Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Embark on a journey to success with the Startup Founder Roadmap, your go-to guide for navigating the challenging yet rewarding world of startups. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just launching your first venture, this podcast is your compass for building, growing, and leading a thriving startup company.
Join us for insightful solo episodes where we break down essential startup concepts in our "Startup Definitions" series. From understanding the nuances of Minimum Viable Products to mastering the art of the perfect Pitch Deck, we've got you covered. Learn the language of startups and gain the knowledge needed to make informed decisions on your entrepreneurial journey.
In our interview episodes, we sit down with seasoned founders, venture capitalists, and influential figures in the startup ecosystem. Get inspired by real stories of triumphs, challenges, and the invaluable lessons learned along the way. Uncover the strategies and secrets that propelled these visionaries to success, and apply them to your own startup playbook.
The Startup Founder Roadmap Podcast is your weekly dose of practical advice, industry insights, and expert guidance. Hosted by Christopher Hines, a podcast specialist with a passion for empowering startup founders, each episode is crafted to equip you with the tools and knowledge needed to not only survive but thrive in the competitive world of startups.
Are you ready to chart your course to success? Tune in to the Startup Founder Roadmap Podcast and let the journey begin!
Subscribe now and turn your startup dreams into a reality.
00:00 - Speaker 1
What's up people? Welcome to the Startup Founder Roadmap. I'm your host, chris. Today we have a very special guest, brian from X10 Ventures, and he's a deal guy. He has done a bunch of acquisitions and he's the person that's going to teach you more about how to make your company more valuable and profitable so that, when you are ready to exit, you can do that on your own terms. Brian, welcome to the show.
00:24 - Speaker 2
Thanks, Chris. I really appreciate you having me on. I'm excited to talk to your audience.
00:28 - Speaker 1
So I always like to start off these kind of conversations with the proof right. I want to give people a reason to listen to you. I said you're a deal guy, but I really want you to put that into perspective for the founders that are listening. Like, how would you describe the deals that you have done so far?
00:46 - Speaker 2
Yeah. So my career really started with a deal. I was placed into a company that had been recently acquired and I was given kind of two mandates. It was like, okay, get the seller transitioned out of the business within 90 days. And then the second thing was, hey, I got to pay back everyone that I used to finance this business. And I got thrown into this kind of the understanding that you can buy businesses creatively and there are ways to over leverage businesses. So I was thrown into a situation where it was an acquisition but it was over leveraged and the only solution to that was for me to double the sales.
01:27
And so my experience as I moved forward, that was very early in my career. And then I was fortunate to get into a corporate development role for a family owned packaging company a bit later and that company had essentially been flat at revenue at about $40 million for about maybe about five years and they just did not have a path for growth and what we were able to do was, through a course of four acquisitions in a couple of years, get that company to $60 million in a pretty quick fashion, whereas they've been flat for so long. Been flat for so long. So I have. And then, once I got out of the kind of that, that corporate world and started acquiring for myself, acquired seven companies in about 14 years and was fortunate to find good opportunities that had potential and then double or triple them pretty quickly, so usually in the first year to get those companies scaling up. And so that's really been my experience. And so now you know in.
02:26
So now you know in the environment that we're in now with X10 Ventures, all I do is talk to business owners all day long, or people that are aspiring to acquire a business, their first business, and so I'm really entrenched in kind of what are the value drivers for a business to be valuable from an enterprise value standpoint? And then also what are the value drivers for a business to be valuable from an enterprise value standpoint? And then also what are the things that are going to allow someone to have that, that exit, that maybe they're they're thinking of when they start a, you know, a startup business. You know anyone who gets involved with a startup typically is thinking about. You know, maybe somebody hit, hit it big and sold something for a hundred million, or, you know, came up with an amazing concept and you know, and got rich. But there's a there's a real process that you know founders and and startup people have to kind of go through in order to set themselves up for success and so that's part of what I'm excited to talk about today.
03:19 - Speaker 1
I know you love that being able to just sit and talk with business owners. I know you love that. That has to be like super fulfilling man, Because me as a podcaster, that's kind of my sneaky way of doing it it's like I do interviews. So now I have three shows and all of them are about this.
03:34 - Speaker 2
That's awesome. Well, I'm excited that we're connected and I'm hoping we can provide some valuable content for all your shows at some point.
03:41 - Speaker 1
Yeah, man, I love that, I love what it is that you guys are doing so, with you being the deal guy, can you tell us about your favorite deal? Having done seven so far, do you have one that stands out as like wow, I'm really like proud of that one, you know?
03:56 - Speaker 2
it's really kind of like what I'm most passionate about now is getting those results for other people because, you know, I've proven the formula with the acquisitions that I've had and multiple successful exits and those, like I said, the majority of those deals I was able to find a formula and then get revenue and or enterprise value doubled or tripled within about a 12 to 24 month timeframe. And so when I flip the script now because now I'm on the client side trying to find those opportunities for clients, but what we're passionate about is the whole matchmaking process of getting to know what someone wants to accomplish with an acquisition vision. And we work with kind of two avatars. We work with a C-level exec that wants to leave corporate and is going to be buying his first business and they need that support and that help. Or we're talking with business owners that a C-level exec that wants to leave corporate and is going to be buying his first business and they need that support and that help. Or we're talking with business owners that want to grow through acquisition. So I'm able to take kind of that experience, that organic corporate development experience that I had, like I mentioned, with that family owned packaging business, and transform businesses that maybe have struggled with organic growth or just things have been challenging.
05:07
You know, when you look back in the last like three, four years, everyone had to reinvent their business through the pandemic, right, yeah, yeah, and so many people were tired of that. You know, like, as an example, maybe there's a, an owner of a marketing agency, right, this is a real common avatar that we work. We worked with a lot of digital agencies, website development, professional services companies, et cetera, and they may have been, let's say, very heavy in travel and hospitality pre-pandemic, and then business completely fell apart, right, so you got this entrepreneur, founder who's so passionate about their business and they were so excited to be building it, and then they hit this massive worldwide headwind and then they had to transform that business and, let's say, change their business development efforts, redevelop their portfolio and move into another set of industries that are sort of immune to what had happened in the pandemic. But in the course of doing that, a lot of founders, startup entrepreneurs and founders are just tired. You know, it just became really, really tiring, and so a lot of them just try to kind of get out of get out of the business entirely or do something different, and what they found is their business is just not as valuable as they thought it was, even if they transformed it from pandemic.
06:26
And there's a number of reasons for that. And typically, you know, and this is my biggest advice to anyone that's looking to drive higher value for their company is what is your role in that organization? Right, like, how much are you involved in either the operations, the sales or whatever aspect of the business? And I talk to a lot of business owners, like I said, every day, and that's typically the first question that I'll ask is like, how involved in that business are you? But if a founder or entrepreneur cannot take off, you know, for two or three months and business continues to flourish, then how much is that business really really worth?
07:17 - Speaker 1
Right, and who is the audience for that business to potentially acquire? Does that make sense? Yeah, I'm thinking like, how does that affect that process of the growth, Right? So if I'm, if I'm I'm really really active and I'm engaged with that helped me grow faster versus if I have a massive team, like, which side is actually the better portion from your perspective, Cause you've done this a lot in terms of growing? You said 12 to 24 months, you're scaling, you're really growing these companies and so what is? Is it better if I'm more active and I'm hands-on or is it better if I have a bigger team?
07:49 - Speaker 2
Okay. Well, if you're trying to build enterprise value for your company, then if you're super active in the business, you might be growing it rapidly, but you're not really creating a ton of enterprise value, because the audience of companies, the audience of investors, companies, et cetera, that would look to buy a business that has an owner operator intimately involved in every aspect of the business is way smaller, and investors not going to touch anything that's owner operated right and investors looking for something that's set and forget. So when you flip the script and made the comparison between, okay, they're really really active versus hey, they got this management team and investors always looking for a management team right. They're looking for continuity of operations, they're looking for fluidity of the growth, a consistent financial picture across three to five years, and they want that owner to be out of the org chart, above the org chart. If they're in it, then that's something that they have to think about replacing.
08:52
And investors private equity firms, whatever it is they're not interested in taking on that lift, and so the pool of people that is willing to buy that type of company is just way smaller, and so it's really someone that's looking to replace that position and almost like you're buying a job. We're not looking. We don't work with a lot of clients that are looking to buy a job because it's like you know that they're looking for investments and things that they can scale up. And so the biggest barometer really of enterprise value and that's why it's really important for startup founders to think ahead in terms of how they're building their company is where are you at in that org chart?
09:34 - Speaker 1
Wow, that's a really good breakdown.
09:39 - Speaker 2
So that's going to be the biggest driver. And so, like I said, if you can start planning for, hey, it's okay. Start. A founder always has to wear all those hats, right, you have to wear a lot of hats, even the janitorial role. You got to say yes to everything and you just really can't say no to a lot. You got to hustle, you got to grind, you're trying to get business, you're trying to fulfill the business, and that's the point. You got to start doing some planning around. At what point can I replicate my let's say it's the sales process with clients? At what point can I replicate that and start training or hand that off to someone else?
10:16 - Speaker 1
that can become part of the org chart and I could start moving myself above it because I think that's where a lot of founders are kind of stuck at, because that's the hard part of I'm good at this thing and I do all of these things and it's hard to let that go, especially because now I'm good at it, I'm good at I'm getting results. Now I have to bring somebody else in, I have to train them and then make sure they're getting good results, make sure they get paid and all of that stuff, and I would imagine that's a really difficult transition for a lot of founders.
10:46 - Speaker 2
It's the hardest thing to do, but it's the thing that is going to get you the most payoff if you're able to figure out how to invest in it. Now we're super oversimplifying, chris, in terms of I'm just saying, hey, just get yourself out of the org chart. There's a lot of other things that need to be done. So, for example, you know what is the, what are the systems and processes that this business has? This is going to be kind of like the second most important thing in driving enterprise value is are there processes, procedures, you know replicatable things that happen each time? Whatever activity is important to the company happens.
11:26
So if that's a client gets signed on board, even the client signing process, what is that process? Is that dialed, is it replicatable, is it frictionless, that kind of thing. But once you start moving into okay, you got a paid client ka-ching, you know, money hits the bank account. How are you actually fulfilling that service or product or whatever? Is that systematized or is it in the owner's head and he's the one figuring out or directing it all piecemeal? You know that kind of thing.
11:58 - Speaker 1
So our biggest you know, friends. I love the way you're breaking this down. I don't want you to go too fast. I like that right there. I think the pro tip to take from that specific portion is that, no matter how early you are in your startup, to document your processes even if it's as simple as making a graphic on canva. You should document that, because if you're selling the company, that's part of the stack that the new business owner gets Like you now own this. Here's our process for getting that result.
12:27 - Speaker 2
Dude, you hit it right on the head, absolutely.
12:30 - Speaker 1
Okay, that makes sense. I wanted to kind of break down what you said.
12:34
I wanted to kind of break down what you said into more of the entrepreneur, like the other perspective where they can get it. Into more of the entrepreneur, like the other perspective where they can get it, Cause like sometimes people like the investors and people like you that have done it so many times over and over, you're like above the clouds kind of talk and I want to take it for the listeners and break it down a little bit. I'm glad you said that.
12:56 - Speaker 2
I'm glad you said that, Cause you know part of what we're part of. What X10 is all about is really taking all that institutional knowledge that's at the private equity level and breaking it down to really the SMB small to mid-sized business market. So I want to make sure that we're speaking that language. I'm going to give you one sort of really effective tactical tool that I think will help your audience. Effective tactical tool that I think will help your audience.
13:24
Clickup is a project management tool that you can start with, that's free, that allows you to start building out processes and things for your company, and so that's been a massive, massive time saver for us in terms of, okay, we have a client come on board. We have a documented process and templated process in ClickUp that essentially here's step-by-step, what's going to happen and who's going to do what and when and when it's due. For every single thing that we do whether it's signing a client on board and starting a discovery effort, Like because we start with our our first job is to get to know whoever we're working with. Right, If we don't get to know them, how are we going to develop a vision for them and then figure out what to acquire in order to meet that vision, and so that's all documented in a project management tool, and there's others that you could be using.
14:14
I used Wrike and previous companies before, but ClickUp is free and it's a great way for someone to just start templatizing and systematizing their business. And it's a great way for someone to just start templatizing and systematizing their business, whether it's a product-based business like an e-commerce business, whether it's a professional services agency like website development or marketing, whatever it is. It can be your friend and I guarantee if you spend like a week or two investing in that tool which is free, but the investment's going to be the time for you to really take that knowledge and mindshare of the owner into some, you know, some processes and step-by-step things that's going to, that's going to make the company more valuable within probably a two week span. Just just a simple tactic like that.
14:59 - Speaker 1
Yeah, and I can. I can see like I'm thinking about my own startups right now, about like things that I haven't documenting. It's all on like a Google doc, like breakdown, like just a bunch of bullet points in a row and that's kind of. That was kind of my way to get started. But I do like the idea of ClickUp. Something I've talked to a lot of founders about is you know if they are already five years in, like? Is it ever too late to make that transition from a company? It's like we're just going on our own path and now we want to get acquired. Is it ever too late? Are you ever too deep into it to kind of get out of things?
15:35 - Speaker 2
No, there's always, always steps. Wherever we're at, there's always steps that can be made to move things forward in terms of being more amenable, ready, prepared for a sale, or start increasing the enterprise value or just really look at what is your role in that company. And I mean, if we're five years in and it's really really owner operated, there might be some things that are intrinsic in the DNA of maybe, that founder that are going to make that transition harder because they've done things now five years that way. So there's so much muscle memory about that versus if somebody is a year in. But I think, as long as somebody has the intent to A hey, I've made a decision, I'm going to sell this company at some point in the future.
16:20
I like to put a timeframe around it and we do a lot of exit planning discussions with our clients too about give us a call two years before you want to sell this business. And that's when we want to engage and say let's evaluate. This is not difficult to do. Let's evaluate where the company's at. We kind of look at it from a 360 degree perspective, scored across all of these kind of exit ready aspects, and then just kind of have a report card and look at it honestly and say, okay, here's where we're at against. You know, owner involvement. We have no systems in place. You know what's our financial performance been, because an investor is going to be looking for consistent financial performance. And then what's also the bottom line and this is something that I had to learn I learned a little bit late in probably the third company I acquired is really focus on what are you dropping to the bottom line, Because that's what people are going to be paying a multiple on. Okay, does that?
17:18 - Speaker 1
multiple aspect make sense. Before we get too deep into it, I want you to break down the bottom line aspect, because I think I know what you're talking about, but I want to make sure the audience understands the bottom line point. So just that point. Specifically, what do you mean when you say like prioritize what's at the bottom line?
17:34 - Speaker 2
Yep, Okay, great. So if a company is doing, let's say, in revenue, top line revenue or sales of about $100,000 a month, that's a 1.2 million top line revenue business. But what's the profit that is left over after you've paid all your salaries, you've paid yourself all your cost of goods sold, whether those are products or whether those are people that are performing a service, all of your overhead, all of your selling, general administrative costs. What's left at the end of all that and let's say in this case it's $300,000 that's left on a $1.2 million business. That $300,000 is the first thing that anybody looking to buy that business is going to be looking at, because businesses will sell for a multiple of that bottom line profit.
18:24 - Speaker 1
Ah, okay, see, I love that explanation because I've seen that conversation on Twitter a lot, especially in the last couple of years, where you see a lot of software companies being sold for 10X their bottom line revenue. Where it's like, this is what's left and you know, because it's software, the overhead is super low. Usually you know it will buy this for 10x of whatever that outcome is. Is that something that? How? I know that's what it is for software. What is it for other, like you say, e-commerce business or service based businesses? How does it look in other markets?
18:58 - Speaker 2
It's going to vary on the industry, it's going to vary on the composition of the company and it's also going to vary on what is the size of that bottom line profit. So if something's under a million dollars of bottom line profit, the multiple is going to be capped at a certain sort of level. But because there's maybe investors are only looking for things that are cash flowing at least a million dollars. But once you get above that let's say, $10 million profit level, then multiples can go even higher. But this is going to vary across industries significantly. So you might see heating, ventilation, air conditioning companies might sell for a three to four multiple of their bottom line earnings. You might see, like in your case, some fast technology software company might sell for a 10X. I think in that case what you're probably seeing is monthly recurring revenue is more valuable. So in the case of the, I'll use the example that we just cited before, chris, of the company doing $100,000 a month. If every dollar of that sales has to be recreated month over month, meaning let's say it's project based. Let's just take a simple example of a construction company. Right, then let's say they have some long-term projects but every month they're essentially having to go get a new project.
20:21
There's no, there's nothing that's on repeat like set and forget versus a software company. They might have, you know, a million people paying 20 bucks a month for a subscription. They're the, you know. That makes that company way more valuable because that's all super consistent, right? The chance of a million people dropping their $20 subscription unless some amazing competitor came in, it's just not likely to happen. So that gives you a lot of consistency and that's something that investors are willing to pay for. So that's the monthly recurring revenue component. That's another concept that we're kind of throwing out there. So stark difference, chris, between that same company doing $100,000 a month, but they got to go hunt and forage for that $100,000 of sales every month, versus another company where it's set and forget on credit cards because there's a million people charging 20 bucks a month, that company is going to be perceived and sell for a much higher multiple than the first one.
21:21 - Speaker 1
That's why MRR is such a big deal in this space Like if you look on. Linkedin you see so many posts where people talk about that and they rave and brag about it. It makes sense, because if you do want to exit, then it just makes it way easier to exit and your multiple is going to go way up, yeah.
21:37
And that makes so much sense. So another one I love having this conversation with founders about like getting paid when your company is sold, like kind of the fun part of like going to the bank and you see the big lump sum. I want you to talk about that part, because that's like the money part that a lot of people aren't really comfortable talking about and obviously it's not. It doesn't have to be your own personal thing, but like just that experience of that. That I'm sure it's like a euphoria of like I built this thing. It's great. It's been years now. Somebody bought it for 5 million or whatever and I go to the bank and I can just see all of this like in my account. Like can you explain that process a bit?
22:16 - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's an amazing payoff moment. And then I would say from you know, a lot of the people that I've talked to have been in a similar situation is you also get a bit of a reality check after in terms of like, okay, now what, right, like, what do I do? And if it's a you know, kind of like a serial entrepreneur has a bunch of different businesses, it's probably just going to redirect some of that energy into something else and start building immediately. But for people that had one thing, that gets really challenging for them because it's like, okay, yeah, you got the money in the bank, maybe you checked all the boxes for some bucket list stuff that you did. But once that's done, essentially you're still an entrepreneur at heart, right, and you're still going to want to find something.
23:05
And so what I, what I advise, is you know, make sure you're going to be really comfortable with whatever that non-compete is of e-commerce or whatever it is. They're not going to let you sell that company and then go create another startup that's just going to compete against them. That doesn't happen. Non-compete is pretty much going to be a component of anything. So I would say that's something to focus on and then also, just like, there's going to be a massive tax bill, and then did you structure the deal right to make sure that you're not, you know, just basically giving that back, giving a huge chunk of that to the government, and so that can be a real structure question, like in terms of did I structure this right to get what I want?
23:53
Because that's the whole point. We do the grind, we build a startup, we want to sell it, and then we want life to get better. And it's like if we didn't set that up for success, then sometimes there can be, you know, a hangover of like, was it worth it? You know, was it worth it? Now I can't. I can't do the thing that I've been doing for three years because I have a non-compete, so I have to go retool or figure something else out that has a value, right. And so I think it's an important thing for startup founders to be thinking about is, if you're planning to exit at some point next few years, think about kind of what is next. What is next?
24:31 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I don't think that part is something that founders think about. Is that structure portion? That's the? I think that's why people like you are so important, because that's something that a founder probably isn't even aware of. Is that that part? They pay and take care of my employees. You know stuff like that. I'm glad you said that part.
24:49 - Speaker 2
The second part you said about taking care of employees that's generally been like the most important thing for a lot of the you know the sellers that we talked to. They're mostly concerned about you know they built this team. They're so passionate about the people that built it alongside with them and they want to make sure that those people have a great home. You know, in addition to the payoff it's almost like I feel like it's almost like 50-50 waiting, like am I getting the right payoff for me, but then is my team being taken care of those are both almost equally important to a lot of the you know the sellers and business owners that we talk to.
25:32 - Speaker 1
Wow, I mean, I think that kind of makes sense. I think today selling a company is different than it was 50 or 100 years ago, where, like now, if you sell a company, you do it the wrong way. You could be trending on Twitter in less than a day Like they'll get you, you know, like your name is going to be front and center.
25:49
So anything else that you do, anything else, your name is attached to. That negative stigma of how you just left your employees out to dry is also attached to it. So it makes sense why they will prioritize that, even sometimes just as much as the money. Because you want to go and start another company, if you want to build more partnerships, whatever it is you want to do is tied to that. So, wow, that's such a big deal, man.
26:17 - Speaker 2
Yeah, and I've always come from the mindset of, like every human connection that I make, I want to think of it as a potentially lifelong relationship and I've tried to treat my employees that way and I've been fortunate that, like one of the I think it was the second company that I acquired the first Facebook media buyer at the agency that I hired. We just developed a relationship, had some good mentorship together. He became chief revenue officer for my companies eight years later and so it's like when you're thinking about what are you going to do those team members that you're taking care of in the sale for a founder that's selling, they might actually be the next of. In the sale for a founder that's selling, they might actually be the next cog in the wheel for the next business that you're going to build, maybe three years after the non-compete expires or whatever. A lot of times that happens.
27:04
So I always advise people really just think of things in the long game, especially when you're talking about human capital and people and those relationships that have been alongside you building the company and you know who they are. As a startup founder, you know who your A players are that basically have been with you, that you can call on the weekends or whatever that you know you've taken, you know, such good care of them. Those people may be coming around in your next life and so it's super important and I think that's why you know we work with so many business owners that are putting that human capital just as much waiting, like I said, as what they're going to get bottom line for, you know, at the end of the day, in the bank account.
27:46 - Speaker 1
I love that Because, honestly me being where I am in business now, every year I'm learning more and more about relationships and the kind of people you have around and as I start to what's our tribe right?
27:58 - Speaker 2
What's the tribe?
27:59 - Speaker 1
You have to just build that, and it's more than a connection on LinkedIn. I think that's the big part is having people that you can call on your insight on a book that you're writing or that you can call for advice on, sometimes even family problems. You know, I think that kind of stuff really plays a big role in your life as a business owner and I just can't imagine that process of selling as a founder. It seems like it's stressful, honestly, like because you have so many things to weigh and you got to weigh, you know, take care of everybody else, or being selfish, do you be selfless? Like it's so many levels to it and I don't think founders are thinking about the full scope of a sales process of their company. So this was this is a great way to kind of put these things into perspective for founders.
28:46 - Speaker 2
Yep, yep.
28:48 - Speaker 1
So before we go I had a couple of questions about you know some of your outside life, man, I know you mentioned some things about you being a DJ and hiking and stuff like. Like, what are those hobbies? Like, man, how does that get you outside of the office?
29:01 - Speaker 2
Well, actually, yeah, it's interesting you mentioned the DJ part. Yeah, music really fuels me. You know I have music generally playing throughout the house, you know, or I'm enjoying music on a walk or hike or whatever. Like music is a huge part of my life and it really fuels me. And so, yeah, I am, I'm an amateur DJ.
29:21
I play on the decks just just, just as a hobbyist, you know, I'm not, I'm not out doing the clubs or anything. I don't have time for that as I'm building companies. But, um, you know that music is something that completely, completely fuels me and at some point I definitely want to get involved in a music-oriented business, whether I just acquire a stake in it or develop some sort of relationship with someone who's starting something up. But I would love to get involved in the music industry, and a little bit more formal, because I don't know anything about it.
29:49
I have so much respect for people that can start with a blank sheet of paper and produce music like that to me is just absolute genius and I just don't. My mind doesn't work that way. My mind has always worked to take something that's been, you know, built, proven a concept, just even slightly proven concept and make it way, way, way better, but I don't have the ability to, to, to produce or write music and I just have so much respect and admiration and I think that's part of the reason why I just love playing it out. So much is just, it's just, uh, it's just fuel for for my soul, quite honestly.
30:22 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I'm with you on that. I admire the people who do the things that I know I couldn't do, like.
30:27
I don't it's tough when it comes to things like I just know that that's not my thing, like, so I. Things like I just know that that's not my thing, like so I love, I love. So seeing like business, people like yourself that are like successful and are continuing to evolve, like I think the hobbies are important, because if you're just business, business, business, non-stop, I think it kind of can stagnate your growth a bit, to be honest, totally, I think it'll slow you down because you get kind of burnout, you're more ripe for burnout.
30:55
Exactly, but you need those ways to kind of unplug, whether it's video games or working out whatever it is. I think it just makes you a more well-rounded person, because I don't want to talk to the guy.
31:10 - Speaker 2
that's only business all the time. That's just not a good conversation. Yep, yep, yep. No-transcript. Change people's lives. That's what we're doing on a daily basis. Is, you know, just growth through acquisition and you know, having that, having the eye on the prize for where can life go If I do things differently than I have in the past years? It's kind of the story.
31:57 - Speaker 1
I love it, man. This was a great conversation. Man, I loved having you on to kind of give founders this different perspective, and even me, because all the companies I have now I don't look at them like, oh, I would sell this at a certain point. I have a number of like. If it's a ridiculous number, then yes, but some of this other stuff I wasn't even thinking about Like it wasn't even on my mind.
32:18 - Speaker 2
Can you tell me about your favorite kind of startup that you've been involved in or are involved in, like what are you most passionate about besides the podcast and building this audience?
32:29 - Speaker 1
Well, what's funny is I found a way to like because I love podcasting. I've been doing this since 2015. I found a way to. It's so hard to explain. Every area of my life is podcasting. So I have three different podcasts and all of them have different products attached to them. I have a podcast agency and I have podcast software products attached to them. I have a podcast agency and I have podcast software. So I have five different companies that in a way, revolve around podcasting. So it's such an interesting space that I'm in because everything is centered around podcasting, but in a different way. So it's fun because I enjoy.
33:15
Every day I'm either recording or editing something and I just get to do what I love in so many different aspects. Um, so I don't know, it's weird because I'm kind of in this bubble, but it's. It's kind of a life I set up like perfectly for myself. That's why I don't know if I would sell that, like I might sell some of the things attached to it or something, maybe, but it's just. I've been able to really set up this space of my life. That's kind of perfect, just for me, that's awesome man that sounds like design a life.
33:45 - Speaker 2
I love it If you can design a life around all your passion. I mean, like I said, that's the holy grail man.
33:53 - Speaker 1
So I want to do the sign off here. Brian, please let people know where they can connect with X10 Ventures, where they can reach out to you if they're a founder that has more questions, where can they consume some of your content, all of that good stuff?
34:07 - Speaker 2
Yep, you can reach out on our website at X10Venturescom. You can also look me up on LinkedIn, but X10Venturescom. You can also look me up on LinkedIn, but X10Venturescom. Just go ahead and click the button. You can schedule time. Get on my calendar. We can have a conversation about what you're looking to do, what your plans are and what your timeframes are, and see if we can add some value in your life or at least make a human connection and see if we can build the network and go from there.
34:34 - Speaker 1
All right, man. Brian, thanks for being on, I appreciate it.
34:38 - Speaker 2
Thanks, Chris, for having me. I really appreciate the time and look forward to connecting again.