00:11:21 · David Park, S0, S1, S6, S7, S8, S11
But really in the early stages, money doesn't matter at all, especially if you're trying to build, like, a big company. So, you know, if you can convince someone to talk to you about your product and try your product, and you give them, like, a month of free Ad[00:11:34] S0: This episode is brought to Ad[00:11:35] S1: you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a 75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Ad[00:12:03] S6: Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Ad[00:12:15] S7: Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing. Ad[00:12:18] S8: Sam's Club is the club for every holiday club. Guess who's joining the club this season? Walmart Plus. Yep. Sam's Club Plus membership now comes with Walmart Plus at no extra cost. Two memberships, one great price. Just a $120 Ad[00:12:31] S11: a year can Ad[00:12:31] S8: save you time and over $700. Wanna get in on the membership duo of the century? Visit sam'sclub.com. Come join us. Sam's Club.
00:12:31 · S8, S9, S12
Ad[00:12:31] S8: save you time and over $700. Wanna get in on the membership duo of the century? Visit sam'sclub.com. Come join us. Sam's Club. Ad[00:12:39] S9: Annual plan only auto renews TNC apply estimate based on average combined Walmart Plus and Sam's Club Plus savings among members of both for one plus year versus nonmember or club member pricing slash fees excludes membership fee. See Walmart Plus terms and Sam's Club terms for more info. Ad[00:12:49] S12: It's officially the holiday season, and Abercrombie's new collection has outfits for everything on your calendar. It's the busiest time of year, and between shopping and party invites, I don't have time to plan every look. But Abercrombie's always got me covered. Their sweaters are the perfect easy layer for low key plans, and on a nice night out, I'm reaching for their classic trousers. Fill your closet with the pieces you'll need all season long. Have a very Abercrombie holiday. Shop in the app, online, and in stores.
00:13:18 · David Park
[00:13:18] S5: Or two months free. That's no problem at all. You know, I see some founders, they're a little arrogant and they say, I'm not gonna give anyone my product for free, like... But the lifeblood of any startup, just building, I think, is just knowing what to build. If you continually talk to users, you start to kind of understand where you need to go and your, like, gut instincts get a lot faster. Your product sense gets a lot Some tips I would have is prioritize talking to users more than anything else, more than money. Sometimes you have to ask uncomfortable questions too. When you have a user on the phone with you, it can be really rare. Like, in the early stages when you only have 10 users and one of them gets on the phone with you, you don't know when the next one's gonna get on the phone with you. So you wanna really ask... You don't wanna just fluff yourself up and be like, what's your favorite thing about my product? You know? And like, that doesn't really give you any information. It's just gonna make you feel slightly better. If you have the end goal on-site, you need to ask what does your current workflow look like? What's the biggest pain point that you currently have? And then when it's actually applicable, don't ask about the good things about your startup, ask about the bad things. Because users will... They'll always try to be polite. Some of them will straight up lie to you, and some of them will just be polite and not even realize they're lying to you. So you have to ask... You have to judge a lot based upon their actions. I think you just have to go and you just have to talk to users and then you have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations and slowly you'll start to feel a start to feel a pocket a little bit and just become more comfortable over time. When you're an early stage startup, you have nothing going for you. You will take any call. I remember when I was really struggling, I would even respond to those spammy LinkedIn messages I would get, where they're clearly just messaging a thousand people, but I would even respond to them because I just needed anything. I needed I needed anything because we were struggling so much. And I remember one time I got invited to a podcast.
00:15:07 · David Park
Very, few people listened to this podcast, and I think out of the listeners, one out of the very small pool of listeners happened to be a scout for Jason Calacanis. And then the even crazier luck was they sent me an email saying, hey. We wanna meet with you. Possible investment. I didn't see the first email. I ignored the first email. So that that that was really unlucky, and then they actually decided to send another email. I responded to the second email. They decided to put a 100 k. I remember when I first got it, I went to my grand... Grandpa's house, and then, you know, we were like, holy... You know? I mean, we were just swearing in Korean, just like, 100 k out. I remember I took a screenshot. I've never seen that much money in my life. I took a screenshot of it, and I just stared at it all the time, and it was so crazy. Immediately after the 100 k, when he invested in me, my startup was not doing super well. We kind of had a little bit of growth, but it wasn't... It was like we made $2,000 month one, 2,200 month two, 2,300, 2,005, like very small growth. Like, it was, like, almost negligible. I almost didn't trust myself with the money, because I was a young founder. I was kind of unsure of my own decision. So immediately, my cofounder and I, we booked a flight to Malaysia, Southeast Asia, because everything in Malaysia is one fourth of the price. And just like we predicted, we were still young founders. We were making amateur decisions. It took us another year and a half to two years to finally grow. Like, were stuck at 2,000 ish MRR for one and a half, two years. If I didn't go to Malaysia, we would have died before. And then it was a one and a half, two years of just continual failure. And I remember the craziest story ever. I got invited to something called KSGC, K Startup Grand Challenge. And if you get top 10, you get... Make a lot of... You you win some money as well as competition. So I went to Korea. We were really low on money, and I was able to get a VC to invest $250,000. It was pretty much a done deal, but then I also... There's this girl I really liked. I really like this girl, and I had a meeting the next day with this VC that he was gonna invest in us. And then just because I was dumb, I was like, it's okay. I can just, you know, stay out late. I I stayed up really late with her. I came back.
00:17:02 · David Park, S1, S6, S7, S8, S11
I realized there was some document I needed to fill out. I opened it. I realized it's in fully in Korean. And my Korean's like, it's okay, but I can't, like, do a legal document in Korean. So then I'm doing, like, the most ugliest, like, Google Translate trying to fill this document before my meeting at 9AM. I finish at, like, 3AM. Ad[00:17:19] S1: This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed Sponsored Jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Ad[00:17:48] S6: Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Ad[00:18:00] S7: Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing. Ad[00:18:03] S8: Sam's Club is the club for every holiday club. Guess who's joining the club this season? Walmart Plus. Yep. Sam's Club Plus membership now comes with Walmart Plus at no extra cost. Two memberships, one great price. Just a $120 Ad[00:18:16] S11: a year Ad[00:18:16] S8: can save you time and over $700. Wanna get in on the membership duo of the century? Visit sam'sclub.com. Come join us. Sam's Club.
00:18:16 · S8, S9, S2
Ad[00:18:16] S8: can save you time and over $700. Wanna get in on the membership duo of the century? Visit sam'sclub.com. Come join us. Sam's Club. Ad[00:18:24] S9: Annual plan only auto renews TNC apply estimate based on average combined Walmart Plus and Sam's Club Plus savings among members of both for one plus versus nonmember or club member pricing slash fees excludes membership fees. See Walmart Plus terms and Sam's Club terms for more info. Ad[00:18:34] S2: The Vuori core short moves with you. With everyday versatility and classic athletic fit. It's the one short for everything your day brings. Invest in your happiness and get 20% off your first purchase at viore.com/4twenty. That's vuori.com/kore2zero. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.