Founders: Let’s please focus on getting that first million in your bank account. 🙏

GM guys so we got to talk there's something I'm seeing that a lot of people are getting wildly wrong on here in the entrepreneurship and founder space especially I've seen recently this is coming up and I want to talk about it before I jump into that yesterday had a really really good session with Clarence if you're not following Clarence by the way he's awesome he's like it's hard to not like him to be honest with you plus he's kind of also helping entrepreneurs and founders we had a really really good session yesterday and so if you were not able to make that really suggest you coming next time if he has one or we have one it's really really helpful hands-on pragmatic helps entrepreneurs founders raising money not raising money really really good okay let me tell you what I'm seeing and what I think a lot of people are getting wrong on here and I'm gonna really break it down into the different pathways and how we can consider it okay so you may see news that's cropping up about the recent 80 million dollar exit that happened off of somebody that was only coding and developing for six months you may see Alexander Wang you know getting in scale AI getting acquired for billions you also may see Lucius on here right Lucius who raised you know a few million dollars three four or five million dollars for his company right he is the food app okay let me explain what I'm seeing and I think what's what's really getting people are getting wrong on here you are not Alexander Wang you are probably not the person who sold the app for 80 million dollars and I also don't think you're probably Lucius and I'm gonna explain why I'm saying this and I think you have two paths to consider here okay first off the first two people are very technical very very technical of course Alexander Wang even more so but very very technical okay Lucius is not technical he is a phenomenally good and vibrant salesperson okay most of you that I'm seeing on here are phenomenal founders and leaders but I don't think you fall into either of those categories in almost every case that I'm watching right now and so I think what's happening is that a lot of people are interpreting these big exits that are very fast or this big capital raise and saying well shit you know I just want to go for the prize and get it like why can't I do that it doesn't mean okay if you're going down the path of capital or really accelerated exit like that okay two of the biggest core competencies that are needed here are either being a very technical or be extremely vibrantly good at sales like extremely vibrantly good at sales like watch Lucius's videos and watch how vibrant he is and his personality is well-spoken and everything else okay and then I just want you to ask yourself afterwards and consider am I either of those two people and this is not to say that the other skills and core competencies are not valuable they really are right like being a really pristine and polished designer or a brand person or a marketer or a product person really really really valuable don't get me wrong especially if you're multiple of those but the for the people who are raising capital or looking at these rapid exits and ascertaining the fact that this is a viable pathway for them these are anomalies guys it's not not possible I'm not at all saying it's not possible and I'm not suggesting don't go hustle down the route I'm just asking you to mindfully consider do you fall into either of those two buckets because that's what's getting heavy capital and these anomaly circumstances or heavy exit you know or Lucius's case also like capital okay just consider whether you're down those two pathways if you're not down those two pathways and especially if you're a first-time founder I really think you need to consider is the capital pathway especially if you're early like pre-revenue is the capital pathway my path of least resistance okay so doing the math on this and I talked about this in another video many people are spending time hours tens of hours hundreds of hours thousands of hours building decks rebuilding decks and by the way I had a presentation business where all we did was create investor presentations and marketing materials so I spent a lot of time on this detail and and how long I have a very good feel for how long it takes and so you're spending hundreds of hours thousands of hours on decks on presenting on having discussions and there's a lot of value there of course I'm like going through the process I'm not the minimizing that I think it's totally true but if it's your first business especially or like one of your earlier businesses even if you even if you magically got down the pathway of raising the capital which is not impossible you can raise the capital there's a lot of people who'd invest money I'm not suggesting otherwise but even if you did after all the grind you raise the capital and you get to the to the promised land which is great what you think is the promised land you still haven't solved the business at that point the business is getting users and customers who will pay you and generating revenue that's the problem you have to solve and so whether it's in technical format or it's an analog format meaning you do it in like a services model to start which generates you quick margin with an easier business that replicates what the what the problem is that you're trying to solve right just in analog format and then you build product behind it an app or technology behind it to scale it you still have to you have to generate revenue like that's the problem that you're trying to solve and not just revenue profit margin meaning just earning money is not good enough you have a lot of expenses for your business of course right so what I'm trying to point out as you can tell is I love being on here I love every day being in the trenches with you guys and seeing what you're doing and yet I just think a lot of people are getting this wrong that you get your job as a founder or CEO is not to have a flashy app and not the kind of develop even though it helps you progress as an entrepreneur I think that's phenomenal that part of it but your job is to generate revenue and profit for your business that's the job as an entrepreneur there's just so few anomalies of companies especially in 2025 I'd say if you go back to 2015 there were more companies who are just kind of accumulating users and can maybe sell on the social media side things like that which I'll get to it in another video but your job as a founder especially in 2025 is to operate more from an entrepreneurial standpoint and hustle and get revenue and customers and margin and people who will pay you that is all that matters at the end of the day right and then of course scaling it beyond so I hope this video is helpful you know it's I know it's a challenging topic it's not meant to you know it's a push anybody off track I want you guys to absolutely kill it and I want to make sure you're on the right track at the end of the day so it's just something I'm observing if you have any questions about this about the nuance you know let me know you know I'm here to help aforementioned Clarence is here to help a lot of us are here to help and want to make sure you guys get your first million millions absolutely kill it so have a good Saturday guys I'm off the ball right now and I'll talk to everybody soon