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Good day, fellow dealmakers! Welcome to the Deal Podcast. We're gonna talk about influencer marketing, we're gonna talk about failed, starts, we're gonna talk about exits, we're gonna talk about family and fatherhood. Bubba, welcome to the show.
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Hey, thanks for having me, Joshua. I'm excited to talk about this stuff. This is just passions, passions in my life, all these areas, so let's rock and roll.
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Let's rock and roll. Now, Bubba, you got that nickname being a chubby kid, but you're no longer, like, a chubby kid, like, you're actually pretty fit, and running Right?
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You know what, I… it's funny, I was definitely a fat baby. The name stuck, so beware. If you're a parent out there, and you've got a nickname with that kid, it may last their entire adult life.
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But I've always been an athlete, so I've, I've never, I never kept it past being a baby. And these days, what keeps me busy, I love to mountain bike, snowboard, I'm here in Utah.
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And so I've got the mountains just right behind me to mountain bike, snowboard, I love playing volleyball, and even CrossFit, I've gotten into. But those things keep me busy from a health standpoint, for sure.
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Yeah. When your mother was mad at you, what did she call you? Was it Bubba, or was your wrongful name?
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for sure my full name. She would say my full name, Brant, is my real name, which is a strong name, good name, but I was just never called that, unless I was in trouble. For sure. And it's the same thing with my own kids. I've got these 8 here in the background, so 8 kids, my twins just turned 6, these two down here, or sorry, these ones.
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And, just turned 6, my oldest just turned 16. So, 8 kids in 10 years. If so… talk about staying busy. That is how you stay busy, my friend.
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For sure, for sure. Do you have all your kids' names memorized yet?
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Of course, but when they're in trouble, do I say the wrong name to try and get the kid, you know? Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. And not even when they're in trouble, I'll just call their wrong name all the time. It's hilarious.
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Yeah, we've got 3, and then a furry dog, and I can't even get the dog's name right. I mix that in with the kids. It's a mess over here in the Wilson household.
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Bubba, when it comes to deals, what the heck do you do?
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You got it. So, I run Influence.vc. So, it's a venture capital syndicate. I run it through AngelList.
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And essentially, I was doing my own angel deals, and I love it. I'm an entrepreneur, so I've built multiple companies. I was lucky to exit in 2020 right before COVID happened. I mean, that was a tender mercy. Literally the same week everything got shut down was when the transfer of the wire hit.
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That was a blessing.
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And and then I've spent a long time with my now ex-wife in the social media world. And so, you know, we have a following on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, all those things.
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And, and so I was dealing with influencers a lot.
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So, it was interesting, because I kind of combined my, you know, tech entrepreneur background, and then blended it with this influencer world that was, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, was really new.
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And so, Influence VC was to do deals, usually early stage. I do prefer post-revenue, but we have done pre-revenue. But post-revenue, early stage.
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tech startups, usually in the consumer tech or consumer product space, because I'm looking for the brands or the companies that can grow exponentially with influencers' help.
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So, it doesn't mean that it's a company that was started by an influencer, per se, at all. It's just the normal startup world.
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And then consumer product, consumer tech, because influencers can help to explode those companies. And, you know what's so fun, is one of my angel investments I made in 2021 just got a $2 billion valuation. It's not public, so I can't say the name yet, but I'm so pumped. I got in at $35 million, was the original valuation.
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And, they just got valued at $2 billion.
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So, let's… let's hope. That's my fourth unicorn in my portfolio. I have 25 angel investments, and then I'm involved in, like, 6 different funds. And my fourth unicorn, which is… which is so exciting.
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Yeah, AngelList is cool. I really like how they set up, you know, syndicates.
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What is a syndicate? For a lot of people listening?
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Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Sounds awesome, what is it?
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Yeah, so I should, I should clarify. So, when I did my first few deals, I just did it on my own with, like, a law firm. And they would do papers, meaning they would do the paperwork for a special purpose vehicle, an SPV. So, you've maybe heard people throw that terminology around.
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A special purpose vehicle allows me to essentially create a mini fund for that one deal.
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So, they come to me because I have a larger network, I've been around the industry for 20 years, and I've had, you know, some level of success and failure. And so, people come to me for me to write them a check.
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If I choose to write that company a check personally, then I open it up to my network. And so, you can join my syndicate, my group of investors, on AngelList, totally for free. It's called Influence.vc. You don't have to commit to invest anything, but you can see the deals that come through.
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Now, this syndicate is essentially the… the easiest way for me to describe it is a group of investors who invest together as one entity on the cap table. So the entrepreneur, when we write a check, I write my own personal check, and then anyone in my network Who's a part of the syndicate, they can write their little checks. It allows people to write much smaller than the normal, like, minimum of $250 or something like that. And so you can write a smaller check. AngelList, will you go as low as $2,000 for check.
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Now, you have to remember, even if you get a 5X return, you're only getting 10K back, but it's… it's fine. 5X return's amazing.
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So people are able to join and invest with me through this syndicate, and then we have, like, a networking group. It's a group of entrepreneurs, it's a group of, of investors who, they have to be accredited.
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And, there's a few definitions of being accredited. I'm sure you've covered this on your podcast, but you're either making $200,000 as an individual, $300,000 as a couple, or you have a million in net worth outside of your primary residence, or you have your Series 6 or 7… research that, because I can't remember which one.
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And so, you do have to be accredited in order to invest in this type of, in this type of deal, because it is risky. Any type of venture capital investing is going to have an extremely high risk, and I personally would not suggest anyone to have more than 10% of their net worth.
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into a venture capital type setting. It's the same thing for me, though, in crypto. I just would prefer to have, you know, less than 10% into crypto, although some people may say that, you know, when I invested in 2018, I should have put a lot more in. But, you know, I've… more than 10x my money there, so it's great. Yeah. It's all good. Anyway, does that help? Does that clarify what the syndicate is a little bit better?
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Yeah, for sure, and you know, just for the people listening in, like, as always, this is not financial advice. We're not, you know, making a solicitation on raising capital here. This is, you know, me asking the guy, what do you do, and what is the syndicate? Always do your own research, talk, you know, do your own due diligence, talk to, you know, your licensed financial advisor and attorney and all that, but… you know, when it comes to you building this, you started out writing your own checks, and you said, you know what, I think I want to be more of a part of a group.
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I have seen a lot of people, I've interviewed probably 2,300 people, and I've seen a lot of people…
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Gosh.
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I might be…
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A lot of people, oh my gosh! I might be addicted to this, bro. I love it. I'm really… I should go to, you know, Podcast Anonymous. Hey, you're good at it, so keep it up.
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Thank you, I appreciate that, grateful. You know, I've seen a lot of people, you know, as a part of their story, interviewing, people who've exited, investors and stuff, you know, they have some level of success, and then this thing happens. Call it ego, call it, like.
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you know, there's another name for it where it's like, you think you win here, you think you get a win across the board, and then they start writing checks, and they go, holy moly, I've already, you know, depleted my… my exit capital, I have to go get another job or start another company. And that realization goes.
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Just because I was once right doesn't mean I will always be right again.
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Have you seen that happen in your.
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Oh, 100%.
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In your own life.
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Yeah, so I actually… I was so grateful for this. One of the very early investors that came into… so… so I've built my own companies, I've bootstrapped, I've raised venture capital from different funds, I even went through the Techstars program, which is very similar to Y Combinator. You know, some people might be listening, they've heard of these.
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And… and I did that back in 2014, so I was able to learn through this at a fairly… I'm 42, so, you know, over a decade ago, I was raising capital for my… for my little tech startup. That company, after two and a half years, had to shut down. So, you know, blood, sweat, and tears, it was… I was, you know.
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I was torn apart because this… this didn't pan out like I thought, and I had already had a company that was successful, which is why they wrote me a check. Anyway, the idea behind people having a successful company and then writing so many checks as an angel, and then they lose it all. It happens over and over and over again. So I feel super lucky, blessed, whatever you want to call it. One of my early angel investors in my tech startup.
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he made all of these checks. You know, he had gotten an exit, I can't remember, it was, like, something… you know, 10 or 13 million or something is what he got out of his business, you know, after tax, and it was fantastic, right? And so he was writing these 100K checks, you know, in all these different companies, or some of them were a little bigger.
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Well, I was one of them that it didn't pan out, right? And I'm devastated. He's luckily a good friend of mine. I ended up, in turn, turning back and investing as his startup a few years later, which is… fun to be able to, you know… I don't know if you call that repay… payback. His has done a lot better than mine, unfortunately, so he's… he…
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Yeah.
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But he came to me afterwards, he's like, I'm done. I'm done angel investing, this is ridiculous. I've invested in whatever it was, 20 different companies.
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None of them have paid back, like… and usually you hear, if you read the statistics about angel investing.
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The reason I bring up angel investing so much, even though I run Influence VC, is that most of my syndicate investors are angel investors. But usually you hear the statistics that most angel investors have to invest in a minimum of 20 companies in order to see a return on their capital.
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Because they… so many of them fail. It's so high risk.
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that so many of them fail, they need to have 20, like, spread across all these different companies. And, you know, so if you're thinking about writing 25, 50K, 100K checks, that starts to add up, getting, you know, 20 different companies out there, to maybe have one or two, you know, go.
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Right.
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The problem is that most angel investors don't have a huge network, and they don't get to see as many deals as, like, a fund.
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And so, only because I have a social following, right? I mean, almost 30,000 on LinkedIn, and then another 78 on Instagram, and… So over 100,000 followers that are bringing me deal flow all the time, and they know I have a unique expertise that works with influencers to help them scale. So I get these deals, like MrBeast, for example. I would have never been able to invest into MrBeast without my network knowing and introducing that into my deal… into my world.
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But, I'm able to look at almost 200 deals a month.
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because of the deal flow that I have. And, you know, a lot of the people in my syndicate, my… investor group.
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They have nowhere near that number. They might see 2 a month. If they're lucky, 10 a month. And so if you think about just law of large numbers, these guys, or gals, have… have only looked at so many deals. So they think there's this amazing deal, and they go all in.
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when, if it was one of my 200 deals, I would have passed a long time ago. Right. Because I'm seeing 200… so… and some entrepreneurs get frustrated, because they'll come through my, you know, my process, they'll pitch, they'll give me the deck, they'll do all the things, and I say, no, I love you as a person, would love to stay in contact.
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but it's not a fit for me, and they're frustrated because they've maybe had yeses from other angels. Right. But I have to be honest with them and say, look.
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You would be a great deal if I had only seen 10 deals this month.
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But I've seen 200 deals, and there's, like, 50 ahead of you that have more traction, you know, longer-standing founders with more experience, a technology that's already boom, like, already set and locked and loaded. And so, my biggest worry for angel investors, because everybody wants to be an angel investor, it's one of the most fun things you can do, and anyway, it is an ego plague, because you get to talk to people about, I'm part of this cool startup, or whatever.
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But that they don't see enough deals.
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And because they don't see enough deals, they can't make a judgment. They don't have that pattern recognition.
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Which is why a lot of people invest in a fund. Because the fund is seeing hundreds and hundreds of deals, they have pattern recognition, they do the due diligence themselves.
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And I… that's why I'm part of 6 funds. Maybe 7, if you count a crypto fund. And, And so anyway, pattern recognition, repetition, all of this is critically important for an angel investor to have success, otherwise they're going to just throw their money out the window. Most angel investors also are not stepping into that company in order to be like an operational partner.
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It's… it's, you know, you're just standing by watching. You can give advice, you can be an advisor, per se, you're probably not going to be on the board. They shouldn't expect that from you as an angel investor.
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If you do want to dive into the business, just make sure that that's extremely clear with the founders up front, because most of them don't want you to, right? They want to have the autonomy to build the business they want, and some angel investors feel like, well, I'm a champion, I've built and sold this great company.
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You need me to make this successful. And I, unfortunately, have seen too many hostile takeovers, where the investor starts writing more and more checks, and then he gets a seat, or two seats, or whatever, and then he ends up kicking out the founders, because he thinks he can do it better himself.
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And look.
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Most of the time that happens, the business doesn't go as well as it could have, maybe. And, I'm not gonna judge that maybe there are certain circumstances where that could be valid, but most of the time, you gotta leave the founders. You gotta let them do it. Give them advice. Hop on a call once a week if you want. You know, I'm usually talking to them on a monthly basis, maybe quarterly in person.
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And helping them with strategy, helping them with connections, and with network. And because when I invest through InfluenceVC, again, it's my own money plus other people's money as one entity on their cap table. So they don't have to deal with the mess of a bunch of angel investors.
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So they deal with me. You know, usually I do what's called, like, a 1 in 20. So, in the venture capital world, of those of you who've been watching, if you've invested in a fund.
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They usually have what's called a 2 in 20. It's a 2% management fee collected, every year for roughly 10 years. It ends up accumulative… the accumulative amount between 17% to 20%, depending on the fund.
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of your invested capital. So if you invested $100,000 into a venture capital fund, you would expect that $20,000, roughly $20,000, would be going to their administrative fees, management fees, over the course of that time.
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A lot of investors don't realize that, even those who have invested in multiple funds.
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When you invest in a syndicate, usually that fee comes out up front.
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The way I do it is just a 1, so instead of a 2 and 20, and I'll get to the 20 in just a second, the 2 is multiplied over 10 years, which is why it's 20%.
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Of your administrative capital. Administrative, fees of your invested capital.
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For syndicates, SPVs, the special purpose vehicles, they have to collect it up front. And so, I, whenever I've done these things, I've tried to collect just half of what a fund collects over that time frame. So if they collect 2% over 10 years, I do 1% over 10 years. So it's a lower fee model by half.
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But you do have to pay it up front, so you have to be aware that if you invested $100,000, $10K of that would go to cover the K1s and the accounting and the legal fees to run, and the fees that AngelList charges and everything, and administrative.
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But it's half of what a fund collects. Now, on the carry, so when you say 2 in 20, or 1 in 20, the carry, and again, I know you've talked about this a bunch, but hopefully those who are listening, this is educational.
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The 20% carry, the way that I run it through Influence VC, is that only after I have returned 100% of the investor's invested capital. Let's use the example of $100,000 again. They've invested $100,000 they had to part with 10K as their fees, but it's when they only, after they get $100,000 back, 100% of their money, do I get to share in the profits of what is above.
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So, and then I get 20%, they get to keep 80%, or whatever the profit is above the $100,000 that they got back. And so, you know, I just, literally this week, I got to return capital. It was a little base hit. It was a 46… 46% return for my investors after all fees and after all things said and done.
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So, they were able to get all of their money back, plus 46%.
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And so, you know, again, when you're doing venture capital investing, you want the 5X, the 6X, the whatever. But hey, 46%, everybody was happy. It's a base hit, they're getting their money back, they can redeploy it into the other deals that I do, or other deals that they have on their table.
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And every so often, I feel like it's important. And as an angel investor, I learned this the hard way. I'm gonna share a story.
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I invested $50K into this high-flyer company. They were at $60 million valuation at the time. They grew to $300 million valuation, and an investor was coming in, and they wanted to buy out the little guys, right?
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And, and so the cookie jar was being passed out.
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the cookie jar, meaning I could take a cookie and sell… and they weren't even asking if I wanted to sell all of my, my, you know, my invested… investor dollars yet, meaning on the secondary market, they were going to buy me out.
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Secondary market, by the way, if you haven't heard that before, it's essentially… you can buy out early investors or early founders and their stock, if you're coming in later in the stage, and they get… it's usually discounted.
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20-25%, I don't know if that's normal, what you hear, but usually so.
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If it was a $300 million valuation, I wasn't going to be bought out at $300 million, I would have a 20% discount of that, and then I'd get bought out.
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Secondary, sorry, that's a whole other topic we can have a whole other podcast on.
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Yeah, super cool. Yeah, keep going.
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I love secondaries. Okay, so, but here's the lesson. So they passed around the cookie jar and said, hey, your 50K has turned into, I'm not gonna do the math right now, but it's something like 200K or something like that.
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would you want to take some of that out? And I thought to myself, well, maybe I'll just take… you know, the initial invested capital, the $50K out, and then I'll play with house money.
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Right. That way, if something goes wrong, I play with house money.
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But then I was like, you know what? I don't need that cash right now. I'm just… no. Let's keep it all in, let's ride it, I think this thing is gonna be amazing. Well, a year later, they went bankrupt.
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And so my, you know, what I thought was growing from 50 to 200 to 300 and whatever.
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ended up going to zero, and I did not take the cookie out of the cookie jar when it was passed out. The lesson here, as an angel investor, and I think as, you know, running a venture capital, essentially, mine is a venture capital syndicate, but I have to act somewhat like a fund.
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is that when this base hit came, and I had the opportunity to sell, essentially on the secondary market, this is what happened just this week.
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And they all just got their wire, which is so fun when your investors get their money back. It's so awesome, like, oh, yes!
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And they get a return.
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I had this opportunity to give my investors a 46% return, and it was only a two and a half year time frame. 46% in two and a half years.
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Not bad. Not bad.
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I took that base hit because I knew that if I didn't take the base hit right now, I would have another 5 years Before potentially seeing the home run. Now, I do believe in the company, and I do believe the company's gonna continue to grow, but… I knew right now, I don't know about you, but for me, a lot of my capital is illiquid, because I've been making bets along the way, but those bets are 5- to 10-year investments.
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And so, you have to realize, in these venture capital type deals, or angel investor deals, you're looking at a 10-year window. You're probably not going to see your money back for 10 years. Don't bank on it. This little 2.5 year return is not as normal, which is why I took it.
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And, I say these things, because if you're an angel investor listening to this, or if you're running a syndicate or a fund.
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Investors want some of their money back as soon as possible. And so now I've gained this goodwill.
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And my investors are now texting me, saying, hey, got the money, hit my bank account, what's your next deal?
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Right.
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And so, I've got another deal right now I'm putting together, and so I'll go out to my network. They just returned, you know, 146%, right? So it's all their money back, plus 46. And, and they're gonna want to invest again.
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Yeah. Because why not?
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You just, you know, anyway. Sorry, that was a soapbox. That was probably a lot. Take a cookie where the cookie jar comes.
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I love cookies, man. I… I had, we just went camping this weekend, me and my son, we went, 10 miles on the river, and then camping, and I ate probably 6 bags of famous, famous cookies, so I'm a cookie.
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Wow, that's terrible.
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I could say no, but if it hits my lips, I can't say stop, bro. I love it. A lot of cookies. But anyways, I like cookies. I think the truth of the matter is here, too, is sober assessment of deal and self.
00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:29.169
So, a lot of times, you know, like, I'll see something pass, you know, pass across my plate, and it's a… it's a potential deal, and it's like, hey, you can, you know, you can get… this, or you could, you know, stay in the game and maybe get more in the future. The… the discipline of knowing when to take something off the plate and just saying, nope, I'm gonna count a base hit, a double, a triple, awesome.
00:23:29.220 --> 00:23:36.210
And, you know, taking those opportunities to sell when it's going up, to, you know, create some liquidity when that's happening.
00:23:36.420 --> 00:23:39.619
I… I've heard so many people, I'm so glad I sold when I did.
00:23:39.690 --> 00:23:57.259
I hear very few people go, I'm glad I stuck in because it hit the moon. That happens, but I think it's greed is what keeps a lot of people in for too long, and then it drops down to whatever. That's what I've seen, that's what I've owned my own experiences, is staying in too long.
00:23:57.299 --> 00:24:05.298
The, the liquid cap… you know, the liquid capital of private stock is… is something that I see a lot of people, you know.
00:24:05.299 --> 00:24:17.588
you know, creating tokenization and creating, you know, like, all sorts of these digital assets within the company. I see that there might be a… and the secondary market, too, is starting to get really hot.
00:24:18.140 --> 00:24:29.960
From what I'm seeing. But I still think a lot of people, they don't realize, like, hey, I'm making this angel investment. This money may be gone. This money's gonna be tied up for maybe 10 years, maybe more.
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:37.539
Right? So, like, having these conversations, I think, are super helpful. Thank you for your education, you're a great, great communicator, great teacher.
00:24:38.309 --> 00:24:40.220
Why do you love secondaries so much?
00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:54.078
Yeah, so, oh man, One, I love anything on a discount. Like, if you think about going to… okay, this is hilarious, this is gonna show you something. Look, I've got 8 kids, right? I live in Utah, 8 kids.
00:24:54.180 --> 00:25:01.239
I've… I've built in my own mind, I think it's probably from my upbringing, I'm more frugal by nature.
00:25:01.430 --> 00:25:06.430
And, look, I'm… I've sold a business, I invest in all kinds of things.
00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:17.128
I'm… we're doing fine, great. We're, you know, we're having a lot of… but I'm still frugal in my mind, like, so any way that I can think of, like, this… maybe this is too embarrassing.
00:25:17.930 --> 00:25:19.500
Yeah, let's talk about it.
00:25:19.500 --> 00:25:24.838
I love finding a deal at Ross. Have you ever heard of this, like, store, Ross? Yeah.
00:25:24.839 --> 00:25:26.338
Ross, TMAX, all that stuff.
00:25:26.339 --> 00:25:35.088
When I could, like, I found these amazing… I love CrossFit, so I found these fantastic CrossFit shoes that I would have spent $150, and I paid 60 there.
00:25:35.220 --> 00:25:47.598
And I walk out there with the biggest smile on my face, even though could I have just ordered the thing that I wanted online? Yeah, I could have. But there is such a joy of being able to, one, teach my kids that it's okay to be frugal.
00:25:47.599 --> 00:26:21.079
Even if you have more than enough, even if you have financial freedom, you can still have a frugal mindset, and that's okay. Now, there are certain things that, yes, I will have cleaning people come to my home, no matter what, because that is one of the most important things and best use of my time and money, right? And same thing with landscapers. I'm going to have landscaping people come, because that is just not my forte, and I don't want to spend… But there's little things that make me stay frugal in nature, and maybe that's one of the reasons why I took the base hit of 46%. That was a good enough return for all of our investors to be happy.
00:26:21.079 --> 00:26:31.429
And to say, like, hey man, I know it wasn't a home run, but dude, you did it, good job, let's go do the next one. So, when I look at secondaries, you get to buy something at a discount.
00:26:32.430 --> 00:27:00.098
And so, usually secondaries, at least the ones that I've dealt with, are at a 20% to 25% discount. So, if the company's valued at $10 million, then you just expect that you could have that 20%, 25% off, right? So, one of the unicorns that I had invested in as an angel, they got a billion dollar valuation, and they were going to sell at secondary, so I would have gotten the valuation of $750 million.
00:27:00.230 --> 00:27:08.089
Now… you know, being able to be an early investor, $750 is still amazing!
00:27:08.089 --> 00:27:08.470
Right.
00:27:08.470 --> 00:27:14.739
And it was… it's either I take that now, At $750 million.
00:27:15.069 --> 00:27:20.058
and get bought out on the secondary market, or I shoot for the moon.
00:27:20.200 --> 00:27:27.538
And in that certain deal, I couldn't sell partial of my stock. I had to sell it all or nothing.
00:27:27.890 --> 00:27:35.429
And I just feel like it's healthy to know that there are going to be some that can go to the moon, but when you can take a cookie.
00:27:35.859 --> 00:27:38.759
You take a cookie. Take the frickin' cookie.
00:27:38.759 --> 00:28:04.348
make the freaking cookie. And so, you know, those are the types of deals that I look for. I love the secondary market. Now, I am not… I'll just be the first to admit, I'm not an expert in the secondary market. I feel like I understand the the consumer product, consumer tech world and the influencer growth mechanism, that's where my expertise lies, and then the deal flow that I get because of my large network and social presence.
00:28:04.349 --> 00:28:12.750
But the secondary market, I've been learning from some other experts, and so every once in a while, I'll see them doing a deal, and I'm like, I'm here, I'm here, let me end, you know, let me end the deal.
00:28:12.750 --> 00:28:23.618
And, and then when I get the opportunity to sell on the secondary, I take it seriously. Even though I'm selling at a discounted rate, if it's a good enough growth, you know, multiple.
00:28:23.950 --> 00:28:30.169
I'm gonna do it, because I want to have a return capital for myself, and when you're dealing with other people's money.
00:28:30.349 --> 00:28:56.199
I'm a steward, right? Like, I'm a steward over not just my own funds. Now, I write a check into every deal, so I'm… I put my money where my mouth is, but… But I'm not just taking a bet with my own money, and I have to be very, very respectful of everyone else's hard-earned money, even my own, to know that if there's a chance to return capital at a reasonable return, then I will do that for the benefit of the group as a whole.
00:28:56.200 --> 00:29:10.378
And, I think it's very important, because… and some people may, you know, hate that idea, and some VCs may shun me for this, because to the moon or nothing is their mentality. And that's just… if you're gonna invest with me.
00:29:10.380 --> 00:29:16.509
yes, I want the deals to go to the moon, but I am also going to be reasonable to know, because I've lived it.
00:29:16.599 --> 00:29:18.369
Not all deals go.
00:29:18.369 --> 00:29:21.039
Yeah. And even if they've had growth.
00:29:21.390 --> 00:29:26.739
they may fail still. And if your on-paper return is 10, 20x.
00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:29.409
That still could go down to nothing.
00:29:29.460 --> 00:29:32.798
Quickly. And so, very quickly, overnight.
00:29:32.799 --> 00:30:01.029
And our world is changing so dramatically right now. The advent of AI, I love. I'm in it every day, and I love it. But it is changing the world, and things are going to not be the same as they were the last 20 years. And I think there's a lot of venture capitalists who are the best and at their top of their game who are flustered because they've been running SaaS models their entire career, right? 20 years of SaaS has been kind of the go-to Silicon Valley market.
00:30:01.329 --> 00:30:08.308
And, you know, the tech plays… consumer products have… consumer tech has been a little bit different.
00:30:08.420 --> 00:30:17.479
But now with AI, it's changing everything. And every industry is looking and saying, what is going to happen? And so I do see a lot of money sitting on the sidelines.
00:30:17.650 --> 00:30:22.388
And then you have some that are just dumping all in on one AI, you know, company.
00:30:23.460 --> 00:30:28.719
And, I would… all I would say is, remember pattern recognition.
00:30:29.660 --> 00:30:33.519
Remember, as an angel investor, if you're not seeing enough deals.
00:30:34.019 --> 00:30:52.440
you have to realize you may be missing something. And so, by working with a syndicate or a fund, it helps to protect, the risk, and it is already high risk, but you can invest alongside other people. I always say it's, you know, I've invested in other funds, it's totally worth the fees.
00:30:52.630 --> 00:30:56.940
For me, because they're getting into deals that I wouldn't have otherwise done.
00:30:57.220 --> 00:31:07.200
And they're seeing and doing deeper diligence with their core expertise than I have. The deals I do, I do my level of diligence, and my team can do.
00:31:07.619 --> 00:31:19.798
But I think it's worth the fee that you have to pay in order to get access to the deal and to know that there's some slightly lowered risk than just you willy-nilly throwing your, you know, 50, 100K checks around.
00:31:21.740 --> 00:31:27.509
when it comes to 200 deals a month in flow, that's a lot. That's a full funnel, like.
00:31:27.700 --> 00:31:39.640
Some people are spending all of their time, you know, like, some private equity groups are spending all their time looking at 10 deals a month, 20 deals a month, right? Like, 30 deals a month, right? Whatever. Or they would love that amount.
00:31:40.210 --> 00:31:45.429
Managing a flow of 200 deals a month, Is a lot of work.
00:31:45.619 --> 00:31:51.499
How do you… how do you filter through those to… to sift through things of fields that you want to take a look at?
00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:52.609
Yeah.
00:31:52.730 --> 00:31:58.829
So, if you're an entrepreneur listening today, and you want to know how to get to the top of my pile…
00:31:58.829 --> 00:31:59.799
That's what we're asking.
00:32:00.349 --> 00:32:12.309
Yeah, you want to get to know how to get this stuff in my pile. I always prioritize my network's introductions first. So, obviously, if they… so, number one is the people that I know, love, and trust.
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:18.138
So, if I have an entrepreneur who I know, love, and trust, I've built a relationship with them, I've known them over time.
00:32:18.259 --> 00:32:32.089
Even if I've invested in them in the past and they've failed. So, for example, there's a really good friend of mine and owned them 15 years. I spent $50K on a Marco Polo competitor that didn't pan out. Lost all 50K of my personal investment.
00:32:32.529 --> 00:33:15.269
And, And by the way, Influence VC typically writes checks between, you know, $300K to $500K. Every so often, we'll get up closer to a million, but So that people understand the types of checks influence rights together. So I gave him 50K, it didn't pan out, right? And… but I love the dude, and I knew it wasn't his… like, it wasn't… he didn't do anything wrong, inherently wrong. The deal didn't… the company didn't survive. And… and I know that from a personal standpoint, right? When my VCs… when I had to shut down mine, they said, Bubba, next thing you do, we'll back you again, because we know it wasn't you, right? And, which is… which was hugely, helpful for my emotional well-being for them to say something like that. That was really helpful.
00:33:15.930 --> 00:33:21.759
But as an entrepreneur, you want to get to the top of my list. Number one, build a relationship with investors.
00:33:22.019 --> 00:33:36.319
a long-term relationship. This is not a shake a hand one time at an event, and then you're gonna get a deal done. I… and even when people come to me through, you know, my LinkedIn, or even if they get introduced to me by somebody who I know, love, and trust.
00:33:36.339 --> 00:33:49.888
I still want a relationship with you, because I need to have lines, not dots. Paul Graham wrote an amazing essay, he's a Y Combinator founder called Lines, Not Dots. Or Lines vs. Dots, now I can't remember what it's called.
00:33:50.130 --> 00:33:57.210
And I want to see consistency within our relationship. So if you say you're gonna do something.
00:33:57.359 --> 00:33:58.838
I want to see it get done.
00:33:58.940 --> 00:34:10.429
And I want to hear from you on a monthly, or bi-monthly, or quarterly basis, for you to show me what you're doing, and I want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because, look, I'm an entrepreneur first.
00:34:10.869 --> 00:34:23.829
You have plenty of venture capitalists out there who have never been in the grind. They've never actually built as an operator. And so, they don't necessarily know the pains that it was for you to have to fire those 5 people.
00:34:23.909 --> 00:34:37.929
And, like, the heartache of that was your college best friend that you just had to lay off, or the stress of making a choice based on, you know your investors want you to do this, but you just… your gut tells you to do this.
00:34:38.309 --> 00:34:42.958
Most VCs don't know what that feels like, because they haven't been operators, right? Yeah.
00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:57.619
And so, for me, come and get to know me. I want to get to know you, and keep in contact. Most deals, I don't just write off the bat. Like, I don't write a check the first time I see something. The deal that I'm doing right now.
00:34:57.619 --> 00:35:15.869
I think I can talk about this publicly. So, it's in the consumer product space, it's a, you know, creatine, took over, kind of, the health world, and protein has been around for a long, long time, but creatine created these gummies, and then there was these grooons that was, like, healthy gummies, all this stuff.
00:35:15.880 --> 00:35:27.378
the protein gummies hasn't hit the market yet. And so, you know, by the time this goes out, my investors will already know, most likely, that they have an opportunity to invest in a company called More or Less.
00:35:27.829 --> 00:35:47.768
And it's protein gummies. I was their first taste tester. I've been watching them for almost 9 months now, and have built a relationship with their founders. And I've met with them multiple, multiple times over the course, but I haven't even written a check, and it's been 9 months. And obviously, entrepreneurs hate to hear that, because when they go out to fundraise, they want to get the fundraise done.
00:35:48.079 --> 00:36:05.449
But you're building relation… like, I'm marrying you, essentially, in the business world. I'm giving you my money, and I'm gonna… I'm betting on you to take this hard-earned capital from me and my network and expand it. I look at it as the parable of the talents from the Bible.
00:36:05.650 --> 00:36:09.679
Like, God's blessed us with these certain talents, these monies.
00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:26.248
And when I go and, you know, farm that… those talents, it's my job, it's my stewardship to multiply those talents. And that's what I believe God has asked me to do. It's one of the missions I feel like I've been called to do on this earth, is not only my own.
00:36:26.250 --> 00:36:33.088
Finances, but also others, and to help people create more abundance in their lives so we can help each other and have more abundant life.
00:36:33.090 --> 00:36:39.088
with each other. So, as an entrepreneur, you need to get… if you don't know me personally.
00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:58.550
Go add me on LinkedIn, follow me on Instagram, start to see what I'm all about. And maybe I'm not the guy you want to invest. Or maybe you start to get to know me more, and you're like, I like this guy, I like his moral values, he's a faith and God-driven man, he's a family man, like, maybe those are things you want. He understands influencers, I have this product, whatever.
00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:04.530
By the way, half my career was B2B, the other half my career was in consumer, so it's kind of this interesting dichotomy.
00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:22.280
If you don't know me, then start to get to know me. Then, get introduced by someone that knows you. One of the reasons why I want entrepreneurs to get introduced to me is because it's almost like a test of their intelligence. It's a test, how do they marshal their resources?
00:37:22.690 --> 00:37:27.449
Most likely, if I have a connection of, you know, almost 30,000 people on LinkedIn.
00:37:28.420 --> 00:37:30.539
They're gonna know somebody that knows me.
00:37:31.449 --> 00:37:38.048
Most likely. And so getting an introduction, instead of a cold email, cold contact.
00:37:38.050 --> 00:37:38.690
Right.
00:37:38.690 --> 00:38:05.829
it introduced… it's one of the most… it's the easiest form to get at the… near the top of that list. I don't know if you agree, but these are huge pieces for me. Then also, I love… obviously, I love traction, I love co-investors, so InfluenceVC doesn't lead investment rounds. We've made a… part of my thesis is to follow a lead investor. So, if you're raising $2 million and somebody else puts in a million, then great, I'll come in with a half a million.
00:38:06.099 --> 00:38:43.340
But I want them to be the lead investor, and I'll follow. Again, just part of how I built this… this structure. And, But get to know me, get introduced to me, show me your traction, show me the product. I want to actually see it and feel it. I want to know that it's working. Pre-revenue startups, I'm less inclined to write the checks. I have… But I'm less inclined, so if you are a pre-revenue startup, you need to have everything else buttoned up. Right. Your founding team's gotta be rock solid, you have to have built through a network of mine, or know me personally to do it.
00:38:43.360 --> 00:39:00.010
because if you don't have traction yet, that's… that's, like, one of those core criterias that I… I put together. I was also gonna say, I didn't finish the story, so the guy that I wrote the check to, and I lost $50K, this relationship that I built with him over the course of 15 years.
00:39:00.309 --> 00:39:04.340
I told him, hey, look, next thing you do, I'm gonna back you again.
00:39:04.500 --> 00:39:10.108
He ends up doing… so this is a tech company, he's had multiple tech exits, he's had multiple tech failures.
00:39:10.420 --> 00:39:17.500
He starts a pickle company. I'm not even joking, Pickles. Love pickles. Like, in the retail store, pickles.
00:39:17.820 --> 00:39:27.099
And, you know, I'm like, look, dude, one, I've tasted the pickles, they're amazing. They're absolutely amazing! It's called Josh's Pickles, by the way.
00:39:27.099 --> 00:39:41.539
So you can find them at joshisPickles.com, shout out. I'm obviously biased, because I'm now… I'm an investor. I invested in pickles! I've never thought about investing in pickles in my entire life, but because the founder was who he was, and the relationship that I had was… was what it was.
00:39:41.539 --> 00:39:48.659
he and I spent time at Tony Robbins' event, and he's, like, now on Tony Robbins' commercials, because he's done such a good job with this.
00:39:48.659 --> 00:39:53.998
I invested in pickles, which is the most random thing, and guess what?
00:39:54.329 --> 00:40:14.289
He's more than… Valuations, I won't go there because it's private. He has crushed it. He's absolutely crushed it, because he's a solid entrepreneur with true moral values and high integrity. He's working his tail off. He's now getting accepted into retail stores, you know, across the country soon. And, and he's been selling on TikTok.
00:40:14.530 --> 00:40:19.458
Who knew? TikTok Shop leveraging the influencer world with pickles?
00:40:19.730 --> 00:40:37.818
And if you didn't know, there are influencers for everything, including pickle influencers. So anyway, but just know, it's… the relationships are the most important thing, and I know entrepreneurs, they get bummed, because they're like, well, how the heck am I supposed to know? I don't come from money, I don't come from a network, I don't come… Look, start early.
00:40:37.949 --> 00:40:47.110
If you're a young entrepreneur and you're listening to this, and you're still in college, start going to the network events. Start building relationships. Everyone you meet, add them on LinkedIn.
00:40:47.150 --> 00:40:54.728
Start creating this environment. Start posting on LinkedIn. You don't have to be an influencer, I'm not saying that. But start to stay relevant.
00:40:54.739 --> 00:41:09.329
And, and learn, read books, like, you know, do more faster. You know, like, like, what is it? Venture, oh my gosh, I'm blanking, it's over here on my shelf. Venture Deals. You know, I love that one as an early-stage venture capitalist.
00:41:09.769 --> 00:41:12.269
And… and start sharing things that you've learned.
00:41:12.409 --> 00:41:28.969
I think building a network, can be one of the… it's… for me, it's the most valuable asset I have on the planet, other than my relationship with God and my kids. My network is the most valuable thing I have on here. And… and I started young as a college student when I did my very first startup.
00:41:29.639 --> 00:41:30.099
Yeah, dude.
00:41:30.099 --> 00:41:38.619
And, that's how you get into my world. If you want to be at the top of the list, get introduced, get to know me, and show some traction. Those are going to be some of the most important things.
00:41:39.139 --> 00:41:39.760
Cool.
00:41:40.090 --> 00:41:50.159
Alright, so I got one more question for you. We'll put your contact information in the show notes, so if someone's listening in, they go, man, I gotta meet that guy, and I'd like to start building that relationship.
00:41:50.570 --> 00:42:22.059
Guys, before you hit me up and say, hey, will you introduce me to Bubba? Like, research the guy, follow his work, comment on his LinkedIn post, like… Dude's super active on Instagram and, LinkedIn, so, like, trust me, like, you're gonna wanna follow his work, it's pretty cool. So, you know, reach out to our guests, say thanks for being on the show, follow their work, give them a like, a comment, and all that. Final question, as you're going through life, how do you measure And you gotta take off, like, for you personally, not for your kids.
00:42:22.110 --> 00:42:29.380
How do you personally measure if you're… Advancing or retreating, like, in your own brain.
00:42:29.969 --> 00:42:31.190
Okay.
00:42:31.679 --> 00:42:37.418
If I'm advancing or retreating, how am I measuring that success?
00:42:37.420 --> 00:42:38.130
Yeah.
00:42:38.639 --> 00:42:44.920
So, to me, I'll try and keep as… it won't be too short. Here's the thought.
00:42:44.920 --> 00:42:45.449
Yep.
00:42:46.090 --> 00:42:50.300
I spent my early years of my career focused purely on the career.
00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:56.230
I wanted to be on the cover of magazines, I wanted to have this big exit, I wanted a thousand employees.
00:42:57.849 --> 00:43:01.358
I went through when I had to shut down the venture-backed tech company.
00:43:01.489 --> 00:43:04.769
I went through, like, a soul-searching year.
00:43:04.769 --> 00:43:05.389
Brutal.
00:43:05.659 --> 00:43:19.460
And it was one of those… first time I felt real depression, and I think anxiety was the first time when I had to shut that thing down. And… it was just… it was a really difficult time for me. I mean, just being… Brutally honest.
00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:28.579
it was difficult in my marriage, it was difficult for me personally, like, I was dealing with… it was almost like… I couldn't get out of this funk.
00:43:29.260 --> 00:43:33.139
And the only thing that I knew what to do was to turn to God.
00:43:33.519 --> 00:43:45.010
And so I started leaning on God more. Now, I've always… you know, gone to church, let's say, but I hadn't truly, like, given myself over to God.
00:43:45.460 --> 00:44:02.900
And I know this isn't a religious podcast, I don't mean to go, like, into a specific religion, that's not what I mean, but, like… the depths of hell that I was facing, I could only come out of that, in my opinion, with a relationship with God and Jesus. And so, when I started leaning on Him more.
00:44:03.139 --> 00:44:06.869
He started to open my eyes to see what truly mattered.
00:44:07.159 --> 00:44:10.099
And all of this stuff we've been talking about.
00:44:10.650 --> 00:44:14.579
Doesn't truly matter in the grand scheme of life.
00:44:14.909 --> 00:44:20.429
And what he showed me was that my relationship with Him was the number one priority I needed.
00:44:20.539 --> 00:44:24.559
And with Jesus, my, you know, the master healer.
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:37.809
And… and then my spouse and my children. Like, that is what was the most important, my health. Like, these things are what truly matter, and you can ask any billionaire in the world.
00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:41.039
If they're unhealthy, Money doesn't matter.
00:44:41.039 --> 00:44:41.768
Doesn't matter.
00:44:41.929 --> 00:44:46.458
Because they'll spend it all to get healthy again. And for those who have lost family.
00:44:46.570 --> 00:44:48.909
Right? Or broken homes?
00:44:49.039 --> 00:44:52.789
Like, you look back and say, what could I have done?
00:44:53.150 --> 00:44:58.619
Right? And so, it doesn't matter how much… how many zeros are in your bank account.
00:44:59.130 --> 00:45:04.489
Because what truly matters… so when I look at my progress or retreat.
00:45:04.769 --> 00:45:12.248
I look at, number one, is my relationship with God in a healthy place? Am I doing what He's asking me to do?
00:45:12.460 --> 00:45:23.239
Because if I put Him first, then I feel guided. I feel inspired. You know, I speak with so much passion about this, you know, what we talked about today.
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Because I know I feel called to teach entrepreneurship through thebusinessbootcamp.com, and to help people invest through influence.vc, so that we can create abundance. In my view, abundance is there so that we can help other people.
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to rise up. When we have an abundant mindset, I feel like we can turn and help others and serve others. And so, you know, the Passion Project… that, haven't launched yet is called Fatherhoodmovement.com. And it comes kind of in this more of a vein of relationship with God, healing internally, creating better relationships with our spouse and our kids, and building systems. I'm writing a book, The Father Operating System.
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And it's, how do you take this entrepreneurial mindset, this investor mindset.
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And, you know, we create amazing systems and processes in our businesses.
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Why can't we do that for our families?
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You know, if we're doing one-on-ones and have KPIs in our business, why can't we do that in our family? I do one-on-ones with my kids. We have goals and metrics that we want to accomplish as a family.
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So, I'm building this system that others can, you know, emulate. They don't have to copy it exactly, but emulate.
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Because I think, as men, we can, we can really lead our homes better. So, from a progress standpoint, am I doing what God is asking me to do?
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And sometimes that's really hard, because sometimes you have to apologize.
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Sometimes you have to admit that you were wrong.
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Right? Sometimes you have to look yourself in the mirror and say, I can be better. I can do better.
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Now, that doesn't mean you have to be negative all the time, like, look, I'm a glass-half-full guy. That's how I've always lived my life. But I did have to realize and dig deep inside meet deep inside, where, you know, what did I need to heal from?
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And God has shown me some of these pieces inside my soul that I didn't even know existed. Pieces of my childhood I didn't even know existed. That I needed deep healing from those childhood wounds. And I know we're on this, like, venture capital or investor podcast here, but, like, look, men and women who are listening.
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These are the pieces that truly matter, and your business life will benefit from it if you align yourselves. Whether you call it a universe or a higher power, doesn't matter to me, I believe it's God and Jesus.
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But whatever works for you, like, align yourself with what those positive energies are coming, and what you're seeing and hearing. I believe we're being spoken to by a higher power, by God, and He's telling us what we need to do.
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And if we can listen and hear those words.
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then that, to me, is progress. And if I can have love and charity towards others, even those who have hurt me in the past.
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that that's what God would want me to do. Now, does it mean I have to open up, you know, my bank accounts all the time to them again?
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No. I can set boundaries, and have healthy boundaries, but do I need to find a Christ-like love for other people, even if they've hurt me, whether it's financially, emotionally, physically, whatever?
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Yeah, I think we do. And that, to me, is the progress. So if I'm able to be aligned with God, and know that I'm doing what He wants me to do, that is progress. When I choose to not listen.
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And when I choose to retreat, or not do the thing He asked me to do, then I am moving backwards. And to me, our relationship with God is like an escalator. If you're doing good things, you're moving up.
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But if you're not, you don't stop, you go backwards.
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So, that whole process is, in life, we are either moving forward or backwards. We're never stagnant. We're never staying still. So you have to think about your daily actions. What are you doing to connect with your higher power, your God? What are you doing to connect with your family and your partner, your relationships?
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What are you doing to take care of your own self physically? Because I truly believe that our physical bodies affect our emotional and spiritual well-being, and even financial well-being.
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Anyway, that was a very long answer, but it's truly, like, passion.
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You know, from my heart, of what I think is most important in this life.
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Super cool. Bubba.
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Grateful for you, man.
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We're 2 minutes early, so we're gonna call it a day. Ladies and gentlemen, reach out to our guests, say thanks, and if you have a deal that you'd like to talk about, really like this idea of, let's talk more about secondaries and liquidity in the private market. So if you have those kind of stories, or those kind of businesses that you'd like us to talk about.
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head over to TheDealPodcast.com, fill out a quick form, maybe we'll get you on the show next. Till then, see you guys!
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Love it. Thanks, Phil.
