From Nonprofit Founder To Building A $300M Pilates Business

26:12I had to finance them. And I was paying a monthly, you know, a monthly fee to do that. And then and that so those those machines were $6 ,000 at that time,$7 ,000 a piece. That was 70 grand, but I didn't have to pay it all up front. And then the rent was nine. No, sorry, seven grand, seven grand a month. Damn. And what was your first month of sales? Oh, I like we literally did over 100 grand in the first first month. That's insane. It was nuts. I mean, but but I was betting big. And, you know, I think I told this story that but it's so good. I have to tell it. I was petrified. You know, those moments where you have that you're like, all in and you're like, Oh, my God, what am I doing?

26:53Larry, here comes Larry again, from back on my feet. And he's like, and listen, I'll give you 75 grand for 30 % of the business. If you don't want to use all your capital, like, listen, you grew this nonprofit, it. I know you're going to be successful. You know, if you want to keep a little cash, I'll do this deal. And back then 75 grand, when all I had was 175 was a lot of money. And I, you know, I was beginning to think it was a responsible thing to do, to take this money. Maybe I should do this deal. And then I remember thinking I have the money. And if I take his money, all I'm going to say is this is a massive doubt in myself.

27:30I'm doubting myself. And when things really get hard, I am then going to lean into that 75K and convince myself like, well, at least I have that, you know, like, you know, I don't need to, this is too hard. At least I have my 75K. And so I was like, I can't, I can't take that money. It's just gonna, it's gonna take my drive away. It's gonna take the hunger. I need to feel like I'm being chased by a bear. I need to figure this out. And that's the way this is going to be successful. So I just, I mean, every, every hour I was passing out solid core pamphlets, flyers, like anything I could do to get you to come take a class.

28:05And then fortunately what happened was the same thing that happened to me when I took it. Everybody started telling their friends and Sam, after your first class, right, you said you were so sore. Guess what? Everybody wants in a bad way, by the way, but, but everybody wants to tell everybody how, Oh my God, I'm so sore. I did this workout called solid core. You've got to go. They all want to tell each other how much they're working out. So, so it just snowballed. Did you create the routine? That was part of the license. So I got trained on what was called this method called the greed. So we had someone come in and train me and then I trained my trainers on how to do that.

28:44I'm not a personal trainer. Like that's not my background. And so we started again, and using their training program for us. And then soon realized that like, we actually want to make this more athletic. These names that they're using were kind of silly. It was like nothing intuitive. And then the machine started breaking. And so I was like, this relationship is doing nothing for me. I don't know why I have to be associated with Legree. I want to like make my own machines. I need to be in charge of manufacturing. like the workouts don't make sense. I had hired somebody else to do the training who had a big background in MMA and, and, and, you know, she was certified and everything else.

29:27And we started playing around with the workout. She wrote a massive training program. And then we separated from Legree and, uh, he sued me like immediately. Which you won, I think, right. Or, uh, sorry, you, you're not allowed to say, well, I mean, it's far enough down, but for all intents purposes, he had to buy back his machines for me. And we agreed to never, to never talk again, which we haven't. So, and, and frankly, after we did that, all of these other people who were part of Lagree then also started to make their own machines, realizing like, why are we paying a massive premium on machines?

30:04This isn't a franchise. So we're not getting the benefit of a national brand here. Like it just didn't make any business for any sense. So yeah. And then making my own machines, like that was a huge gamble. I didn't know how to do that, obviously. And like tooling, engineering, manufacturing prototypes. I probably spent lost a couple hundred grand just because I didn't know what I was doing. Maybe probably even more than that. But like, we got a machine. It wasn't right. I already like it like it didn't work properly. Like we had to redo it. It was a mess. What was your first year's revenue? The first year revenue, I think you asked me this last time and then I had a I think you said a million dollars, right?

30:46Well, the first, it was more than that because that was the first studio's revenue. And then in the first year, you know, I had five of these open. So you had, I didn't know you had five at the end of the first year. Yeah. That's insane, right? Yeah. But same thing. I'm like momentum, momentum, momentum. You ever heard the funny story about Subway? And I don't know if it's true or not, but like, I just love it. So I keep telling it, but Subway had one location and they were like off the beaten path and they weren't doing that great. So they thought, you know, we need to open a second one because people will think if we have two that we're killing it.

31:20And I like remember hearing that story. I'm like, that's so brilliant. And even though we were killing it, I was like, I need to maximize on this and get two and three and four open so that people start being like, I'm seeing this thing everywhere. I must be missing out. They must be doing so well. This thing must work. And that really like served us really well. So we just kept reinvesting the profits into the next studio. I kept negotiating, you know, as long, like longer terms to pay back if I needed to. And I just stopped doing security deposits with landlords. How old was the business when you sold each different chunk?

31:57Because you sold it a couple of times, right? Yeah. So I did a minority deal in 2017. So the business was four years old at that point. And we had 27 locations on an annualized basis. Each one of those studios was doing about 700 grand. Okay, so 27 times 700. That's roughly$19 million in revenue. Yeah. You sold the business for what valuation? Or you sold a chunk for what valuation? I did a pretty big valuation back then. So the valuation was like close to$60 million. Wow. Yeah. And the firms definitely balked at that. And I just said, listen, it's not so much about the number, it's about the terms.

32:38And I know how much money I need to get to 100 studios. and that's$12 million because I'm going to continue to use the profits. And I also want to take secondary off of the table. And obviously no one like that, especially that early. And I was like, listen, these are, those are the terms. Like don't, don't get so freaked out about the terms. Tell me what you need in order to do this deal. And so there was a healthy pref on the, the minority deal that I agreed to. And I had no problem doing that. And I remember two people We're like, you know, and well, how do we know you're not going to walk away for 6 million?

33:13And I'm like, I would like, I would just sell the whole business if that was the case. Like, you think I'm in this for$6 million? Which is such a good way to like approach it. You are good. I'm really bad at negotiating. Like all my staff knows that like, don't come to Sam about salary discussions, because my default is like, I just say, I just say, you got to talk to this other person about that. Because I just say yes to everything. So I've like removed myself from negotiation because I'm too nice. and like, well, how do you think I get on this podcast? I know. Well, I don't know. That would sound like a backhanded compliment.

33:47It's not. But I'm just I'm soft as fuck. Like I just I just I'm like, yeah, I'll do whatever you want. I'll do. But to approach like a negotiation of like, well, don't say no, just tell me what you need to win. And I'll see if I can actually make that happen for you. But then in order for you to win, it has to take into account. Here's what I need. Exactly. And so I did that with landlords and, you know, and private equity. It's like, you know, landlord would always block, but we, we always do security deposits. I'm like, that's not really a response, right? Like, what are you trying to protect against?

34:20Right? You have a corporate guarantee, you have X, like, help me understand this, and I can try to solve the problem a different way. So I solved the private equity problem with the preferred return. You know, it's like your downside is, I'm not going to see another dime until you make, you know, the 2.5x your money. That's just such a funny response. We always, well, why do I have to give a deposit? Because we've always do deposits. Well, that's not a good reply. Give me a different reply. That's the best. That is the best. And it really does work because you make them articulate what's important to them.

34:55And usually what's important to landlords is, you know, the ledger, the balance sheet of the total, you know, term of the deal. And, you know, so that's why we were able to push rent a little bit further down the road and like increase the rent in year five or six. And, you know, okay, you're protected on the corporate guarantee, you know, front. So like, you know, you have three years, I'm not going to do a security deposit. And let me tell you why that's important for me and why it benefits you. Because the more I get open, the bigger the brand is, you know, it's going to get more brand equity and, you know, this location will do better.

35:28So yeah, I think people, all people can do a better job of, of negotiating. And it's one of a really amazing skill sets to, to learn. Chris Voss, never split the difference. I love that book. I read that book during COVID cause I really had to get good at negotiation. And what's the, what's like the, the, the summary of that? Well, he just goes through these different strategies, right. About like mirroring and he gives this example. One of my favorite examples was he gives this of a car. He goes in, he's like, listen, I have, call it$10 ,300. You know, that's the car that I want. And just say it was like 15 grand or something.

36:02And the guy comes back and like, okay, great news. I got down to 14. He's like, wow, thank you so much. I really appreciate you advocating for me. But the number of the amount of money I have right now hasn't, hasn't changed. I still have$10 ,300. If you can do the deal for that, you know, I'm here, goes back, comes down more, gets to like, call it 11, three. And at that point, he knows, right, because he hasn't moved. He knows you're not walking away, you are, you're so close, the guy's going to do the deal. And I remember using that strategy a lot as well in negotiating, you get people to come and come, come.

36:36And now they're just too close that they're not going to move away. So the whole point is like not meeting in the middle. Wait, so is the point is, then do you go to 11 ,000? Or do you stick at 10? He stuck? He stuck? Because that guy is so close. Now he's not going to walk away when it's like, you know, used to be five grand away. Now you're just 800 grand or$800 away. So he like, ends up getting, you know, the deal done. And he just goes through different strategies in there on how you can mirror, you know, this is what I hear you saying. Yes, you know, and like, don't walk away when you hear no, like a no doesn't have to be a bad thing.

37:10So me and my lawyer, who I had on staff at that point, who's just a jack of all trades and unbelievable, you know, we read that book, Sam, because during COVID, we knew it's like, what's going to kill us? What's going to kill this company is not that we don't have revenue coming in right now. It's if these landlords sue us and make us pay rent. And no one really understood who was right or wrong then. You know, it's like, well, this is a force majeure. It's like, well, we don't have any money coming in. How do you expect us to pay rent? So we just said, we just have to get the landlords on our side.

37:40We have to figure out a way to restructure the deal that doesn't allow us to pay rent when we are closed. And we also can't kick the can down the road. So we came up with strategies like, how about we lengthen the term of the lease? We'll add another year or two to the back end of the lease so that you have a longer tenant. If you force us to pay rent, you're not going to get another dime from us because we're going to go bankrupt. But if you work with us, or maybe we increase the rent, you know, year eight, nine, and 10 to make up some of the difference for this. But we know that we couldn't in a year from now have this like, okay, you owe rent for those three months and give us a check for 90K.

38:20We had 75 studios. Like there was just no way we were going to recover from that. So anyway, those kinds of things, you know, people talk about how COVID killed so many gyms. And a lot of that was not just because of COVID. It was because of these operational and financial decisions that weren't like made as smartly as maybe some other companies could have made and not understanding what was going to be the demise of them. When you completely got out, it was like, what,$300 million valuation? Yeah, a little more than that. But yeah. And that was last April. I sold all my shares. How old was the business then?

38:57Nine and a half years. that's a great run and when you look at like what made you guys great was it operational excellence was it because your brand was cool was it because the workout was uh better than any anywhere else like what's like the honest assessment of like these were the one or two factors that set us apart from barry's boot camp or whoever else is you consider to be competition or all the mom and pops out there yeah the workout is incredible and and i'm glad you've gone to it because you can understand a little bit what i'm saying it's just like unlike anything that was ever out there And now there's a lot more Pilates out there, but we had speed to market.

39:31We are the dominant player, you know, in the space. And we have a pretty cool brand. So I think the aesthetics, we know what our brand is, right? The whole tagline is create the strongest version of yourself. And I think the company is still doing a really good job of leaning into that. One of my favorite campaigns we did was it's not for everyone. and we really went in and like, this isn't, this may not be for you, but it's for somebody, you know, it was almost like a Nike commercial. It's like, if you like to push yourself. Those are great commercials. Yeah. Yeah. And you're talking about the Nike Olympic ones.

40:07Yes, exactly. Yeah. Those are great. Winnings when I'm not for everyone. So we did, we did this campaign a few years ago and it really like people, people watch that. And it's like, I want that to be for me. I'm tough. I'm strong. I like to push myself. I want to grow. I can handle tough things. And so I think there's this aura of, if you know somebody who does sell a core, you're like, I know who you are. Like, I know exactly the type of person you are. You're driven, you're ambitious. You like to work hard. You're not afraid of the work. You're not, the work is actually the joy for you. You want to feel good at the end of the day, knowing you put your all and tried your best at like everything you did.

40:45So I think the brand ethos is definitely a big part of our success. And don't get me wrong, again, operationally, I'm a pretty good operator. Are you like pretty good where you're like, you're actually the best, like you're top? Or are you like, that's like, I'm pretty good at it, but it's maybe not the best, the thing that I'm best at. Yeah, I'm great at putting systems processes in place, but like, I'm not the right person to run solid core today. If that makes sense. Like it's too big, it's too monolithic. It's like, I just, I move quickly and that's not actually what you need. You need somebody like Brian, who's much more methodical, analytical, patient.

41:22I think that for most entrepreneurs who are like new, I think that branding and some of these exercises aren't terribly important. But I think that if you have a proven track record where you're like, this person executes well and they execute. When you have that track record, which I think I do, like for all my businesses now, I spend a lot of time on branding where I'm like, what is this? How does this make someone feel? like the colors, the name, things like that. And like I said, I don't think that's important for most people when they're just starting out because it's like, you just got to get started and get some traction.

41:58With you guys, you kind of, it seems like you came out the gate with good branding and you're kind of in that boat, by the way, where like, this is your second company and you're like, it's like, no, you execute it. So it's okay to like kind of sweat this up or think this stuff through. Who inspired you for your branding and what was the exercise that you went through? Yeah, we're similar there. I love the branding and marketing as well. So I did that for Back of My Feet and SolidCore in the beginning. You know, like with Back of My Feet, it just, the name itself, I remember someone telling me like, oh, you should call this thing the Homeless Runners Association of America.

42:35And I was like, that alone will make the thing fail because it doesn't sound cool. It doesn't, you know what I mean? It sounds like one of these, every other organization that just like, uh, you know, and I wanted us to be cool. And coming up with the name for solid core, it was just like reiterating a bunch of names. I'm like, Oh, that just has it. That just makes you sound bad-ass. Like, you know, when people like, Oh, that's solid. Like, obviously like the core piece has, you know, lots of double meanings and whatever. And then the brackets I thought could indicate like your obliques and the tightness and community and together.

43:10And so I was like, this is it. It just, it just kind of looks cool. And they, you know, we haven't done a, a redo of the logo or anything. Like it just kind of stuck around and the brackets, I mean, I have, I don't know if you can see, but I have like a bracket. Now I lifted up my shirt for YouTube. I have a bracket, I have a bracket tattoo. Um, again, I just, I just always feel like things need to be cool for people to, to want to, to want to be a part of them. And so I didn't want to spend a ton of like stupid money on branding and marketing for another idea that probably would have worked also.

43:44But one of my mantras is that there's more than one right answer. And this was like a right enough answer.

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44:49Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Check show notes for details. I want to ask you about some ideas, but you kind of caught the Pilates thing at the right. You timed that one well. What fitness-related businesses excite you right now you're when you were talking about uh a few you're talking about something when and i started thinking of uh hydra it's called hydrix have you seen hydrix h y d r o x hyrox i think it's called hyrox yeah is it hyrox sorry like the competition yes the competition in new york i like i went and saw it it's awesome it is awesome like i saw that and i'm like oh this is like gonna be a this is it's already a thing but it's like this is like really going to be a thing.

45:34Are there any things that you see where you're like, this is this is like, gonna pop? Well, this I will talk about boutique fitness in a second. But one of the things that my husband and I went to friends just did is 29 0 29. Have you heard of this event? Yes. The founders in Hampton. Did you talk to Mark? Yeah, I did talk to Mark. Yes. So I'm going to go to the releasing the schedule soon. I'm going to one of them. You got to go. I we just did it. So the 29029 is the elevation of Everest. So they created this event where they partner with ski mountains for the most part around the country. And you have to climb whatever the number of times up that mountain, that's the equipment of Everest.

46:13So we were in Mount Tremblant, which is in Canada. And our mountain was about 2200 elevation. So we had to climb this thing 15 times 1.7 mile and it was it was steep and I'm like a marathoner I've done these things I really was like I'm just walking you know up up a hill like I'll be fine completely different than anything I've ever done before for the pure duration like if you think it takes you 60 to 90 minutes to get up these things you know you're out there for 15 to 20 hours some people longer Like some people literally had to be on their feet for 30 hours to get the 15 hikes in for the time that you're allotted because you have 36 hours.

46:56It is unbelievably inspiring the people that are there because most people are there because they're going through a divorce. They're fighting some health battle. They've lost a hundred pounds. They've got something, you know, bigger out going and in their life. And they need to show themselves that they can climb the effing mountain physically so that they can go back and do it, you know, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, whatever. And it's just awesome. Like, it's awesome. Yeah. And his business is wild. Basically, I think they sell out like most other events now. I think it's like$5 ,000 to go and they provide the accommodations and it's not you're not slumming it.

47:35It's like really nice stuff. Yeah. And so you think that's like going to take off? I think things like that. Like, I think there's going to be high rocks. Love it. Innovation. there was a crossfit games i think you're going to start to see more events you know remember when like ragnar and some of the um you know ragnar relay no what's that oh my gosh so ragnar used to have it's like how do you spell it r-a-g-n-a-r it might still be going on i just don't know anybody who does it anymore but it was these relays where you you had two vans and you had like 24 hours to run hundreds of miles and like you're you're you're literally driving through the night like your vans are moving on there's stations or it was just again so cool i don't really know if it's still going on but it is it is and the company that owns it i think they own like a bunch of different events now yeah um so i think that because i did i really think that there's this continued movement i mean i know you don't drink i really don't drink a lot of my friends don't want to be partying like everybody is looking at least in my group for like physical fun activities to be doing with their time.

48:44And I think these sort of endurance challenge events of all sorts are going to continue to grow and pop up all over the place. Cause that's how I think a lot of people want to spend their time. And I'll tell you, I didn't have my phone with me for the entire time I hiked. I refused to bring it with, and I just am craving being out in nature, challenging myself physically. And I think a lot of other people are too. So you're going to see more of that um i think a lot and then from the by the way mark told me he was like i was like what makes you guys special and he was like well um i gave a big breakdown but he was like one of the things is that we make it so like most of the people are gonna fail like we want it to be hard enough to where if you get done with it it's a big deal to you and you're gonna want to talk about it yeah he's like most events they actually make it where too many people succeed And so he was like talking about how like the mindset behind making that event.

49:39But you know what they do really well. So the ascents, they list different mountains. So you actually don't feel like you're failing. So even though you may have not made it to Everest, like if you climbed 10 of those, you made it to Kilimanjaro. So they give you a medal, a Kilimanjaro medal instead of like... Did you get all of it? You did all of it? Yeah. Did you almost quit at all? Or were you like, no, I'm getting this no matter what? Well, Mark will tell you. So I didn't get any sleep the night before. And I actually did like a mini meltdown. And I'm like, I don't do well with sleep deprivation.

50:07I'm not going to be able to do this. And so I was on three hours of sleep. And my strategy was, I'm just going to do as many as I can, as fast as I can before I hit a wall. So I was on pace to probably finish within the top five. And I, my 11th lap, it just, you know, like, have you ever done an endurance event? And like the wall, it just happens. And it happened. and I made it up the mountain halfway in the time that it was taking me to reach the whole thing. I had to sit in the med tent for 45 minutes. I'm asking them, I'm like, I can't, I can't keep going. I need to go down to the mountain.

50:43Does my half of lap count so I can come back tomorrow? And they're like, no. And I was like, I'm like, what? Like, and now I really can't go down. And I just couldn't get myself together. And along comes Mark and he gives me Coke, like not that kind of Coke. He gives me Coca-Cola. Yeah. And he was like, yeah, he's like, you're going to do this. I'm going to walk up the second half of the mountain with you. You know, you're not going to go back down. I can see it in your eyes. You know, like you're not somebody who needs to go back down. So like, yeah, I took that shot of Coca-Cola and like got up and we made it up the second half of the mountain.

51:20And then I went down and went to bed and finished my next four in the morning. But yeah, Mark like came along and saved me. You had this, you put in the notes, you said, the number one reason we had to let people go was because they lacked proper judgment and critical thinking skills. You said, what I discovered was that the best critical thinkers are great at taboo because you have to think on your feet and be strategic when you describe the word you want to get people to say. What's taboo? I don't even know what that is. Yeah. So taboo is a game where you like have teams and you get a card and at top of the card says a word.

51:50Let's say it says, you know, book and you have to get your team to say that word. But underneath that word book is five words that you can't say to get them to say it. So it might say like page or reading or things like that. So you have to think creatively and I have to know who's on my team, you know, so like how would, how would get Sam to say this, you know, say this word. And like, there are people who crush that game. And from my experience, whenever we've played on a retreat or something, the people who get stuck or flustered or can't think on their feet, whatever, usually don't work there very much longer.

52:24And I'm like, there has to be a correlation between this game, the ability to figure it out of like, who's on your team? How do you make this happen? Thinking on their feet. And some of the smartest people that I think are my friend group are also excellent at that game. So there's something there. You also said something like, you're like, well, AI is taking over fitness and you can personalize data, supplements, exercise, food based on individuals. So for example, if you're a 44-year-old woman who wants to gain 10 pounds of muscle, we know your blood work. We know this about you. We know that about you.

52:58Here's the program that you're going to be using or you should be using. Is there anyone in the space who you like who's taking advantage of that insight? Yeah. So I'm an advisor and an investor. So I will disclose that to a company called Oxfit. And they are an at-home. it's sort of like tonal, but I think it's much more comprehensive and better. And their AI game is really progressing to do just that. It knows when you're tired, it knows certain things, you know, how you're lifting the weight, you're imbalanced, whatever. And they are really investing in the AI so that they can partner and you can add your blood work in and you can add every sort of data point that you have about yourself and then what your goals are.

53:37And it will design again, like exactly what you need to be doing. And I think we're really, I think that's going to start to take off in a lot of different areas, but listen, you know, there's a lot of people who are still just like checking the box. And I think that's why they get frustrated because they're not doing the right things for the results that they want. And it's a little bit of a guessing game, you know, not knowing your metabolism, not knowing your deficiencies, not knowing, you know, again, your age or your hormones and how all these things are affecting the workouts that you do.

54:06So I think that's just going to continue to, to within five years, I think it'll be kind of foolish to just be like guessing on what you should be doing to work out. I've had a handful of friends get diagnosed with cancer recently. And one of my friends detected it because he did one of these like pre novo or something like that. One of those like scans that you just pay money for. And I've like in 50 years or some amount of decades, we're going to look back and we're going to think it's insane that you had cancer growing inside of your body and it could have been okay had you just been told that it was there and it's like you've got this like foreign thing in your body uh that you don't know about it and that's kind of a that we accept that that's normal now but i think that in sometime in the future we're not we're going to be unwilling to accept that and so i'm personally personally really interested in that i am also personally quite interested in like figuring out exactly the fitness or diet that works for me.

55:08I can't based off of blood work. I don't think I've seen a product out there that's doing it. That's nailing that though. Yeah. I think a lot of it's like pseudoscience. I just I think it's none of it's like awesome at the moment. You know what I mean? Yeah, I agree. And I think it will get there because if people can figure that if people can figure that out. And again, And imagine if you've been so frustrated your entire life to not see the results when you're willing to do the work, when you're willing to put in the effort and like, it's still not happening. I just think it's only a matter of time with where we are with the AI stuff and the demand for it, frankly.

55:47Are you going to start another company? No, sir. Not right now. Not right now. I know too much. I know too much. Like the beauty of starting companies is I think a lot of times is naivete. Okay. And I'll also be truly honest that like some, the financial motivation is a little bit gone, of course, you know, I really felt with back of my feet in solid core that I'm like doing one, I was very into them both, but two, it was like, I'm going to make people's lives better. I felt like I'm the perfect person to do that. So I haven't had, I'm not, and I'm also not looking for it right now, but if I have that experience again, where I come across something or I'm moved drive.

56:26And I'm like, I have to do this. Like that is when I will, that is when I will do it. But for for now, I just feel like I'm giving myself some freedom, some time to field this new chapter. Are you like seeking anything? Or you're just like, like, because that's like an interesting mindset that I've been in before. And I don't know if I approached it the best way. But it's like the mindset. I'm just going to go out and live and I'm going to be my ears are open. If I get called. Yes, I'm just going to live right now. And yeah, I think even if I got called right now, Sam, I wouldn't I don't know if I could if I could do it.

57:09Like because you're tired or you're happy. Exactly. It's not tired. I'm actually very energized. But you've read the book Die with Zero. Yeah, I think we talked about that. Right. So I'm just, you know, I want to be playing like I'm trying to stay in my feminine because I've been in my masculine a lot in my life. And like, I want to have room and prioritizing playing. And for me, that is beach volleyball. It's any kind of sports. It's connecting with friends and family and being able to be a little bit carefree. And I don't want to put so much rigid structure back in my schedule. Um, I just feel like I need a breather from that.

57:47and I'm not willing to do it. All right. So we are about to wrap up and Anne was like, you got to talk about this idea. All right. What's this idea? I read it, but I need you to explain it better. So you got this idea. Tell me about Jumpseat. Yeah. So you've all been at the airport, right? And like your flight gets canceled or delayed and you're desperate to get home and you, of course, like you go up to the airlines and they can't do anything because they're not going to kick anybody else off of the flight. They don't care about your status and whatever. And so the idea for Jumpseat is very much like Ticketmaster or something else where there's a platform where, let's just say, Sam, again, your flight got canceled and you're like, damn it, I have to get home.

58:23You go on Jumpseat and you offer$1 ,000 for any seat on any flight going back to, where do you live? Let's say I'm going back to New York. Okay, so you're going back to New York and you put the offer out there and all someone has to do is accept your offer. You trade seats. They now are on your flight whenever that flight gets rescheduled, but they don't have the same timeline that you do to get home. So it's like no problem. And it can work in reverse where if I'm at the airport and I'm like, you know, I have a flight back to Miami, but like I'm in no rush. I'm going to put my seat up for sale.

58:57And if someone else wants to get home sooner, they can buy my seat. Well, it's like seat geek for play tickets where it's like someone owns them. But if you own it, you can auction off your... Totally. You can auction it off. But think about how much happier your customers would be and the airlines where you could build in the airline to take a little bit of the cut. So now I'm a happier Delta customer because I solved my own problem, even though Delta couldn't solve it, but they're allowing this platform and you can even do it for seats. So let's just say I'm on a flight and I'm sitting in 32A and I'm like, I really want to fly first class.

59:29This person has first class. They don't really care. They put up their seat for like 500 bucks and they'll come back and take my economy seat. And now I get to sit in first class. Would you ever pursue this? No, because I don't think this is a game I can win. I'm not like a tech person or something. That's why I want like, I want this product so I can use it. So that's why I want somebody who's like, oh my God, this makes so much sense. And you fell in love with the name Jumpseat. That's a good name. It's a great name. And I have a logo and everything. Like someone - Wait, do you really? It's so good.

1:00:01I'll send it to Ari. You can see it. It's so good. How could someone, wait, would you actually work with someone if they wanted to? If someone wanted to, how would, do you want to give away? How could someone contact you? Like, can they just DM you on Instagram? yeah yeah if you can if you can't figure out how to find me you're not the right person to totally so yeah uh how much you think well whoever owns jumpseat.com they're they're just sitting on it not using it you own jumpseat.com yeah of course i own it how much did you pay for this like five dollars or something not much jumpseat.com was five dollars i bought it years ago i literally had, I've had this idea for such a long time.

1:00:42And I'm like, just make the logo. You know, like I had my friend make the logo and it's, it's really good. It's, it's, the name is so perfect. It's like, what, I can just trade seats. And, and people are like, oh my God, airlines are never going to allow that. And I'm like, they already allow aggregates like Expedia and, you know, they're already in their backend system and this solves a problem for them. And they can make more money by just taking$5 off of every time someone switched seats. Why would, you know, why would they care. This is so funny. I thought this was a half-baked thing. So you're in.

1:01:14I mean, I would love for someone to do it. I'll give you the, wait, I won't give it for you. You can give me a little bit of equity in the company and you can run with it. But you're going to have to convince me why you're the right person to do it. What would they have to say to convince you? Well, I'd have to know again why it's a game they can win. What's their background? Do they have the tech? Do they have any connections in the airline industry? Have they ever built anything like this before, you know, why would this be interesting to them? Do they know how to scale and build something? Like, do they have the tech experience, which I don't have at all.

1:01:46That's so funny. I like went to jumpseat.com and I'm like, Oh, hey, it's registered, but no one's using it. I did not realize you're this you're this far down. All right. So they're gonna well, here's what I want to know, you're gonna have to message me and I'll have to do a I'll do a shout out, like if there ever are any results, but you have to let me know how many people message you and if anyone's actually promising okay i will i said it last time it felt like i was like uh like being not genuine because i was so happy but you're um you inspire the shit out of me and uh you're one of my favorite people on earth i i have found myself um since we last talk like approaching a situation i mean like what would ann think about this um and so i just want to thank you for being part of my life and um doing these podcasts you're the best you mean a to me.

1:02:31That's really sweet. We'll get you a t-shirt, Sam, that says, what would he do? Just kidding. That would be great. That would be great. As long as it's a crop top. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. As long as it's a crop top, then it's good. And it must be at least two sizes too small. I appreciate you. Thank you very much. That's the pod.

1:03:11Hey, let's take a quick break because there's a quote that I love. I want to read you. It's that we shape our tools and thereafter they shape us. And, you know, as an entrepreneur, if you're using a bank that was built in the 90s, you're operating like you're in the 90s. And trust me, I've been there. clunky portals, random holds on your money,$50 wire fees, and then being told, please visit your local branch. Well, that's why I switched to a different type of banking solution, Mercury. It turns your financial chores into a smooth workflow. You can do wires, invoices, cards, reimbursements, two clicks, and I'm done.

1:03:42If you're already using Mercury, respect. If you're still using one of the old big banks, I got questions for you. So go visit mercury.com and give it a test drive. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group, Column A, and Evolve Bank & Trust members FDIC.