The Digital Disrupter with Jeremy Greene

0:00Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door, expertly cleaned and folded, so you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you. So did you hear about Dave? Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. Mmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great. Let's be realistic. Have you tried it? No, I haven't. I was messing around with it. I'm like, holy shit. It's pretty damn neat. Let me be very clear. Echo is the best discover engine ever created, period.

0:41You could quite literally grab your remote and you could be like, show me every single movie with Will Smith, and it will search every single platform in the entire world and bring all those movies to you. We have over 21 million pieces of content. To put into hindsight, Netflix has like 6 ,000, I think. That is insanity. Echo will become one of the biggest platforms in the world. We're quite literally trying to become the Spotify of content. I don't think you understand how crazy it is. Show me all Christmas family movies.

1:11Oh, my Lord.

1:16So, Jeremy, give the audience a little background on you, man. You grew up from humble beginnings, and now you've done some amazing things, has been a part of amazing companies doing something fucking amazing with echo. So talk to us a little bit, man, tell the audience who you are. Yeah. So, you know, I'm a kid who came from like a trail park and broken home. And, you know, mom was a heroin addict. Sister was prostituting when I was fucking 13 years old. Brother was a big drug dealer. State took me away. Age of 13, bounced around from group homes and kid shelters. And in fact, the state of Maine didn't have a place to put me.

1:52so they put me in a place called the the the main youth center which was so bad with abuse the amnesty international came in and actually shut the place down and took all the kids out we had actually found out like years later that um so this is going to sound crazy what i'm about say but this is going to be you might want to clip this so i remember when when jeff eps jeffrey Epstein and Glenn Maxwell came out, I was like, how do I know them? Well, they started a modeling agent in New England and were going to the children's prisons and going like, oh, we're going to turn you into models. I remember Glenn Maxwell walking around the main news center, like telling kids she was going to turn them into models.

2:39Holy shit. This is why she was found in New England in that house in fucking New Hampshire. Like, this is true. this is true shit this is true shit i'm talking about here um so i went to hell you know i mean i went to hell i never let it drive me though i never like believed i wasn't capable of doing anything i just like looked at my family i was like yeah i'm never going to become that like that's you know i came to i came from bullshit then i i mean i know people look at me like oh he's really successful but i think i'm like moderately successful um i i always stay in that zone because like I'm always hungry and I never want to get into a space where like I think I've like made it because then like I it just it just doesn't I don't ever want I don't ever feel like I've made anything I'm like oh if I only what about this or how do I achieve that I live in that spectrum every day of my life well dude to your point man I mean and thank you for sharing that with us and you know to your point of never stopping and thinking like I've made it right I think there's something special about that because most successful people, if you look back at the dudes like Kobe Bryant, God rest his soul, wins a world championship next day in the gym at 4 a.m., you're not done.

3:57Winning is temporary and it is important to, okay, you achieve something, but there's got to be another finish line because if we don't continue to push, we decay, man. Decay means death. So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text. But which you do you listen to? Is it, we could buy a house in Tulum. Get optioning those options. We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research. Get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more at finra.org slash trade smart. I tell people no sleeping in the trophy room. right it's like you can have as many trophies as you want you're not sleeping in this room you get your fucking ass out there and grab another one so i you know you know michael jordan didn't sit around counting all his rings kobe didn't either they were like yo like job's not done job's not finished not done and but that's you know and i think that's that that mama mentality who i love kobe by the way um i think that very few people think that way in the world because I think people are programmed to believe that they need to rely on all these other things to be successful, to be happy, to be healthy, to be all these things.

5:21Everybody's always wondering, if I only did this, I could be happy. If this person was in my life, that could be happy. If I could do this, no one ever sits back and goes like, yo, I am responsible for every and anything that I do. And if I fucking want to win, I have to win. I think it's important, right? Because you're talking about trophies, right? But that's not the gift, man. We're built in the journey. And so when you create multiple companies and multiple exits and you become successful in business and in very many successful partnerships with high level people, it's about who you become in that.

6:01That's the gift, man. So that's why you stay hungry because there's more growth man it ain't about the fucking money um i'm always in a space where i'm always uncomfortable like uh you know i always want to be uncomfortable so i can i just i just stay i do well thriving when my back's up against the wall come on man that's kind of weird you know my wife's like yo you never get to take a minute to enjoy and i'm like well you enjoy it my kids enjoy it my friends all enjoy it our employees enjoy it I get a couple days off, but like, this is just what it's like what I like to do. And when it comes to building businesses, by the way, I have failed way more times than I've been successful.

6:43When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know, your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life and getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts dot org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit goodtoknowfacts.org. I just kept getting up. That's just the way I work. I've had my shit kicked so many times, my ass has footprints in it. I love it, man. I love it. I love it. You know what I mean?

7:27Sorry. No, I said that wrong. Holy fuck. And as I've had my ass kicked so many times, my, my shit has footprints in it. I said that shit backwards. What I meant to say. Hey, the point taken though. Right. But that's the thing back up against the wall. So I didn't come from an upbringing exactly like you, but I operate best when I'm under extreme amounts of pressure. Right. To a point where I got to look around and be like, there ain't no one coming to save me. I got to fight my way out of this. and my wife also goes when do you stop and enjoy i go well i mean i love you baby but hey that ain't any time for that like i'm grateful but but there's much more to do here there's so much more to do my response to that is like it's like kind of like when ari gold is like if you like your two weeks a week two weeks vacation in france and our private schools and the fucking range rover and everybody you drive, I got to pick up the fucking phone call on a Tuesday afternoon.

8:28That's just what it is. I remember that scene. But one thing, my wife also is a crazy answer. My wife is like world's biggest ball buster. No way. Oh, you're not doing, oh my God. Yeah, 99 % of the reason why I'm successful is because my wife is very good at keeping me in certain directions. Like even people around me, so people come around and she's like, no, that person's not good for you. And she's like, she doesn't like remove them, but she knows how to remove them. So she'll drop things like, oh, have you thought about this or thought about that? Like, my wife is very driven in the business that we do.

9:01She's the president of the company, by the way. Everything we built, I built with my wife, which is, you know, crazy. But also, with that comes great sacrifice. You know, anything that's been successful comes with crazy amounts of sacrifice. You know, I mean, just think about how many times you've had the sacrifice to win. Oh, absolutely, man. And it's funny because, you know, I like to hear what you're saying about your wife because my wife's the same. She's also a part of this company. You know, she was with me from the very beginning. And she's also looked me straight dead in the eye at certain times like that person does not have your best interest in mind.

9:36Like you, this person, that person, they can't come. They can't go like, no, no, no, no. And I have not listened before, but now I listen. And it always, have you ever, who was the, there was a guy who said this amazing statement. he's one of the very famous black producers. What's the guy who owns that place in Atlanta? He's like Tyler Perry. I once heard Tyler Perry say like, sometimes you see a rocket ship that's taking off. Right. And by the way, this is what I'm going to say is, is I believe it's okay to outgrow people, places and things. Come on. And you can't always say, you can't always take people with you when you go.

10:18So one of the best things I've ever heard, and I'm not gonna take credit for this, even though it'd be very cool. I could probably clip this and fucking get a million views. But Tyler Perry said, like, when a spaceship is taking off into the atmosphere, it has these two boosters, two other rockets that lift it and it's going up into space. Right. And it's climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing. And there's a certain time it gets to a certain altitude and those rockets, they fall off. Right. And they just kind of fall to Earth and they keep going. But that rocket just keeps fucking going right on going.

10:49Nothing gets in its way. and it just keeps going. But the Rockets, who you may even help to get there, kind of fall off because people are with you for a time, a day, a month, a year. Sometimes it's okay to outgrow people, places, and things. And that was one of the best things I think I've ever heard, actually. Reason, season, or a lifetime, baby. It's fucking good, right? Come on, man. It's so fucking good. I feel like I'm on The View. What's that? I feel like I'm on The View. I like the mugs. that's nice right would you get this fucking mug he's like it was already coming so dude okay look man echo echo talk to us about echo app because i'm looking at this thing you know when you tried it first of all let's be realistic have you tried it no i haven't i was messing around with it i'm like holy shit like this is cool like i i have i that I've got on the website.

11:46It's pretty damn neat. Let me be very clear. Echo is the best discover engine ever created, period. And it's the best search engine ever created ever, like ever. Like you could quite literally grab your remote and you can be like, show me that movie that won the Academy Award in 1995. And it's like, boom, like Forrest Gump will pull up. You can be like, show me movies where people are only wearing sunglasses. is like, it'll search every single movie in the entire world and put it in front of you of everybody wearing sunglasses. You could be like, show me a movie where there's a Ferrari somewhere in the frame, but maybe not on the cover.

12:24And it will literally show you every single movie that has a Ferrari somewhere in the picture. It's a very big deal. It's a very big deal. You could be like, show me every single movie with Will Smith and it will search every single platform in the entire world and bring all those movies to you. Because right now, if you was to go say, show me movies with Will Smith on Netflix or any other platform, it would only search their platform, period. Right? Or search every single platform that puts it in front of you and where to watch it immediately. Wow. But the reason why I just talked about what I just said is that try and imagine that you're a Honda, and I say to Honda, hey, Honda, I know where every single Toyota is in every single movie ever made.

13:08and when that pulls up i can now run a honda app i understand what's happening in the frames of movies every single movie does that make sense yep every movie ever made we have over 21 million pieces of content to put into hindsight netflix has like 6 000 i think like we have more content than anybody and we are the best discover engine ever created we're actually growing by 250 000 users every single month when did you launch uh we've been we've launched about like two months ago two months ago and we're just we're quadruple doubling every single month like we're doing somewhere between like 60 to 80 000 trailer views a day and like 40 50 000 search queries a day that's insane that is insanity it's it i think echo will become one of the biggest platforms in the world we're not just a streaming platform we're quite literally trying to become the spotify of content gotta get my ass on there i mean bro like when when you when you see this i don't think you understand how crazy it is like honestly like when you try it it is it's so you could be like I'm a 30 year old man my wife is 40 my 18 year old daughter is getting ready to go to college what movies would you recommend I watch before she goes I'm telling you the AI on that is amazing it's amazing but the discovery is cool too what makes it so cool is that we've taken every single trailer in the entire world and put them together like in cable when we were like kids me and you we'd channel surf and then change a channel and be NBC and then change a channel and be a show on MTV.

14:57So I've taken every single trailer in the entire world. So when you change a channel, it's like Hulu with the new Kardashian show. And you change it to Netflix with the new Stranger Things. And as soon as you hit watch now, it opens up exactly to the right spot on Hulu. Or exactly to the right spot on Netflix. Does that make sense? So it drives users to the degraded sources. Wow. Wow. Because when I told people I wanted to build this thing, they were like, you can't. Because none of these platforms want to work together. I'm like, great. So I'll make it so when someone wants to watch a piece of content, it will go directly to that degraded source.

15:35So when they said none of these streaming services want to work together, right? Because they're obviously in competition. Are you working directly with like Hulu, Netflix, Paramount, Disney? How does that work? I have no affiliations with any of those platforms. None of them. But I'm driving more traffic to them than probably any other content source. because we are Sweden, right? We're in Switzerland. We're like, we have to be Switzerland to everybody. We can't choose sides and go promote Netflix more. It's like, no, no, we basically take it all. Everybody's, we're the front door. We take everybody's content and we push it out and push it to where you want to go.

16:15Quite frankly, the front door. Dude, so when you're talking about this, you're talking about specific searches, right? Hi, my daughter's going to college. What movie should she watch beforehand? But there's also major there's major times that families are all together. Right. Let's say Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve. And I'll sit there and I'll try to find a damn Christmas movie that every single person in my household, all three kids, my wife and myself want to watch. And we're going from platform to platform. So you're saying I can say, like, hey, show me all Christmas family movies. So I'm going to show you this in live time.

16:54OK. OK. It's going to be the best Christmas movies.

17:01When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp. The secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans. Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th. And never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end-to-end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com.

17:32oh my lord white christmas miracle on 34th street charlie brown the grinch of salt christmas christmas vacation let's get a little crazier let's let's get a little crazier let's let's go show me the best superhero movies with african-americans it's one of like wow wow black panther shows up for this is amazing so if you're if you're just listening audio flip over on spotify to the the video version because he's showing you real time the value you can bring in your living room look at this i mean it's you could be like watch watch let's let's get a little crazy show me movies with ninjas surfing i don't know ninjas surfing i don't know it's like look at that ninja surf point break i love it wow this is three ninjas like surfing like this is so cool man ninjas surf ninjas this is really cool man it's like you could you could be very specific you could be very like you know that's what we're talking about and then we're adding ugc content which is next and sports which is amazing because i believe like there should be no reason why you go to discover feed and see like you know 100 million dollar movie and swipe up and all of a sudden it's mr beast content and as soon as you hit watch now it takes you directly to his channel like we're gonna we're doing some really naughty stuff no it's pretty cool because like there's nothing more frustrating than sitting in your living room want to watch something and you surf the TV for freaking an hour and by then I'm passed out.

19:12Yeah. Crazy. It happens all the time. People spend more time searching for content than they do actually finding the content. We sit down with our wife at the end of the day. We're fucking exhausted because we've been working all day. Like, hey, you want to watch something great? And as soon as we do that, it's like, by the time you're done, you're falling asleep. You're literally falling asleep. Why are we going to watch something? Because by the time we find it, and hit play you're you're snoring yes you know i wake up right you wake up at four you know what i mean that's what we do yeah it's got it so and excuse me and you probably can't go into detail but to build something like this man like i mean where is it that you even started to to be able to pull all this stuff together to get to make all of this the the ai to work in the background like To me, this is because you're showing me stuff real time.

20:09And so I have a better understanding. I'm showing this real time. It is the best search engine. It is the best content search engine ever created, period. And I employ anybody, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Apple, to try and do better. Wow. Wow. That's a very bold statement. I mean, it is. but i mean how man we've done it i saw netflix come out recently and say oh we're building an ai powered search engine and data and then i was like we did that and even if i do and i'm not hating on netflix they can only search their system what um so you launched two months ago you're growing astronomically how long did it take you to put this together about two years to kind of really do right wow wow you know and and and through those times right because i've seen some videos on you you know and what i really appreciate about you is you hold your team very accountable if they're presenting you something and you're like hey i appreciate your guys hard work but this ain't it this just looks like you threw a bunch of ai shit on there.

21:20Like this is not, this is not good enough. So you push and you push and you do it in such a way that, I mean, it's, it's good leadership, man. I, um, so I don't think I'm an astronomically great leader. What I think is that I'm good with people and high achievers don't like to work with underachievers. Right. So I try to hire people who are very smart and really high achievers because what happens is that the high achievers kind of come in the room and we weed out all the underachievers and we just kind of keep moving so being a good leader has it's nothing to do with being like this amazing tech entrepreneur or all these things it's about understanding what people do really really well and putting in that position and keeping them going okay you stay here i don't care what you think you know but stay here you're good here you know what i mean um And then just building that out and allowing people the right to do what they need to do to build out their teams and holding everybody accountable, including yourself.

22:25By the way, nobody apologizes more than me. Nobody fucks up more than me. So when I fuck shit up, I'm like, man, I'm sorry. I fucked that up. Or it's rude or it's a dickhead. I keep it very real. And being self-accountable is probably the most important thing that you need to do in growth at all. is that if you walk around thinking you do nothing wrong and you're the fucking man and you're never sorry, you're a piece of shit, I'm sorry. Like, this is how it is. I'm super accountable with myself and I fucking hate being wrong, but when I'm wrong, I own that shit and I move on, you know? Yeah, I think it's important because you're talking about having all these high achievers in one room.

23:04And when you do that, yeah, I mean, listen, you know, I consider myself a high achiever. You know, what we built here is, you know, we're building something great, but it's still not where I want it. Right. I'm, I'm going for the ultimate prize with this platform. And with that, like, I don't have room for people that are going to be, this is just good enough. It doesn't freaking work, man. Like I have, that's not, I, that shit drives me crazy. No, but there's no participants. We don't do participation trophy. The right time is always fucking, I always tell people, they're like, what do you think the reason you're successful?

23:41I'm like because I'm faster than everybody else By the time I've thought about it I built it and failed 10 times And fixed it Before you even gotten out of bed to fucking I wake up at 3am And everybody's just half asleep I'm like on my shit So it's like by the time you figured out What you're doing I've already fucking failed And gone past that Now we need to do this and this But see that's the key though That's what I want the audience to really kind of understand here not kind of understand but fully understand is people like you and very successful entrepreneurs or athletes it doesn't matter what you're great in by the time someone tells you to wait and hold off we're not ready for that you've already fucking lost you've already fucking lost bro if you have an idea if you have a passion if there's something you want to do fuck everyone who tells you to wait come on fuck everyone who says make sure you have a backup plan in life there are no backup plans no period you're like when you get married you're like why i should have this fucking side piece just in case you know what i mean it's like

24:58and anybody who's had a side piece just in case has lived the fucking you know there by their self. That's a rough life, dude. That's a rough life, man. There are no backup plans for entrepreneurship. It's like you just jump the fuck in and you yo there are two feelings you have when you're an entrepreneur and you're living in either state. There is no in between. Okay. It's either complete bliss or absolute fucking terror at any given time. There is no in between. mean it's it's one or the other it's like we're fucking crushing or the fucking building is burned down a good entrepreneur is this is the best goddamn firefighter known to fucking man a good ceo is a dude who can fucking put out every fire when things are moving that's what a great ceo is that's what i am is when shit blows the fuck up and the fucking building is burning down and everybody's fucking running out the building.

26:02I'm the dude running in that bitch with buckets of water. You know what I mean? Like, that's what the fuck I do. I'm a fucking monster. Dude, I love that because... Sorry, sorry. Dude, no, man. I was going to swear. I was telling you the truth. Hey, I told you, be you because that... See, that's the difference, though. That's the difference. I'm the wolf of Silicon Valley. I like it. I like it. I like that shit. because when you look at plan B's, like, look, man, I left a successful corporate sales career to start this. I bet you did. I mean, what were you doing? I was in medical. I started in HR and then I went to medical and I was making great money.

26:44We didn't want for anything. Yeah. We didn't want for anything. When I say some shit that's super like out of pocket, like, oh, can I speak to HR? I'm like, yeah, no problem. Hold on, let me get you. That's you. how can i help you hr motherfucker how can i help you welcome to hr bitch i mean i'm your hr but dude my point is i can remember i can remember and i've talked about this very frequently you know wife looks at me like you're gonna you're gonna do whoa why am i yep but she supported she supported she goes okay fine what's your plan i go here's my plan here's how i'm bridging the gap okay then we execute i didn't wait because i for a while there i was waiting for the right time and to your point there is no right time as long as you keep waiting for people listening to this episode it's never going to be the right time you're gonna be waiting a long time and you're gonna watch somebody else living your freaking dream dude like you know i have three okay it was never the right time to be like this is not the right time for kids but you figured the fuck out like it's like when someone says to me oh it's not the right time for me to go for my dream i'm like well then sit down yeah i mean like the the exit plan or the plan b man that that leaves a method for retreat you know that's like the whole hernan cortez you know story about burning the boats burn them burn every method of retreat because if you don't motherfuckers to the ground You got to light that shit on fire because if you don't, you're never going to win.

28:22You're not going to. I do shit. I swear to God. And I do things that are so fucking hard to conquer and big. Like you're never going to fucking, how are you going to beat Snapchat? Or how are you going to take on Netflix? Or how are you going to do these things? And I'm like, Oh, but I'm going to like, you don't have to have the answer. Like I don't fucking clue. You don't have to have the answer. Winging it is okay. It's okay to wing shit. Hell yeah. A lot of people have won their businesses and got it right. I mean, shit, man. Probably the first three years I was winging it. I mean, come on, man.

29:02I like you. I like you too. You're a freaking cool ass dude. But that's the thing, though. That's the thing. It's never going to be easy. And just because you burn the ships or you light everything on fire to the method of retreat, it doesn't mean it's going to get easy or simple at any time. You're going to be tested and it's going to hurt. Who do you think the most amazing entrepreneur you've interviewed has been? Seriously.

29:34The most amazing entrepreneur? Yeah, we like, fuck, like, that was great. Like, unbelievable. So the one I'm going to mention. I'm going to tell you right now. This interview is going to get like 10, 20 million views. Because I'm going to put it on my channels too. You know I get a lot of traffic. I'm sorry, you've seen, I get a lot of traffic. But I'm saying like on a really cool business side, like who you was like, yo, this is the greatest interview of all time. So I think from a concept wise, and I'm not just, I'm not saying this, the concept, probably you're out. 1 ,000%. I'm going to tell you why.

30:15because we're pushing the limits of shit right and i'm not here with a fucking pr buttoned up like well you put the g diffuser in the fucking idea machine like the reason why shit like this works and goes viral is because we want some kid in omaha nebraska in his trailer or fucking broken home going like yeah i can do that like that's the point of you're doing while you're doing this, right? You're doing this because like, it's cool to interview a Warren Buffett, like, but Warren Buffett's not going to sit down and be like, well, this is how I've actually started out and make my money, right? It's always like, you just got to go for it.

30:55You just got to do it. I'm like, I don't know what the fuck that means. Like, can someone break me down? What the fuck that means? No offense, like, I've met many life coaches in my day, right? Sorry, guy, and this may be offensive, but no one is more full of shit than a fucking life coach. Period. If someone tells you they're going to coach you through fucking life, run. And secondary, if someone's trying to sell you something on a course or any of that type of shit, you ask them one thing. Let me see your bank account. And their bank account is flush and way more than yours, consider it. But 90 % of these people cannot teach you what the fuck life is going to teach you by just doing it.

31:40And I tell everybody that, oh, can you teach me? No, I can't teach you anything. The only thing I can teach you is how to get the fuck out there and get started, man. Like, it's so important. I try and tell everybody that. I can't teach you how to win. You got to want to win. You got to be so sick and tired of being sick and fucking tired and living the same fucking life and getting up and same idea, fucking that ugly ass girlfriend you're with and driving that fucking busted ass car with that fucked up taillight and going to fuck the same shit every single day. You got to want that shit. And I told myself, I'm not going to be like my brother.