Sachin and Adam
00:21:01 · Adam
[00:21:01] S0: When we started to actually talk about the bigness of this idea, we were initially like, okay. Let's be sensible and give ourselves two weeks to think about it. And I don't think in that two weeks we had many doubts. Like, we just talked about it more and more, but we're almost already locked in. It's like we had all these these years of discussion and these months of discussion, but it just suddenly, like, locked in. Yeah. And then we had events like you were saying, the rain on whiskey night. Yeah. I've never had a moment in my life like that before where something's felt so right, and it's continued to feel feel that way. Like, we haven't obviously gone through our... Any major struggles yet, but there's something, like, spiritual about that moment when something just feels like even in the worst case scenario that this doesn't work, this will be incredible, like an incredible experience. That was a really big part of it because I think what we saw is that, like, we're thinking... We weren't really thinking about funding at that stage. We're still thinking about bootstrapping it. Yeah. So we'd started to make advertising revenue. And per episode, it was going well. Yeah. And we saw that if we actually did this properly, up the volume, got more views, and charged more, we can sustain. Like, eventually, we can sustain ourself. But the downside was so good because we could just... We... The downside is doing the Tim Ferriss NBA for a year. The upside is, like, building this really big company.
00:22:13 · Sachin
[00:22:13] S1: And I think actually, like, a thought that just came to my mind is like, I'm gonna talk a lot about the benefits of venture before signing a company because I really, really believe in this, but I think one of the ways in which it held me back was that I thought about businesses very much on a what could return a big fund perspective. And so if you think about the multiples of any business that's not SaaS, they're like maybe one to three to four x revenue. And from from me, like, back solving, I always thought about, like, what could return a big, big fund's money, and that's like a 4 to $5,000,000,000 outcome, etcetera, etcetera. But when I kind of took that hat off and I'm like, what can create value for a 100,000,000 people And then use that as a, like, a wedge to then start monetizing. And we started talking about the biz... Different business models that we're playing around with and this whole thesis that we're building with, which we can probably talk to in a later episode. It started to really make it make more sense to me. Like, it's like you don't have to build an enterprise SaaS company that is valued at $6,000,000,000 and returns a fund that's a billion dollars big. Like, that's just not how you have to build business.
00:23:19 · Adam, Sachin
[00:23:19] S0: Yeah. I think we'll constrain by, like, yeah, that venture mindset of, like, you gotta build a billion dollar company. And I think the first iteration of this was like, okay. If we stay in tech media and we're sort of niche, we can build maybe, like, $3,040,000,000 dollar company. And money is just a proxy for the impact you're having. But then we sort of iterated on that, and we're thinking about those other ideas down the line. And we're like, okay, maybe this can be a lot lot bigger. [00:23:43] S1: Yeah. And I think at this moment, with 70% committed to kind of like working through this, a theme of ours has been like a lack of intention almost. Like with the podcast, it was like curiosity. Right? Yeah. And I think that's actually a good thing. It's like not not a lack of intention. It's like a lack of like a kind of transactional, hey, I wanna do this podcast. Would be a big thing. [00:24:02] S0: I wanna do... It's always started out organic and a lack of intention, genuine curiosity, organic stuff. And then when we flick on the switch, we become really, really structured and intentional. Yeah. It's like with the fundraising stuff, it, like, just happened suddenly. We got a bit of, like, a a goal and a vision together, but then we became really structured about, okay, who are we reaching out to? How much are we raising? How much do we need from each person? Who could be a really good value add? Yeah. All that sort of stuff.
00:24:02 · Adam, Sachin
[00:24:02] S0: I wanna do... It's always started out organic and a lack of intention, genuine curiosity, organic stuff. And then when we flick on the switch, we become really, really structured and intentional. Yeah. It's like with the fundraising stuff, it, like, just happened suddenly. We got a bit of, like, a a goal and a vision together, but then we became really structured about, okay, who are we reaching out to? How much are we raising? How much do we need from each person? Who could be a really good value add? Yeah. All that sort of stuff. [00:24:27] S1: Yeah. And if you think, like, to your deepest core, like, why do you think you wanted to start this company? Like, you've said, hey, there was this, like, moment in stop. Like, what is, like, the the the the second derivative of that?
00:24:40 · Adam
[00:24:40] S0: It's a good question. I don't know why we haven't answered that now. I think I've told you this before. There's like a number of things in life that make you feel. It's like there's love. It's like being on a great surf. It's like connecting with a good friend. And then, like, I think something that makes me feel like more than anything is when you have, like, the most brilliant and, like, deep conversation with someone who's incredible. And we've had a number of interviews like that in the past in the past year. One that comes to mind is Nick Crocker, where you're just... It's the most deep and, like, soulful chat, but you're learning so much. And you get these moments when you feel so present and zoned in. And it's like when you're in those moments, you're like, this is the core of life. Like, it's a deep connection with someone. You're learning so much. You've got goosebumps, and you can share these learnings to the world. And I'm like, if you can construct a life that has anything to do with that, it's a dream life for me. It's absolutely a dream life. And I think that growing up, I really loved people that made documentaries and talk shows, Louis Theroux and Charlie Rose. And I'm just like, man, the childlike curiosity and the way that they just try and provide learning and education for the world, it's a dream life. And I think that we could work a hundred hours a week and create absolutely crazy stuff because of how aligned we are to it.
00:26:04 · Sachin
[00:26:04] S1: Yeah. I've never thought about it that way, but, like, for me, one of my first ever motivations was Humans of New York and, like, at least spiritual connection to that kind of content. But I think what... Maybe what got me across the line is like, I've always known that that stuff like fills my soul and it's like the funnest thing to do and like getting paid to that... To do that actually feels like a joke. Like it doesn't feel like that should be real, but I think the secondary thing is like me and you are like quite ambitious and probably quite analytical to most people and have like a lot of rigor in the way we operate our lives. And I think we're both very conscious about the finite nature of of our lives and what we do with it and, like, the impact we can put on. Right? And I thought that media aspect was always like, hey. That's media. That's not business. But now thinking about this, that media as a channel for the... For this greater business we wanna build, and it's a way where we can do what we love by having those conversations, by interviewing people, by producing things, by being creative, but also the rigor of building a fucking big company, which is what we want to do. Like, we don't want to sit around and not do something they can't get above a $100,000,000, and I think that's what's exciting. Like, we do have these creative conversations, but, like, you know, in the first week of this company, like, we have more structured processes than most startups that have been around for, like, six months. And that's just because this is how we wanna build this company.