users literally overnight. It's one of those events that nobody anticipated. But then after it happens, you go oh yeah, of course, it should have been that way all along and you become instant billionaires when something like that happens, it doesn't happen very often. Google is not a Black Swan event, Facebook was not a Black Swan event. Maybe the invention of electricity was, but it's one of those rare moments in history where the entire world shifts. There's a beautiful component to that. There's also a dangerous component to that and we'll see which one takes control. The beauty is that if you're talented, if you are an expert in your field, AI can really help you. It's not the final product in many cases because you have to go and use your expertise to really massage it, but you can get so many things done in a very short period of time. A slight pivot here on this, there is a company that I won't name. And as you said, I'm raising capital, we're raising $7.5 million right now. There is a company, it's a private equity firm that's way too big for me. Their minimum investment is $50 million and I'm not looking for that. One of their managing directors said we're really interested in what you're doing, can we send you an application form? And I said, I don't need $50 million and I'm not making enough revenue for you to even look at me. They're like, what you're interesting, can we just have you fill it out? I filled it out. The very next day, I was speaking with the chairman of their investment committee and with their chief global analyst and this managing director and they said the application that we send out is fueled by our own AI engine and that AI engine determines whether we should even talk to somebody who's applying to work with us. And if so, how much interest should we give to them. And the fact that I'm the chairman of the investment committee, you can see that you gleaned a lot of interest. So here's a company using it as a tool to really see where's the most potential, what markets have the greatest potential to really emerge in the next generation and should we be involved with them. On the other hand, I'm really worried about like the junior high school kids and the high school kids who are not gonna know how to do their own homework anymore and all the technologies that are gonna have to come out to tell whether something was and they're starting already tell whether something's AI driven or written by a human. It's just the world is gonna change in a way that none of us that are alive are gonna be able to imagine. It's that scary and that breathtaking.

Jeff Bullas

00:41:37 - 00:42:22

Yeah, I totally agree with you. It's both exciting and frightening all in the same sentence. And I think it's gonna have a huge impact on the future of business. I think we're gonna see billion dollar companies run by a few people. I'll be interested in your take on that because the ability, in other words to enhance human creativity, as well as amplify human activity and scaling. It is unprecedented. So I'd be interested in how you see it changing business, yeah, in the future.

Frederick Cary

00:42:23 - 00:43:50

AI is a tool that if you're not using, if you're not embracing, regardless of whether it's going to turn out good or bad, you're probably gonna fail because your competitors are taking advantage of these new technologies. Another side, I was talking to my girls, 30 and 22. We're sitting around the table a couple of weeks ago talking about AI and that you could be an author overnight and to prove it up, I created a 35 page love poem book and got it published on Amazon and it was being delivered two days later to my home physical copy of this book that was created with very little thought. And you can tell by if you really carefully read it but the reality is you have in business, you have to embrace whatever technologies are coming out and whatever technology is gonna change. And it's like IBM, they were known for their typewriters, you know, and if you embrace typewriters and didn't move on, you are out and there are companies like Royal Typewriter that stayed with typewriters that disappeared. But the reality is embrace it, learn everything you can about it, utilize it, recognize it as a tool and the H bomb of business tools and incorporated into what you're doing otherwise you're gonna be left behind.

Jeff Bullas

00:43:50 - 00:44:28

Yeah, either sign up or get run over by it. It, that's, and if you think about, you know, IBM's, the actual acronym IBM means International Business Machines. And the original inspiration that business machine was a typewriter. But though that the founder and founders of the company had the vision to see that it needed to keep evolving. And I think as an entrepreneur and what you've mentioned, you've gone through this countless times is that can be continually curious and evolving as a human and as an entrepreneur, otherwise you're gonna get destroyed.

Frederick Cary

00:44:29 - 00:46:07

Yeah. Thank God it was an ITM instead of IBM, you know, International Typewriter Machines. But that's the deal we have to, especially if you're start becoming successful. That's when you have to be looking in two directions. You have to be looking behind you because your competitors are all over your ass and you have to be looking ahead of you because change is coming and you wanna be the purveyor of that change. You don't wanna be riding along even with AI right now, everybody wants to have that AI, everybody wants to present themselves as this AI company and most of those companies are gonna fail because they're, relying on the next best thing and there's too many of them and only the strongest are going to survive in that field. That's why like when I invest, for example, a little investment advice that we're not really giving you folks. I always invest in the underlying infrastructure, right? Like last year it was Web 3.0 and so I'm investing in NVIDIA, companies like that, lay the foundation to enable the new technology. Same thing with this. I'm looking at AI, I'm probably not gonna invest in one company. I'm gonna invest in the infrastructure that enables all these AI companies because it's like betting on the racetrack instead of the horse and jockey. And so when you find a racetrack moment with AI, that's where you place your bets or you create a company that enables that foundational element of AI rather than you can, you know, I can make you a Picasso in five seconds.

Jeff Bullas

00:46:08 - 00:46:17

So really what you're saying is that you are selling, you encourage people to sell shovels to the gold miners?

Frederick Cary

00:46:18 - 00:46:23

Yes, you don't know which one's gonna hit but you know, they're gonna be using the shovel.

Jeff Bullas

00:46:23 - 00:46:50

Exactly. So just to wrap it up, Fred, now you got time and limited time. So what are some of the tips that you'd like to share with entrepreneurs that are listening and watching this that you've learned along the way that are really, really important? What are the things you've learned that you are bringing back to the world? What are some of the best tips he could share with us?

Frederick Cary

00:46:51 - 00:49:17

Why didn't I do it this way. Let's suppose I was gonna tell you to be a coach. I wanted you to come on and be a coach in my professional sports team. And you ask me, well, what sport is it? And I tell you, I'm not sure. Well, how many players do I get? I don't know. Well, what are the rules? I'm uncertain. What's the playing field like? I don't know, it could be square, it could be round, rectangular. What's the goal in the game? I don't know. You wouldn't do that. None of us. When you hear that, you feel like that's crazy. But that's how we go into our entrepreneurial journeys, we don't know. We don’t know the market size, we don't understand the competitors on the other side, we don't know who that audience is up there rooting for us in the field, we don't know the foundational elements of that playing field we're gonna be on. And the number one failure of entrepreneurs in the world is that they've created something that there's no demand for. It's like coaching a team that you don't know what sport you're even playing. So for all you entrepreneurs out there that want to start a business, do not ever think that research is boring. Research is the foundational element of anything you're gonna build. If you don't know the size of the market, the growth of the market, the market opportunity, the competitors and their strengths and weaknesses because you're gonna exploit those weaknesses and who that audience is and what they're missing that you can deliver. If you don't understand all of that, you're never gonna make it. You gotta understand the rules of the game. That's number one, number two, separate yourself from everybody else. Be the Apple to that IBM. Be the Virgin Airlines to British Air, find a way to differentiate yourself to really be memorable. And so the people can know that you're not like the rest of them. That's number two and number three, pivot. You're never no matter how successful you get if you don't change it, like I said earlier, looking in front of you and looking behind you, if you're not aware of your competitors because they're ready to eat your lunch. And if you're not aware of your future because that's ready to make you irrelevant, then you're not gonna lose. So you have those three things and throw on top of that, a big sprinkling of perseverance and you're gonna make it, don't be afraid of failure. You got one more success ahead of that failure.

Jeff Bullas

00:49:18 - 00:49:48

It's fantastic. It's really great to hear that wisdom that has been going through a lot of pain as well as joy. And Fred, thank you very much for sharing your journey and it's fascinating. I would love to sit down over a glass of wine in San Diego one day and just talk shit and use the word fuck a lot. And so I look forward to that. Sandy egg is one of my favorites so I'll have spent it.

Frederick Cary

00:49:48 - 00:49:54

The only bad news for you is we only do wine by the bottle. So you're not gonna get a glass if you come here.

Jeff Bullas

00:49:54 - 00:50:09

Mate, you're speaking my language. Thanks Fred. It's been an absolute joy to share an hour or so with you and look forward to catching up in real life because at the end of the day, that's what really matters.

Frederick Cary

00:50:10 - 00:50:12

Yeah, take care. Appreciate it. Thank you.