OBI 7

0:03Welcome to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur. You asked for it so we made it happen. Every Friday, we're doing something a little different. Instead of one long conversation, we're packing in four of them, four experts, four big ideas, all in about the same time it takes to drink your morning coffee. We call it One Big Idea Friday, and the format is simple. I ask each guest one question, and they bring their single best idea for business leaders who want to grow without the noise. No fluff, no rambling, just the thing they actually want you to remember. I'm Josh Helledge. Let's get into it.

0:44With our next one big idea, it's Rachel Glass. Well, Rachel, you are the founder of Gloss Lab, found on the web at glosslab.com, and the founder, your second company, Aficionale, which is launching as we speak. uh literally this summer so congratulations on that and that uh by the way uh goes right into your one big idea that you're going to be sharing with us so rachel thank you for joining us please share with us your one big idea thank you i'm so happy to be here so my one big idea in this seat as a second time founder is and apologies in advance to first-time founders because i've been there too.

1:29But as a second time founder and really learning from a lot of mistakes, mistakes and wins that I made the first time, but having sort of this new perspective and a pause on each thing. So something goes wrong. A lot of things go wrong. Our vendor sent, you know, the entire wrong order of something and that goes wrong. There's a fix for it. And there's always sort of this solution but it's how I respond to it, which I've learned a lot about in this kind of second time around, as far as, you know, having the panic, but not panicking and finding these ways to fix them and sort of almost anticipating that these things will happen.

2:18So having that in your head that these things will happen and knowing that there's a way around and there's a way to the other side and using, you know, my network, my resources, which I'm sure others have too, but relying on that and not moving into this immediate panic, which I would have done the first time and still sometimes do, but I, but it's now tempered. It's interesting, right? Because I think the first time, you know, when these negative things happen, you think, oh, well, this is only happening to me. And this means I'm not a good business person or whatever. And you start to, you just like to start to find meaning in that.

2:56Whereas I'm with you. I've had a few, I've had several companies not do real great, finally had one do quite well. And then, you know, and now, you know, it's like, we're kind of, you know, starting a, you know, another division of our main company right now. And you're right. It's too, I think the good news or the silver lining here is, you know, know, for our first time founders, it generally gets easier. Would you say that? Or like, what would be a better way of saying that? I would say in some ways, yes, it gets easier, but I almost think that you're sort of like, I have the scars now, right?

3:37So having done it before, it doesn't feel as big, as dramatic, both the good and the bad, but I think it really evens in the middle. So there's sort of that sense of like, you know, things can keep moving and things will move forward and things will go wrong, but that's part of it. That's sort of part of the journey as opposed to, you know, it being a catastrophe, or as you were saying, thinking like, this is me, as opposed to this is part of the process. And this is part of the messiness, which goes into building a business. Yeah. I want to ask you one question here. And that is, if I can squeeze this in, and that is how do you deal with maybe the anxiety?

4:24Like you have a big launch happening here. Like, did you worry about that? Do you think about that? Are you anxious about all of this happening? And if so, like, how do you now work with yourself? Whereas maybe before you're like, oh my gosh, everything's on the line right here. But now it's like, I don't know, Like, how is it different this time around in the anticipation phase? Yeah, I run anxious. So it's not a fair answer. I think the anxiety and the anticipation is still there. But I think it's, I think, again, it's sort of like tempered in a way that sort of is protective on the bottom. It's like I, with my first company, there were very high highs and very low lows.

5:14So sort of the second time it's that living more in the middle of it all. And it feels better. It really does. Wow. That's interesting. Having been there, having, you know, the experience in the scars, which I know is sort of something you can't, you can't learn unless you've been there. But I, but trying to impart kind of those wiser words. your new launch congratulations aficionale.com tell me tell us a little bit about it so super exciting i've partnered with a top dermatologist his name is dr adarsh bj mudgill he's based in new york city and both of us have been long term sort of we both love petroleum jelly myself as a consumer and Dr.

6:05Mudgill as a top dermatologist. And really it's occlusive and healing powers. We've both felt sort of disenchanted with what's on the market. So Oficionale really exists as this clinical apothecary. Our first product is LaBomb, which is a amplified petroleum jelly. It's meant for a hundred uses on your lips, on your cuticles, and then is really your final step at night to lock in and seal in all of your skincare and treat at the same time. So super exciting, really kind of going back to essentials, but making them better and excited, excited about this first product. Your website for that is officianal.com.

6:49We have the spelling in the show notes, O-F-I-C-I-N-A-L-E. and that's where you'll see the new flagship product, LeBalm. So congratulations on this, Rachel. And thank you so much for sharing a one big idea. It's exciting to be in the phase that you are right now. But, you know, again, based on your background, it certainly gives you, you know, a little bit more hindsight, a little bit more maturity in that. That is really, really valuable to share with all these other business leaders out there because it's, you know, high highs and low lows kind of come with the territory sometime. They sure do.

7:27Thank you. Rachel, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.

7:34With our next One Big Idea, Krishna Kumar Sharma. Krishna, you are the founder and CEO of Omokai. You're found on the web at omokai.com. It's great to have you, Krishna. Please share with us your One Big Idea. Yeah, thanks a lot, Josh, for the invitation. So today I would like to speak about the topic of physical AI. Most people know this space by the term robotics. And when people think about robotics, they think about like robots doing interesting stunts, maybe folding laundry, maybe cooking dinner. some of the robots actually danced at america's got talent as well and this is how i see most of the people are seeing all this cool stuff but i believe that some of the strongest use cases for physical ai or robotics are much less glamorous example one of the least talk talked topic is in security and inspection.

8:37I believe that today's, if you think about normal world, how it operates, like organizations need to inspect their factories, their warehouses, things like power plants, construction sites, and other critical infrastructure. And these operations are repetitive, sometimes difficult to scale. And in many cases, they are dangerous. Imagine a security guard in an empty, dark warehouse doing a patrol in the night. You never know what kind of incident can happen there or what kind of dangerous object this person can come across. These problems are not flashy, but they are real problems. And this is where I feel that physical AI or robotics can create immediate value.

9:24So as we all know, right, like using AI, we can collect a lot of data. We can do good analysis on images, on acoustics, et cetera. And the same principles can be used by robots when they are operating in dangerous places. And other thing which I think is that when people think about the future, they think about replacing humans with robots. I don't understand why we hate humans so much that in every discussion, we want to either replace them using AI or replace them using robotics. I believe that we should use this technology to help and enable humans at scale. And hence, instead of like, you know, thinking about a robot becoming your romantic partner, why not like we use a robot to complete a dangerous or repetitive task so that we can actually let a human focus on judgment, investigation, decision making, and let robot to scale operations and protect the human from all the problems we can think about.

10:34I would also like to speak that some of the applications of robotics in actual human interaction can also be about helping elderly and at least stand by this kind of operations. But then if we think working in a physical space where there is a lot of dynamics, example, you have furniture, you have pets, sometimes you have kids, it can be very dangerous for robots to operate here. I'm pretty sure that in future, we will be able to do a lot more with robots. But at this time, I would say, let's focus on solving real problems and make world a better and safer place for all of us. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Krishna.

11:18Yeah, yeah. I mean, there are, you know, and I think if we, you know, look in our crystal ball, you know, 10 years down the road, are we going to have more robots or less robots? I think it's going to be, you're right, a lot of the behind the scenes, the stuff that, you know, very few consumers might be thinking about, that is going to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, just keep bad things from happening, which I know you're kind of on that side quite a bit. Really cool stuff. Krishna, I know you speak on this quite a bit, the intersection between AI and robotics. Your website is omokai.com.

11:59Can you tell me a little bit about who you work with and what you do? yeah so um basically we are building an operating system for robotics via which you can turn speech into autonomous missions for robots and drones what this means is that you don't have to be a specialist in robotics you don't have to be specialist in anything just want to get a complex task done you give a command to any intelligent machine let it be robot or drone or any any machine in general. And then this machine can understand your intent and do the task on your behalf. And some of the use cases which we have found are in the space of security, inspection, even in defense.

12:44Example, this week, Aramco refineries, oil refineries got attacked by drones. So you can use like this kind of systems to actually defend the refineries, or maybe the power plants, which is providing energy to all of us. Wow. It's an exciting world. We need good guys on the front to make sure that we're all staying safe. Krishna Kumar Sharma, your website is omokai.com. That's O-M-O-K-A-I.com. When somebody goes to your website, what would you recommend they do? I would say that they should, if they want to connect with me, please go to the connect section and please feel free to send me a LinkedIn request.

13:29And if there is any use case via which I can help your security and inspection operations or maybe protect our democracies, please reach out to me. Happy to support you there. Krishna, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your one big idea.

13:48with our next one big idea it's jeff hasselman jeff you are the founder and global head of blockchain uh and did was a digital currency for amazon web services uh you're kind of a superstar over there uh you're also the founder and managing partner of 926 ventures and the founder and ceo of Kingdom Bitcoin. Well, Jeff, it's great to have you. Thank you for joining us. And I would absolutely love to hear your one big idea. Well, thank you, Josh. Faithful stewardship begins with truthful measurement because we become what we measure. That is one idea I want to leave with you all today. I believe every generation is shaped by what it chooses to measure.

14:31Right now, one of the greatest crises facing our world is not inflation, debt, politics, or even AI. Those are all symptoms. The deeper crisis is that we have forgotten how to measure honestly. Proverbs 11 says, the Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him. God does not treat measurement as an accounting issue. He treats it as a moral issue. Why? Because measurement shapes trust and trust shapes civilization. That realization led me to right the bat ruler if i'm so sorry this is i'm sorry to this i don't mean to do you where's your microphone i should have caught this earlier can you get it as i don't know if you have the ability to move the microphone i can get a little closer for sure yes that'll sound a lot better um it was just kind of sounding like this a little bit kind of echoey oh there's a little muffled yeah i got uh yeah just so just as close as you can get it to your mouth normally like great microphone placement you know kind of about this distance or whatever so yeah actually you can't see it can you Oh, it's good if I see it.

15:32I don't care. It can be on screen. Yeah, whatever. It's like literally right in front of me right now. So that's awesome. Oh, perfect. That's so much better. I'm so sorry I didn't catch that the first time. Yeah, no, no, no. No worries at all. Okay. Let me just start over from the top. And it was Global Head Blockchain and Digital Currency? Digital assets. Digital assets. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Here we go. Three, two, one. With our next one big idea, it's Jeff Hasselman. Jeff, you are the founder and global head of blockchain and digital assets at Amazon Web Services. And it's quite a superstar over there to create something so big for one of the biggest companies on the planet.

16:15You're also the founder and managing partner of 926 Ventures and the founder and CEO of Kingdom Bitcoin. Jeff, it's great to have you. I would absolutely love to hear your one big idea. Awesome. Thank you, Josh. Josh, so faithful stewardship begins with truthful measurement because we become what we measure. That is one idea I want to leave with all of you today. I believe every generation is shaped by what it chooses to measure. Right now, one of the greatest crises facing our world is not inflation, debt, politics, or even AI. Those are all symptoms. The deeper crisis is that we have forgotten how to measure honestly.

16:53Proverbs 11 says, The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him. God does not treat measurement as an accounting issue. He treats it as a moral issue. Why? Because measurement shapes trust, and trust shapes civilization. That realization led me to write the Bent Ruler. If a carpenter builds with a bent ruler, the problem is not his effort. He may be gifted, disciplined, and sincere. But if the ruler is bent, the house eventually leans. We understand that instinctively. Now, consider something far more consequential. Money. Money is one of the most important measuring devices in society.

17:31It measures the value of our labor, our savings, what we hope to pass to our children. Now imagine discovering what that measuring device. Oh, my bad. Sorry. You can, if you want to just back the train up a little bit and then. Yeah. Can I go back? Just let me go back one line as far, if that's okay. So I'll say, okay. But give, make sure you pause. Yeah.

18:00Why? Because measurement shapes trust and trust shapes civilization. That realization led me to write the bent ruler. If a carpenter builds with a bent ruler, the problem is not his effort. He may be gifted, disciplined, and sincere, but if the ruler is bent, the house eventually leans. We understand that instinctively. Now it considers something far more consequential. Money. Money is one of the most important measuring devices in society. It measures the value of our labor, our savings, and what we hope to pass to our children. Now imagine discovering that the measuring device itself has been quietly changing, not overnight, but year after year, decade after decade.

18:42Families do what they were taught. They work hard, they save, they sacrifice, they plan. Yet somehow they feel like they are running faster while falling further behind. Not because they became lazy, not because they stopped working, but because the ruler itself stopped telling the truth. And once you see the problem clearly, the next question becomes unavoidable. Is there a form of money that cannot be quietly bent by human hands? Well, I think there is. Bitcoin. Not because it's trendy or the price moves, but because it reintroduces the world to truthful measurement. Principles God established long before Bitcoin ever existed.

19:22People often ask me if Bitcoin is a rebellion against the financial system. I don't think it is. I think Bitcoin is a repentance, a return to timeless principles, truth, integrity, responsibility, constraint, stewardship. That is the heart of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the entry point. Stewardship is the destination. Transformation is the goal. Because stewardship always asks a bigger question, not what am I accumulating, but what am I multiplying? In the second declaration, I challenge people to think differently about inheritance. Most people think inheritance is what we leave to our children. I believe inheritance is who we leave in our children.

20:05Will we raise consumers or stewards? Will they simply inherit what we built, or will they multiply what God entrusted to them? Because wealth without wisdom rarely lasts. Faithful stewardship creates flourishing that blesses generations. So here's my challenge to you. Ask yourself these three questions. One, what measuring stick am I using to build my life? Two, how am I stewarding what God has placed in my hands? And finally, the question I pray stays with you long after today. What is going to live on because I lived? Remember, legacy is not merely what you leave behind. Legacy is what lives on because you lived.

20:46Jeff Hasselman, thank you so much for this. Tell us a little bit more about, so your active venture, you're going through some growth right now. It's called Kingdom Bitcoin. And it's an interesting, boy, I like your take on it much more than the take I commonly hear associated with Bitcoin. Yes. Yeah, and I think you know what I'm talking about. So it's almost like you're kind of cleaning up, you know, it's like Bitcoin for adults. You know, the non-bro-y adults, I think. and especially with the kind of the more, you know, the faith component of it as well. You're causing me to take a double take here.

21:26Tell us just a little bit about what Kingdom Bitcoin is. Yeah, well, I mean, you nailed it on the head. I mean, when Bitcoin started, we were all children. And you know what it was like when we were kids. We were curious, we were learning, we were doing things. And then we became adolescents. And when we were adolescents, we get into a little bit of trouble. And I will say there's been a lot of people who have done some bad things when it comes to the crypto world, But it's not about the technology. The technology's work. It's the human nature of what's happened. And now today, we actually have adults coming in the room, the largest banks in the world, the largest media and entertainment companies.

21:58The real adults are there. And now it's just getting around regulation here in the U.S. But globally, Bitcoin is actually functioning very well. So what I'm trying to do is dispel those myths and those rumors and what's out there and also say that Bitcoin isn't about getting rich quick. It's about the long term. And how do you look at it from a generational standpoint through the lens of God? Well, your website is kingdom-bitcoin.com. You do a lot of writing there. Jeff Hasselman, again, long and storied career, notably with Amazon as being the founder and global head of blockchain and digital assets, which is that's quite a legacy that you've created there and I'm sure influenced you quite a bit based upon your work today.

22:44And again, website, kingdom-bitcoin.com. Jeff Hasselman, you're the founder and CEO. Thank you so much for sharing your one big idea. Thank you so much, Josh. Appreciate being here.

22:59With our next one big idea, it is Boris Zhukov. Boris, you are the co-founder and CEO of Let You Know Inc. You're found on the web at letyouknow.com. You are also a TEDx speaker, inventor, and entrepreneur. Boris, it's great to have you. Please share with us your one big idea. Josh, thank you. Thank you for your invite. That's great to be here. So let me dive in. Imagine a world where you are in control of your own transactions. So think about this. Imagine being able to buy almost anything on your own terms. And that's the key. I want to stress this part, on your own terms, without negotiating, without haggling, without wondering whether you paid too much.

23:47And you do so whenever you conduct those transactions on your own terms instantly. That's the key, instantly. And that's the idea behind Let You Know. So we created a marketplace that gives power to both consumers and businesses by allowing them to complete instant transactions on their own terms. And that's the key. If we are this model to be sustainable in the long run, you have to make both sides of the equation work, not just focus on one side versus the other. And let me, I guess, mention a few words on the consumer perspective. So here's how it works from their side. Let's say you're looking to buy a new car, right?

24:26So instead of walking into a dealership, how we've discussed earlier, hoping you are getting a good deal, well, you can first use AI to research pricing, incentives, market conditions, right? So once you've decided that you believe you have a fair price on hands, or let's put it this way, you have your best offer, well, you visit letyouknow.com and bid less with an instant result. So if your bid is accepted, your price is locked in, and we reveal your dealership or business that accepted your offer, saving you time and money as if you negotiated hard for weeks, except you didn't, right? That's pretty powerful if you think about this.

25:07Now, let's shift gears and let's look at the business side of the equation, right? So businesses don't have to change anything how they operate. So they join Let You Know, configure their matrix, so their hidden pricing thresholds through our autopilot system, and they are done for life. From there, they simply continue running their business as is. Nothing changes. So whenever a customer submits a bid on Let You Know, that means a business hidden threshold that nobody can see, including me. I would have no clue what they actually said. That dealership or business receives a buyer, not just a lead.

25:44And so what about those cases, the more interesting cases? What if it's a misbid? So I bid something unrealistic. Well, think about this. For any business, that's valuable data. So the business may not get the buyer, but now it knows that there is someone, let's say, 50 miles away who is 200 miles, I mean,$200 away from making that purchase, right? That's pretty powerful. And businesses receive all of that valuable real-time demand data while doing nothing, paying nothing. They can download that data, plug it into their favorite AI, such as OpenAI or whatever they use. And the AI will tell them, hey, based on this real data, this is what you should actually set publicly on your website as your display prices.

26:30And this is what you should set hidden on what you know to maximize your profits. Think about this. If you want to, let's say, pitch any business, you want to grow any business, the first question VC is going to ask you, hey, where are you going to get customers? That's one. How are you going to generate revenue? And second, what kind of price are you going to charge? Let you know solves both of those cases for you without you doing a thing. So that's pretty cool, I would say. So think about this. Consumers, they save money, right? Well, businesses gain customers and valuable market data. Both sides benefit.

27:00That's pretty powerful. And soon we're going to go far beyond vehicles. Customers will soon be able to bid on oil changes. Restaurant gift cards, store gift cards, haircuts, paintball sessions, and much more. Thank you, Boris. I mean, and this makes sense, right? So as a consumer expert and advocate for the past 20 years, it does seem silly that nearly all transactions are led by the retailer. Whereas I think a lot of retailers might be in a situation where it would be fun for them to shop around customers, right? You know, here's what I have ready to go because that's the kind of shopper I am.