What Investors Are Really Looking For with Kim Perell

24:13That was a game changer. That's the point that my life like actually went in a different direction. And I wanna give that opportunity to other people and I wanna give that mentorship now because I've been there to others to help them achieve success. And when you think about the investments that I've made and the people that I've bet on, and you ask like, what is it I'm looking for? So I wrote a book called The Execution Factor because I get pitched the same idea all the time. Like ideas are a dime a dozen. And someone's like, hey, Kim, sign an NDA. I'm like, I'm not gonna sign it. Like literally 10 people just pitched me the same idea.

24:43There is no different, I mean, yeah, it's all about execution. And I think there's five key traits that I look for. If I look in all the entrepreneurs that I've invested in that had successful outcomes. And so I've had about 40 different exits for already, a lot of good vintages still to come. But one, they have a vision. They have that crystal clear vision of what they want to achieve. Like they know what it is. Two, they're passionate, right? And passion isn't just about what you love. It's about what you would suffer for, right? So, you know, passion is the Latin root word of pain or suffering.

25:18And so what would you stay up late, work the weekend, get up in the morning? Like what would you actually sacrifice for? You have to have action, which is taking that first step. even though you're scared, even though you don't want to do it. You have to be able to take that first step every single day. And it doesn't have to be a lot, just one step every single day. You have to have resilience because everything's going to go wrong. Like I already know that. And then you have to have great relationships and relationships, as I mentioned originally, just are the cornerstone of success. And if without them, you will not be successful.

25:51Like I guarantee it. So I think if you can get these five traits and that's why I wrote about it is if you can really lean into how to improve on these specific traits, you will be a successful entrepreneur. Okay. She's like painted it out for y 'all. Yes and hell yes and amen. Okay. But I'm going to get super granular because if I'm standing in front of you, how do I display? I have maybe, maybe seven undiluted minutes to capture your attention, sell the vision, show I'm passionate, talked about my results. Like how do you do that? Like in a very practical way. Yeah, I love that. So I want to hear a story.

26:26I'm investing in people. I want to hear, why are you doing this? What makes you the one person that can pull it off? And how am I as investor going to make a lot of money? Like what's the big market opportunity? And I think you can do that. I mean, I do a lot of elevator pitches. I see it all the time. I think if you show up and you just start, I want to actually know about you. Why are you here? Why are you going to be able to do it when everything's stacked against you? How will you actually pivot and make sure my investment pays off? Candidly speaking, how much time does somebody have? Like, we know that somebody can be like, oh, your pitch is going to be 22 minutes or 30 minutes.

27:05But like, when do you, like, candidly, when do investors know? Oh, pretty early. Yeah. Yeah, pretty early. I would say that, do you say that, like, you can get a sense even before you walk in the room with somebody, if you have, like, a sense of their energy and what the product is? Or do you need to actually see them and meet them and talk to them? I don't need to see them and love. I'd rather see them meet them and talk to because you can feel their energy. But listen, if you have a great business, it has to be a good business that I'm going to invest in. But then you can be a great business and not the right person leading it.

27:33So it really comes down to the person. I think I know pretty quickly if A, it's a good business. And then B, if you're the person that can actually pull it off. Okay, so we know the good things. Like I'm pressing on this because people listening. And Jen was like, Jasmine, you really kind of just start extivating. And I'm like, I know. because what happens is people will DM me and be like, yeah, but what did Kim mean by this? And I'm like, I don't know why I'm not Kim. That's why I'm asking. I'm putting myself in their shoes because it is enough to know that we must display our personal story, what we're passionate about, what we stay up at late.

28:02This is the hill that we're gonna die on. But you know early. So then what are key factors when somebody is pitching you that you know, great idea, good business, I like you, but it's not you. I want you first to show me there's a proof of concept. Ideas again. There's a lot of ideas. Tell me that one person has purchased whatever it is you're going to try to create. Because an idea is really hard, right? When I went to my nanny, I'm like, I'm going to make an internet company. She's like, I have no idea what you're feeling. That's really hard, right? But I'd like to understand, hopefully you've created the company of something, a need you have.

28:38Right. Something that you personally are connected to. And that would show me, like, and I love when people start small. So it's like, oh, I'm making something in my kitchen. I went down to the farmer's market started selling it there okay you got proof of concept to me so it's like you have to actually have taken that first step and gotten out there and tried like go start selling door to door I don't really care but if you're just talking and sitting in your kitchen doing nothing like I need to see execution yes okay so if they don't show proof of concept or execution what is another thing that it just shows it's not a good fit well I don't like when you show me it's got a hockey stick in your five so usually people come in there's my financials Then it's very low, very low.

29:21And then in the fifth year, it goes real high. You're glad. Okay, guys. Yes. Let's be realistic. Or my profitability is going to be 40 million in year five. It's not going to be. Like, I already know that. So maybe be more realistic on the financials. And I'd like to see profitability, like business basics, right? Don't tell me you're going to lose a ton of money if you don't have a line of sight of how you're going to raise money to cover how much you're going to lose. I like profitable companies that are actually good companies. I mean, a great company can always have a successful exit. So when I started my first company, I was really focused on profitability.

29:54And we made a lot of EBITDA and profit because I was focused on it. First company I worked for didn't really care. They were just like, let's just spend as much as possible and so long it works out. It just doesn't work like that, especially in today's environment. Investors want to see companies that actually can maintain their own cash flow. Yeah. Okay. So if I heard the story correctly, got$10 ,000 and you were proving that you had the chops and the huts but to be an entrepreneur. And then you sold that if I heard it correctly for 40 million. Yep. Great. And then you built a different business and you sold that business for 238 because you were hard nosed about profitability.

30:34So actually, then it's interesting. So I sold my first. So yeah, I had like an earn out and the whole thing on the first company. So I state and then we decided can you explain what an earn out is oh yeah sure an earn out so usually you get like a lump sum of money for the first tranche so you're like hey kim i'm gonna give you 20 million bucks cash on day one and so i went to my atm and like yeah this is the good and so i went i got the little thing it actually had too many zeros for even like to get out of the atm machine i'm like yeah oh my gosh called my house this is amazing and then for the next couple years you get another 20 based on achieving milestones I actually love a good earn out because it's really again based on if I can achieve what I say yeah there's a company buying you I want you to be successful so it's a I think it's a win-win if you give realistic targets right like financials to the buyer yeah I think it's a great I'm actually a big believer if you don't then as a buyer I'm thinking you're never going to hit what you're selling me right that traditionally three years Yeah, it's usually, yeah, usually two to three years.

31:39Okay, cool. And so I stayed and I hit my, I mean, I hit my whole earn out within the first year. So I just nailed it. Oh, God. Oh, God. You're one of them. I know. Unicycling. That would be called like sandbagging. So I'm like, don't sandbag. Yes. So everyone's sandbag. I'm sure your twin was very impressed by you at that. She's like, wow. Yeah. Hey. Yeah. Yeah. She was so excited. So then after that. So after that, then I actually went on to take over some of the company I was running. We had a great big company. And then we actually resold the company in 2014 for$235 million to Singapore Telcom.

32:16So it's actually like a two-bite of an apple is what they would say. So we consolidated, we bought a bunch of companies and we resold it. And then so we sold half to Singapore Telcom. Okay. Whoa, whoa. Yeah. Whoa. This is the first time I've ever even heard the concept of two bites of one apple. And so you hit your goals within that first year and then you stayed with the company. What was your role? Because oftentimes that people call it golden handcuffs. They're like, yeah, I can hit those right when I ask them. Then I can just like do my dang thing. I'll cash out. Yep. And but you didn't. You said, I'm going to do it and then I'm going to do it better.

32:49Yeah. What are you doing? What is your role? How are you getting? Yeah. So I took on as we had offices all over the world. So from Australia to Europe. And so I took on as president of the whole company. Okay. Okay. And then what is the time you hit your goals within a year? And what is your title at that time? I was still CEO of my division. Oh, okay. My company. Okay. And they took over president of the hold. There's like a holding company. And is there anybody else in the organization who's like, what the hell? Like, I think we're like, she's killing it. I don't know. Like, let her do whatever she wants.

33:22Let her run the company. Okay. You go from CEO of your division to president of the company. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Do you move? What does life look like for you here? Life looks like I'm on a plane a lot. So we had offices in Munich. We had offices in Madrid. I mean, it was fun. Like I was having a great time. I was flying all over the world. I was having, you know, I was, were you married to Jonathan this time? Yes, I was already married. Yeah. I didn't have any kids at that time. So it was amazing. It was like a great life, actually. We were, you know, we were growing. It was such a great time.

33:54We were profitable. Everything was in a great space. Then the market took another dive and we decided we would not be able to IPO at the time because our intention originally was to IPO. Couldn't IPO because the market's closed. I know. And so it happens all the time. And so we had to pivot. Okay. So then we ended up, you know, we were running out of cash. Okay. Hold on. I'm like another pivot, Jess. Through and through born storyteller, because it sounds like, okay, we couldn't IPO. That was a thing that we were getting for. So now we pivot, but where are you at mentally, emotionally like does it what does it feel like in this space feels like we're in one of the most exciting times in the internet i would say we had partnerships every time like twitter snapchat linkedin we had partnership facebook you start naming it we were forming partnerships with these companies okay so it was it was a growth period it was fun okay it's like we were at the cutting edge even if it didn't turn out the way that you were expecting with the ipo it still felt like okay well that's not it but like we're having a blast we're going yeah we got to figure out yeah at that point you're going i got to figure out how to you know get us to a safe place right and we have a you know 500 employees we're doing half a billion dollars at redmond it was a big company we're like we got to figure out at home because we're gonna run out of cash i mean we knew we're gonna run out of cash if you don't have an exit of some sort and so then we yeah we end up we end up splitting off the company into different pieces i went and took over as ceo of the digital division of Singapore Telecom.

35:24Oh, yeah. And then we sold the other to a European company. So we did two deals. I want to ask a question about... Well, look, what... You're like, when she says these things, like, so yeah, duh, like I did this. But I have a feeling, and this goes back to your main concept of like relationships are everything. So as I listen to all of these things that you've done, I'm visualizing you making all of these relationships with all these people because these moves couldn't have been made without relationships. You're like Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat. Like, are you going into these places and building relationships with humans to make these things happen?

36:03Yeah. I mean, our team was. You had a great team. You're only as good as the team that you surround yourself. And I think for us, we had an A plus team. Everyone we hired was incredible. And that's relationships too. That's relationships. Some of the people I started with 20 years ago, I still work with today. So am I. so I want to hear from Kim Perel who's clearly a master at relationships and what would you say to the person listening is they if they're like oh I'm not I'm not connected I don't know how to network I don't know how to build these relationships what would you say your I guess tips that you could give to people for creating that kind of a network would be if they don't feel like they're great at it yeah I usually tell people three of the most powerful words you could ever say are let's have coffee.

36:47Let's have coffee. It's the easiest way to form a relationship. I don't even drink coffee. So I'm a tea lover. I don't even drink coffee. But if I'm ever trying to forge a new business relationship, a partnership and anything, I usually reach out and say, let's have coffee. It's so easy. It's less than 30 minutes. We can have it virtually. I'd rather be in person. If you can do it in person, always better. Like if I'm looking for a mentor, if I'm looking for a book agent if I'm you name it I'm having coffee I'm having a lot of coffee you know and again I'm not even drinking the coffee I'm just having I think it's so easy it's like less than four dollars maybe five with inflation I have no idea at Starbucks but but it's such an easy way to reach out and say hey Jen do you want to have coffee yeah you're like okay sure why not it's easy we did that one time yeah and went that straight coffee we drank tea oh see what I'm like well did you drink some tea yeah but I feel that that's an easy way for anyone listening to start building their relationships and not looking at it as what am I going to get?

37:47Yes. You should look at it as what am I going to give? I'm going to give my time. I'm going to give my, you always have something you could give and really thinking of it from that way. I never have coffee thinking what am I going to get from someone. I'm looking at it like how do I build a long-term relationship? My whole life is built on this. And so looking at it as what can I give to this person, whether my support or my advice or a connection. I love networking, putting people together. So I think thinking about that as a really easy hack that could set you up for success. So when you think about building those relationships, as an investor, somebody's hearing this, and what is the level of expectation from an investor?

38:29Like, do some people want you to be there with it? Like, talk to me about, I know everybody's different. In your dream case scenario are you collaborating are you saying i trust you go with it like what is that level of connection and especially because you've invested in so many different companies i'm really good on the early stage really good or if there's a problem can you clarify early yeah early stage if you're just getting up and started i'm really good on helping here's the strategy here's how to get going here's who to call here's what to do here's the people you need okay so just the early stage setting the business up or if you're I'm in trouble you know like I need to pivot my business how do I do it what should I do who should I call I need I'm really good in the like I tell people I'm the call like that one call and you get one call call me I'll help you get out yeah well if you get in jail call me I'm gonna help you yeah or whatever it is you get in a bind company's not doing well call me on the day-to-day is not my expertise and I don't thrive there I thrive in problem solving and trying to build relationships or networking or connecting or raising capital.

39:33But I think as an investor, you're not in the day to day. You're there to provide mentorship, guidance, strategic support, connections. And so for people who have investors, do investors want their business that they've invested in, like the founders to be reaching out to them? Yeah, they need help. So here's something that I want to lead into because I know that a lot of people do not like asking for help. I'm even feeling that right now. Like, even somebody that's like, let me help you. People don't want to ask because, you know, I think a lot of people are very afraid to ask for help. They don't want to seem weak.

40:14They don't want to seem like they don't know, especially somebody that they pitched. Please give me money for this amazing idea that I have. I'm amazing. And they just sold themselves to you. And they spent so much time and energy selling themselves to you. And you're like, yes, okay, I'll give you money. I could imagine that, and anyone that's listening to this that maybe is pitching investors or has investors, it might be a little scary. Ask your investor, okay, I'm going to buy. It almost makes you feel like maybe you're failing. And that doesn't, even though the investor knows that, of course you're going to fail, but the entrepreneur might be uncomfortable asking for help.

40:42So from the investor's standpoint, how does it feel when the companies that you support come and ask for help? Oh my gosh, I want them to. You have to have enough self-confidence that you ask. I mean, I've been there. I've done it. I know I can help you skip a lot of lines. But if you don't ask, how can I help? So I tell people, if you don't ask, you don't get. Start asking. Call me. If you need help. And I think to your point, it's scary. I get it. Right now, I have a lot of different companies. I call people and ask for help all the time. Like literally all the time. Even the other day, remember, I was like, oh, Jen, I got an idea.

41:15Can you help me? Yes, 100%. You asked me right now. I was like, oh, I got an idea. I call people all the time. But here's the cool thing about asking for help and how I reiterate it in my mind is that it feels really good to be able to help someone you care about. Like I was like, I need to help because it's gonna make me feel amazing. And it's fun. It's fun. So like I know and I know you get joy out of helping people. Yeah, I actually I said I was like, we're gonna look for a restaurant to go out to eat after this. And I was like, Kim would help. So excited. I said, if we ask Kim where to go, she'll be so excited to be able to help us because that's what lights her up.

41:44And so if you don't ask somebody for help, you're almost taking an opportunity away from them to feel amazing. because they were able to help you. Because the best way to feel good is to help somebody else. Yes, it is, to give. People want to help. So I think anyone listening, just assume. And if, honestly, they don't want to help you, it's not the people you want anyway. But call someone else. Yeah, right? Don't get discouraged because someone else. Sometimes people text me and they're like, hey, I'm still here. I'm like, oh my God, I'm just buried right now. I got four kids. I'm just trying to like get them on the bus without crying here.

42:13You know, they can't help you right now. But it doesn't mean, I also think persistent pays off. So if you keep, text me again. it's not that yeah you know it just went down the chain of texts and I forgot yeah right I don't take it I think people take it internalize it to your point like oh Kim didn't text me back she doesn't want to help it's actually not that at all Kim's just busy and she's got to figure out her own life before she can come help others you know it's like the airplane put on your own seatbelt before you can help others like okay I'm so I think making sure the persistence that continue to ask that's so good yeah that's so good the follow-up is so important it's so important So many people give up after one try with everything.

42:47Right. With the sale, with the ask, with the reach out, with whatever they want. They're like, oh, they didn't answer. I find that even with me, when people are pitching me for something, whatever it is that they want, I oftentimes don't get back to them the first or the second. But if they keep following up, I love the chutzpah behind the hot follow-up. Me too. Oh my gosh, you're following up with me for the fourth time? I am a yes for you. Yeah, me too. I like that. I like the energy. That means you really want that. like my oh I could not agree more that I have this guy so interesting he just so I put on a job rec on LinkedIn I got 3 ,000 resumes I'm like how am I even gonna find I can't even go through the resumes so the guy just keeps emailing me all the time like fine I'll just give you a shot because I can't go through the rest and literally like I can't go through 3 ,000 resumes so whoever he keeps calling me and so I actually got I'm like okay there you go so don't underestimate It's interesting that just like the direct contact, the persistence, persistence pays, but it literally happened 30 days ago.

43:46And now the guy's working for me. He was so persistent and enthusiastic and that's a good attitude to enthusiasm. Because here's something that I get from you a lot, like that I learned from you just by watching you and being around you. And I want everybody else to really absorb this is your enthusiasm about everything. It's contagious and infectious. Jess, how important would you say enthusiasm is when it comes to business? Yeah, it's passion, right? Right? It's like you can feel it. It's passion, it just goes together. And you really can tell if someone loves what they're doing. I mean, I love what I'm doing and love entrepreneurs.

44:18I love helping people. So, and people will, you'll see them light up when they're talking about something they really are passionate about. Yeah. Whatever that is. Yeah. And then if they get, if they're enthusiastic, you're like me too. Right? So, okay, let's talk about enthusiasm. I get so lit up when I see underrepresented people of color and or women get investment funding. Like it is just this like I just feel like I feel like a piece of me got it, too. Can we get from your perspective, like just the state of the industry and like talk about like what those numbers are, how they've changed.

44:56How somebody can prep themselves to be like a formidable competitor when it comes to pitching themselves. First of all, it's terrible. the numbers yeah like that less than two percent of females get bc funding do you know about that that means terrible right no less than two where's the other 98 going yeah not helping so i really try to your point to help and invest in females and underrepresented founders like because they need help just getting to the table right and it's the relationships that actually get you to the table so first you need someone that has relationships that can like pull you through and pull you along.

45:31And I think that's why asking for help and reaching out and getting mentorship is so important. So I think the statistics are not good or not in our favor and we need to help other people rise. Yeah. I think I've got a great brand with a woman that is one of 100 black female founders that's raised over a million dollars. And I feel really proud of that. And she's incredible. And I think the more we can lean in and help, again, just help other people get to the table and it is it literally comes down to relationships because it still is listen a lot of not the investors are not probably equally it's all men mostly there's not a lot of female investors there's more and more every day when i started there's like me and someone else you're like just me but it's great to see more and more vcs more and more people investing you know more and more women stepping up and investing because they're going to help the next generation of woman they're going to next help the next generation of underrepresented founders and that's what's going to make our businesses better I love seeing more diversity at the table like we have to do that to be better companies in my opinion okay so oh I feel like there's a part of me that's like don't say it don't say it and I'm like I'm gonna say yeah you should say it wouldn't so um as a Latina bootstrap founder.

46:57When I hear people say, we need a chance to get at the table. I agree. I agree. But I don't think that the terms in which somebody is assessing my business should be different. Like, how do I build a company that is beyond a shadow of a doubt? You're not giving it to me because I need to be at the table and I need to be part of the change. It's I am that player and I don't like how how do I build a business that doesn't say we should really diversify our portfolio? And maybe we can create some connections that can change the trajectory of our business instead of being like you are the trajectory.

47:34What do I do to prepare? Is this literally profitability proof of concept run those numbers? Like or is there something else that other people have that I don't outside of the connections or is it connections? No, I actually, I think it's, if you build a great business, there will always be opportunity. So it's profitability. It's the numbers. It's the growth story. Be all things equal. I agree with you. At the end of the day, I'm an investor. I'm going to invest. Yes, I first will take and I'll lean into as many female-led businesses as I can. But at the end of the day, I invest in good businesses.

48:10Like I'm an investor. I'm looking to get a return. So you have to have very good financials. it's a financial decision so for anyone out there looking at you have to make a good financial decision as an investor that's how I make my money and that's why I then make money to reinvest so what are some of the things that you look for financially when you say like you got to know your numbers you've got to know like what are those key factors like when you just take a peek yeah I think you have to know a your current burn on a monthly basis so how much are you losing if you're losing how much are you losing if you're not losing great I love to see that okay well now let's look at how how do we always continue to improve our growth story?

48:46So I'm looking at what's your revenue, how much are you growing, what's your gross margins, and then what's your profitability? Amen. Yes. Those four. There we go. I'm like, y 'all, just pause the podcast. Write it down. We're recording. We're recording 20 seconds and say, if you want to get in front of an investor, those more elements are going to be a game changer. Yeah. Okay. This is a master class. I know. This is a master class. I know. So when we, I know you've had a little, you create beautiful content. You had a lot of content. You give back so much. What do you wish people were asking you or talking about that somewhat is kind of being glossed over in 2024?

49:26Oh my gosh. I think if we could just be more vulnerable about how hard it is, it's hard to make businesses. I'm in it all day long. And I think it's hard. And I think if we just acknowledge it's hard and we support each other through the hard. You know, it's not always picture perfect. And you see it on Instagram, right? You'll see me. People die. I'm like, it looks like you're whatever you're doing, right? I'm always on vacation. You're in Paris. You're in Bali. What are you doing? I'm like, you see one side. You don't see I'm taking a call at like 2 a.m. from Bali. Nobody sees that because what are you going to get a photo?

50:06You don't see how hard that I'm hustling all the time for the love of wanting to do it. But I'm like, I'm always on and that's what makes me successful. But it's hard. And I think just reminding everyone that's watching, whoever they're watching, there's a lot that's going on behind the scenes. And I'll try to do my part of bringing that forefront so you can see, you know, but again, just watching me at a desk is not exciting, right? It's great to watch me at the Eiffel Tower eating lunch. No one wants to watch me just sitting at my desk in my house. so just acknowledging how hard it is for founders right now you know funding's down it was a it's hard and so but for the founders that can make it right now through the hard times they will come out i've seen it um and go i've seen the bottom i mean i've seen so many dips in the like in the macroeconomic climate and right now if you can make it through like you got most entrepreneurs right now you should be cost cutting you should be cutting you know whatever you can and just trying to make it through the current winter you're come out the other side so you you know great companies are built in hard times and this is a hard time and great companies will be built right now right now right now right now so um as we bring the conversation to a close i want to go back to that it's like it just kind of hit and it keeps on hitting and i'm like oh i wish i didn't hear it and you had said that the word passion has its root origin in latin yeah of pain yeah And I'm like, oh man, when you get so passionate about that thing, you have to understand the other side of that coin.

51:44And I think that us starting the conversation there and then us ending the conversation around the vulnerability and us understanding that we have to work hard. And while we don't always show what that looks like, that is the passion. And then that is also the pain. What you've done for so many people is like demystify what it means. I didn't even know until God, I was, I don't even know, like 35, that there were things called investors. Like I didn't know it existed. I think the whole world has opened up so differently and I am creating the content that I wish I had when I had started my journey.

52:17And I'm just so thankful that you're making time. In closing, I know this is so selfish and I'm going to put you on the spot. And if you don't want to do it, you don't have to do it. We can cut it out of the podcast and nobody knows it existed. You arrived here in Miami by way of New York. Yeah. And you said, oh, this morning went great. We started at seven. We were supposed to end at seven thirty. I think you had said. And then it went till ten thirty or something like that. Like this really great meeting went long. And then I just were just barely meeting each other in person. And then you had said, oh, I was getting money.

52:47That's what I do. I'm getting money. And I'm like, do I ask for now? I'm like, we're not recording. What is I was getting money mean? What were you doing? You're like, I'm raising money. And I'm like, for a fund, for a business, for what does that look like? Oh, my goodness. Yes. I mean, I get pitched and I pitch, right? So I think I'm an investor, but I'm also, I also own a lot of companies. So I'm all, I think if you're a startup and it's interesting that you didn't know the term investor until now, but maybe we should look for investors, Jasmine. But I feel that, you know, most startups are raising capital in order to grow.

53:22And so I'm always out there. I was in New York in investor meetings, pitching some of my portfolio companies for capital, for money to fuel the businesses. So you are representing the founders you already invested in? Yeah. And so then you go to these other investors and then what do you say? Like, I say, I believe in this business and it's going to be a home run and I want you to come on the journey with me. Are you in? What? That is a crazy thing. I always thought I'm the founder to keep on pursuing and growing. And what you're saying is, I'm hedging my bets because I'm this good. I like you.

54:00I see you. Now I'm going to do what I do in a bigger way that's going to go through and get you more money. I go with the founder. It's not just me. I'm with the founder. But yeah. But when you say, okay, so, okay. Oh, I feel like this is the world's dumbest question, but I don't even care. You are in these investor meetings and you're just like, I'm pitching them on my portfolio. So are you taking like founders with you and they're all sitting in the room? Is it like Hunger Games or like, oh they got they got 76 ,000 we got 760 ,000 like what does this look like explain it to me I am fascinated yes so usually if you're the founder I'll I'm an investor and I know we have to raise more capital and so as an investor because I'm a again I'm really relationship-based I want to help especially young founders that have never raised capital before okay so I go with them I'm like hey I'll help you raise money and so I think there's a lot of it for you because I'm already invested We can make a business.

54:50And so are you, I mean, it's like one-on-one, like you're saying you go with one founder to investors and then you go with another founder or are you saying, hey, crew, all five of us? No, no, no, one founder. So yesterday I went with one founder and we had multiple investor meetings. Got it. Yes, we went to investors, we pitched, we went to next investor, we pitched, we went to a dinner, we pitched. And then after these pitches, are you telling the other, like, are you telling your founder, like, listen, get it together. You got to do this. You got to come back. Are you coaching them on? Yeah.

55:18And now how much are you? Okay. So then these founders are pitching to these investors percentage wise. How much are you talking during those meetings? I'm there as the founders sharing their vision. Cause I'm not, I mean, I'm a, I'm here, but I'm not the founder. The founder sharing their vision. I'm there for, I understand the numbers. That's why it's really important that every founder knows the numbers. They understand just like the logistics on a cap table or there's all these other formalities that most people don't know, unless you've already done it. So I'm there just to support on like the financials, on the vision, on my involvement and how I'm going to continue to be involved to support the company.

55:57But yeah, I think because you've never done it, it's scary. When I did it, no one was going with me anywhere. It was just me hanging out with my nanny and I don't think she was going to go pitch with me. I feel like... She'd be a compelling story. Nanny was not pitching, but maybe I should have brought her. It's just another bonus for that founder to have you as an investor, not just for your money, but for your guidance and your mentorship. that's happening there. Right. And like, how fun is that that you get to go and mentor and do what you love and help other people grow their businesses and make money at the same time?

56:24Yeah, it's all fun. It's all fun. It's all fun. Yeah, you get to see like the next generation of people, right? Because no one did that for me. I want to make sure that we're helping other people do that and learn because if you can start teaching people, again, how to raise money, how to raise capital, what it means. So to your point, after every meeting, we need to debrief, how to go, what could we, Should we pivot our pinch? Did something not work? What is the investor like? What they didn't like? How do we change it for the next? I mean, it's a work in progress, literally. And I know you're doing this one-on-one with your investors, but you do this on like a grand scale.

56:59Like Kim offers her content and all of this advice on social media, in her books, on TV, everywhere. And is that part of your mission? Like, tell me about, as we wrap up, like I want to know the overall mission, like how we can help support your mission and your goals. and where people can find you. And that course. Yes. No, for me, I just want to, I've been there and I've been at rock bottom and I've seen how hard it is and I wish I had more people to help me. So that's why I produce all the content. I write the books because, and I do read a lot. I mean, I love to read. When I was growing up, I read so much because I had my parents, which was amazing.

57:37But if you can read from someone else's mistakes or successes, that's where you truly will learn quicker as a founder and entrepreneur because you don't have to learn those mistakes yourself. So I produce content to share what I'm doing, what I'm feeling, how I see the world right now and what makes a difference in my life and how I've been successful. You can take it, you can leave, it doesn't really matter. Hopefully I'm impacting somewhere where they say, oh my gosh, I use that. I just asked someone to coffee. I went and it worked. I'm like, of course it worked. It works. I still do it every day.

58:10I've got like three coffees next week. It works. how do people find you because somebody's listening right now and they've gotten so much information like you've opened up this beautiful pathway to see their life and their business different and that happened in an hour so where did they go to pursue this relationship with you oh my goodness well you can go to my website at kimperel.com or follow me on linkedin connect with me on instagram i'm yeah i'm out there and i have you know so much to share and I'm going to continue to share because we need people that are really trying to give back. And again, it goes back to giving.

58:47Like I have so much to give. And there's so much opportunity to, again, continue and invest in amazing new founders that are going to change the world. How? For those of you who are listening, please make sure and connect with Kim on social platforms, but specifically LinkedIn. And just in case you ever want to apply to a job, make sure you follow up via email. That's what we're going to need for you. Thank you so much for listening to the Jasmine Starr Show. Please be sure to share and subscribe to this podcast. There's other people who need to get this information and you could be the conduit for them.

59:21Many thanks over to Kim, my beautiful, gracious, amazing co-host Jen Gottlieb. And thank you for listening and watching the Jasmine Starr Show.

59:40Losing me more