00:35:14 · Danny Fortson, George Sivulka
[00:35:14] S2: So that that dream is no longer... I mean, if you go... If it goes well, you can actually go get into space now. It's relatively cheaply. [00:35:22] S4: There's three routes to becoming an astronaut. You could be a fighter pilot, you could be a mission specialist, which is really an academic, which is the one I ended up going... I'm trying to go down. Or you could be an entrepreneur. Yeah. I'm a successful entrepreneur with that. [00:35:33] S2: Yeah. Exactly. It gets super rich and then you can just, like, you know, pay for a spot on a rocket. [00:35:39] S4: Yeah. That's, that's one way... It's it's probably the least exciting way to do it. But that is that is actually what got me into, academics. When I was 15 or 14 or 15, I ended up working at NASA. [00:35:51] S2: Well, you were, like, interning at NASA. [00:35:53] S4: That's right. I I was... I had a university level internship, and I was in high school. Wow. I was baby faced. Yeah. It's it's it's crazy. Wow. They actually rejected me at first. So they they didn't even read my application. I think they just, like, tossed it in the trash. [00:36:09] S2: So how'd you get in?
00:36:09 · Danny Fortson, George Sivulka
[00:36:09] S2: So how'd you get in? [00:36:11] S4: One day on a a snow day in in February, 14 years old, I, like, put on my nicest suit, and I printed out my resume on really nice paper. And I took the subway to the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies on like 110th Street, I think, Columbia University. And I showed up at their front door and I knocked on them. I said, I'd like to go and speak to someone at NASA. And the doorman is like, you know, why are you outside? It's a blizzard. [00:36:40] S2: Yeah. [00:36:41] S4: Yeah. Like, we can't let you in. You don't... No one's here. No one's here. And so I I just kind of went outside and sat on the curb and and and I I was young. I started crying. I had no idea what to do. [00:36:53] S2: Tears frozen to the cheeks. I can see it. [00:36:56] S4: My face was numbing. Yeah. You know, frostbite was kicking in. And I actually called my mom, who's in sales, by the way. So she she she she went the natural athlete route and and and taught me a few things. She was like, oh, just just cold call them. And, and so I'm, like, sitting there, and I I have, like, one of the earliest smartphones. And I started googling everyone's phone number in the building and trying to just call because I was like, I'm I'm here. You know? What [00:37:25] S2: the heck? I don't
00:37:25 · Danny Fortson, George Sivulka
[00:37:25] S2: the heck? I don't [00:37:25] S4: I don't really wanna do this, but I'll do it anyways. And so I sit out there and I call, like, a ton of different numbers one after the other. No one picks up. It is increasingly cold. And someone picks up finally. And I say, I've printed out my resume on really nice paper. I'm standing outside in a suit. Can I at least talk to you? And I think the person that was running the internship program, like, came downstairs. And in the lobby, in front of the security guard that had kicked me out, I'm like, I've got a big fat grin on my face. I talk for two hours about how, like, I've got the right SAT scores on my... Like, I should be an intern. And they gave me an interview. And I showed up to that interview, I bombed it because I had no idea anything about calculus or physics but I remembered the titles of their posters in the office of the different professors that were interviewing me. Came back the next day having, like, researched, called my teachers, learned everything about all the other posters, and they're like, this kid is just not gonna get out of our hair. We'll let let him, like, hang here for free. And that changed my life. That that completely changed my. [00:38:27] S2: When you say you memorized the posters, was it like one of those posters that you see like a dentist office where it's like a little kid and it says hang in there or something like that? [00:38:35] S4: No. It it was like Like a [00:38:37] S2: odd table.
00:38:37 · Danny Fortson, George Sivulka
[00:38:37] S2: odd table. [00:38:39] S4: No, in science, when you have a research project, you put all of your findings on a poster. [00:38:47] S2: Yes, yes, yes, yes. [00:38:48] S4: And so was like, I'll learn about their research. And then ended up... One of them, I I just went really deep on, ended up working with that professor for two, almost three years. [00:39:00] S2: Oh, wow. [00:39:00] S4: We've published internationally record... Recognized research. That honestly is the thing that got me into Stanford. Probably wouldn't have had a shot otherwise. That single day, like, changed my life. [00:39:10] S2: Do you think coming from an immigrant family imbued you with that not taking no for an answer attitude? [00:39:18] S4: I think not taking no for an answer, massive chip on my shoulder, you know, also not being an athlete, you know, probably gave me a full [00:39:26] S2: Were your sisters athletes or are they? [00:39:28] S4: Oh, yeah. They're all, like, six foot something, you know, natural athletes. And I I just... Was falling on my head on the soccer field. [00:39:36] S2: Right. Like, there's little George. Oh, god. [00:39:40] S4: That's right. That's right. [00:39:44] S2: Well, it seems to be working out alright. [00:39:45] S4: Yeah. More to do. [00:39:47] S2: Yeah. Well, so back to Heavier. So you launched it four years ago. When did you raise the first round of money?
00:39:47 · Danny Fortson, George Sivulka
[00:39:47] S2: Yeah. Well, so back to Heavier. So you launched it four years ago. When did you raise the first round of money? [00:39:55] S4: So I actually... I launched it and then had no... Nowhere to to wire the money because I I I kind of, like, postponed the idea of starting the company. And so it's probably slightly before August 14, and then August 14 was the day I had my first bank account. Gotcha. It was officially incorporated as a a c corp. But there's there's always that funny moment where I did not know a single thing about starting a company raised from investors and they're like, okay. What's the wiring information and and the company name for your DBA? And I said, what is that? [00:40:24] S2: Right. Right. Right. [00:40:24] S4: Right. And so I I called in a lawyer at the end the to arrange them. But, first reason money that summer, and one of the first people to give me a check was, was Peter Thiel and a few other few other angels in the valley. [00:40:37] S2: So you did the rounds, the Sandhill Road rounds?
00:40:37 · Danny Fortson, George Sivulka
[00:40:37] S2: So you did the rounds, the Sandhill Road rounds? [00:40:40] S4: Yes. I was I was kind of meeting VCs, kind of not sure what I was gonna do. Peter's friends on Stanford's campus had heard of me, what I was working on, and and they'd offered, you know, hey. You know, you're working on something interesting. We we we think you're great. Like, would you... Would you be open to meeting Peter? And I said, yeah. And so he said, okay. Let's do a breakfast. And I was like, can we do lunch or dinner? And he said, no. So the... In the next few days, I woke up at three in the morning, borrowed my friend's convertible, and drove it all the way down to Los Angeles. And I'm at this breakfast. He shows up forty five minutes late to a forty five minute breakfast. I'm like, alright. This is this is pretty shot. Get ready to leave. He comes down and then we talk for like three or four hours about math philosophy, all different kinds of problems in my my early heavy business model. You know, the fact that I was trying to solve like a 10 miracle problem. [00:41:40] S2: Yeah. [00:41:41] S4: Just didn't know what I was doing. And, it was like a very highly intellectual conversation. Got up to go, kind of felt like a very academic conversation, believe it or not. And he said, hey. I'm I'm not investing right now, but I'd like to put in a check. And I was like, wow. [00:41:58] S2: So he said he wasn't investing, but he's giving you a check.