From 20 Year Old Founder To $200M Exit | Dom McGregor Story

0:00Alex Chisnall:What stops founders from building something meaningful isn't the lack of ideas, it's the fear of getting started. I'm Alex Chisnall and this is Screw It Just Do It, the podcast for people who are ready to stop waiting, take action and make things happen. Imagine reading a book and then starting reading it again but knowing the answers. That's kind of how it feels a little bit. We were so young, 20 years old when we founded the company. You just don't know a lot of things. You have this like rapid education, kind of a baptism of fire of how to run a business and what a business is. Before you even kind of know, it wasn't like one day it was like, oh, this is going to be a thing.

0:34It was kind of like we started running these social media pages. I started growing them. I met Steve. He had a business. We came together and we focused on growing more social media pages. The opportunity here is probably something. If we fail, we've missed a big opportunity.

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1:29Alex Chisnall:Now let's jump into the main conversation. What I'd like to start, Dom, if it's okay with you, is that you've been very open with your struggles as a founder. Do you feel you're at the start of a brand new chapter to your life? It kind of looks that way from the outside looking in. um i mean imagine reading a book and then starting reading it again but knowing the answers that's kind of how it feels a little bit so obviously when i talk about the struggles founders go through um a lot of the time it's the unknown you know you don't know what it's going to be like you don't know what's going to happen because especially when you're you know we were so young 20 20 years old when we founded the company you just don't know a lot of things you don't know about the world so um you have this like rapid education kind of a baptism of fire of how to run a business and what a business is um before you even kind of know so um i guess the point now i'm stood at stood at stood at the next stage being like well a i know what to do you know the fundamentals b i know what it takes to do that's probably the bigger part uh so it means that look you know the the the world is a kind of a different place when you when you've been through and done it so uh it gives you a lot more options you know you know through networking through experience experience through relationships it just means that the world you look at the world slightly differently um but as well as having you know a successful exit off the back of it you have the self-confidence to be able to say okay what now what do i want to go after what i want to do how can i have a big impact in the world so yeah i mean it does feel like that it does feel like that but you know that's that's a combination of um the decompression of leaving social chain after such a intense period of time where you know we learn so much in just a short space of time start at the beginning funnily enough before I do um was it something that you know when you did exit and you talk about you know the network that you've built you know um off the back of just working with some amazing individuals and some amazing companies were you in a position then that you literally opportunities were presented to you and um I read something recently someone said in your 20s you should say yes to everything and in your 30s you should say no to everything I don't know where you stand on that but I'm assuming you know you must have been you know overwhelmed with different opportunities and trying to work out often which are the right ones for you to take takes a little bit of introspection yeah I mean thankfully I've got a lot of good opportunities that was you know really nice to have conversations with people and just see people were interested in speaking to me you have great opportunities as well you know good and great uh but you actually more than anything because your identity is so attached to the business you just need time time to yourself you need time to answer some questions in your head um so you actually don't really entertain anything uh apart from figuring out some kind of key questions within yourself so um you know i don't want to compare it to a relationship or any of that but it's kind of like you know you just need time for yourself and you just need to figure out some questions uh because you put so much into the business and social journey put so much into it that stepping away from that and exiting was a case of okay now you know who i answer asked to ask myself some difficult questions about myself so yeah you know you get tons of opportunities and have great conversations and meet people but um as i said before you've got tools in yourself to be able to look at the world differently and you know 10 years ago um i read you at university um what were you hoping that would lead to like did you have a game plan at the time or you know was there an end goal inside a career that you were looking to do before you know fate maybe intervened fate yeah we can call it fate um as a 10 years ago i was yeah just about sit my a-levels and pack off my bags to university um and you know the the ambition for me was i was really passionate about sport i really enjoyed sport um but i kind of knew i wasn't good enough to play at elite level for anything so I was really interested in the kind of the science and the data on sport um so I went to universities to do sport science and um you're kind of probably following the old cliche if you following something you're enjoying a passion um because it my life was you know really enjoyable my entire time watching sports analyzing sports and finding out about how how and why the body works so um yeah I mean then you know that's a completely different path I remember doing business in first year at university and scraping by and nothing like god business sucks kind of like my idea that i hate business you know all i remember is these decision trees and having to write about decision trees i can tell you what i've never done one single decision tree in the last 10 years um so yeah no you know there was there was a rough plan but i think one anything i always had this idea that uh i'll be fine i'll figure something out um i had a lot of you know conviction in myself so whether I was going to you know end up somewhere else or do something else I always kind of just had the confidence I could back myself if I wanted to do something and has that always stayed stayed with you like over the last 10 years or is that as that wavered at all I think I think you know as the challenge gets a little bit bigger and the confidence does need to fall but it also sometimes lags when you start thinking about how big the challenge can be so that in that lag period obviously everyone has the kind of self-questioning self-analysis of like can we do this can I do this uh but for me it was always a case of you know that eventually came around to like yes we can um and over time that like got shorter and shorter so now it kind of feels like the self-doubt is more of a quick two-minute conversation in my head and I can get on with things what were the the first steps then that and you talk about you know that that confidence but what kind of steps led you to ultimately drop out of uni and and launch a business have you got like entrepreneurship in the background of the family or was it first time no i mean you know so the it wasn't you know it wasn't a dropout start a business it wasn't like one day it was like oh this is going to be a thing it was kind of like we started running these social media pages i started growing them i met steve he had a business we came together and you know we focused on growing more social media pages um then at first it was kind of again i took a year out of university at first just to see you know i do believe in that you know taking opportunities if they come across you the whole part of university in my opinion is to expose yourself to potential opportunities as well move away from home meet new people have fun learn about things so this was my opportunity this came across me as a kind of case of being like let's see what happens there so thankfully i kind of the support around me and the infrastructure on universities letting me take a year out but okay let's let's try it so yeah that year was that um working at wall park growing the social media pages learning what the social media thing could be um having a bit of you know doing a bit of traveling as well fortunately and at the end of it and i was building what the foundation of social chain was raising investments that in the company so um it it was almost like an incubation period of figuring out what the hell this could be you know social media was so so new at the time so yeah i mean uh it wasn't uh it wasn't a jump out of university into a business it was a case of let's jump out this opportunity and then we can turn this opportunity into something meaningful um and that's kind of you know in the back of my mind was like hey we've got to work hard here because we're not there yet this isn't something sustainable this isn't something this is that's kind of when the the kind of match paper and the flame was ignited i mean like hey let's let's try and do this because the opportunity here is is you know is probably something and but the if we fail you know we've missed a big opportunity so yeah that that was that was kind of where the spark came from so that's it for today's bite-sized episode of screw it just do it make sure you follow or subscribe for more game-changing conversations and remember the only thing standing between you and your business breakthrough is the decision to screw it and just do it