· Peter Rahal, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: Which again, there's a lot of overlap between you and Adam. And we were talking about, essentially, Adam's running this cash printing machine with very few employees. He hates entrepreneurs that optimize for vanity metrics, where he said you should just focus on cash generation. It's very straightforward to him. It's obvious to him. And we were talking about the different hires he had and different other founders he knows. And then through a story that he was telling, Patrick had a great line. He goes, "Man, it's crazy. In any domain, it's only two or three guys that are actually good." [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: Just pick any category. There's a sea of shit and two or three, maybe four people that are actually excellent. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. And I just assumed that anyone who was getting into entrepreneurship- They're willing to die before their company fails. They are willing to sacrifice comfort to win. They want to win, and I realize, like, no, that's actually not what a lot of people do or prioritize. [00:00:00] S0: When you run into other entrepreneurs like this that you made the mistake of investing in because they weren't like you, when you have conversations with them, what is their response to your extreme approach?
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: When you run into other entrepreneurs like this that you made the mistake of investing in because they weren't like you, when you have conversations with them, what is their response to your extreme approach? [00:00:00] S1: If I'm the one giving criticisms to the company, that's a problem. The CEO should be the most critical. I shouldn't be like, "Hey, man, the car's on fire." That relationship, if I'm the one spotting out problems or saying go faster, that's usually not a good sign. And I kept falling into that pattern, and I don't want to be in a position to be like, "It's your company at the end of the day." I'm not an advisor. I'm just here to try to facilitate stuff, but- [00:00:00] S0: What I'm really trying to get at is, what is going on inside of you? What is your inner monologue? You're like, "Oh, I fucked up?" What is actually happening? [00:00:00] S1: This is frustrating. I need to get back in the game. This sucks. [00:00:00] S0: How long did it take for you to figure this out? [00:00:00] S1: Probably a year. Yeah, 20 to 21. [00:00:00] S0: Okay, so then what's the next step after that? You're like, "Okay, this sucks. I don't want to be an investor. I need to be an operator. I want to get my own company. I'm way too young to be retired, by the way."
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: Okay, so then what's the next step after that? You're like, "Okay, this sucks. I don't want to be an investor. I need to be an operator. I want to get my own company. I'm way too young to be retired, by the way." [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, for sure. So, one of the good things about investing is you're getting through the deal flow process, you're ideating, you're talking to other movers and shakers, and that's a helpful process to like, all right, is that something interesting? Is that a problem I want to solve? But basically, I had several false starts. I looked at recycling garbage, I looked at synthetic biology, I looked at other consumer packaged stuff. And I started, and then I basically pulled out committing to stuff. And the reason is, if I go in, I'm fucking all in, and that's a really scary thing, actually, because then my friends go away, my health goes, all this stuff happens to me. So- [00:00:00] S0: Hold on, we can't go on from that. Okay. Then you need to describe what all in means to you. What you just said, "It's scary. My friends go away, my health goes away." So this is just the only way you can operate? Explain this to me.
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: Hold on, we can't go on from that. Okay. Then you need to describe what all in means to you. What you just said, "It's scary. My friends go away, my health goes away." So this is just the only way you can operate? Explain this to me. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. My leadership style is just all in, burn the bridges. So I can't go into something half-assed, ever. So, what I commit to is very serious. And so, all my false starts were like, "Uh, I'm not..." Moving in the direction of starting it, and then just pull back. Moving in this direction of starting, pull back. The other thing that was there was, I needed to start a family. So during my hiatus of investing, I was like, "I need to find a wife to go start a family." [00:00:00] S0: I don't know if Miami is the place, Miami Beach in particular, is the place you should be searching for a wife.
· David Senra, Peter Rahal
[00:00:00] S0: I don't know if Miami is the place, Miami Beach in particular, is the place you should be searching for a wife. [00:00:00] S1: I agree. And then I bought a place in New York and moved to New York. But in general, it's because, all right, so if I find something and fall for it, there's a really high chance that I'm going to go all in, I won't see my friends, lose my health, and I'll be 50 and single, and that's a version of the future I didn't really want. So I ultimately found my wife, and then all roads led back to protein bars. It required some humility of being like, that's my shtick. If I die, on my gravestone, it might say, "Protein bar guy." And I'm comfortable with that. Because at first I had some influence of Elon, like, "Oh, I need to go into, like, I'm not the food guy. I'm going over there. I'm not this. I need to prove something." But then I realized, I've been in the food business since I was 12. I have a deep intrinsic knowledge of it. And basically, once my non-compete was a year away, it just naturally happened of like, oh, started connecting the dots, like, this is what I should do. [00:00:00] S0: So wait, you're in the food business since you were 12. How old are you at this point where you're like, "I'm going to start another protein bar?" [00:00:00] S1: Thirty-four. [00:00:00] S0: Okay. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. So 34. Yeah, so my non-compete was October 6th, '22.
· Peter Rahal, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: Yeah. So 34. Yeah, so my non-compete was October 6th, '22. [00:00:00] S0: How long that getting over that dialogue, that inner monologue where it's like, "Oh, I need to do something more impactful, or I have to do biology, or create hardware or something," and just like, "No, I'm going to actually stick to what I actually know and may be the best in the world at." [00:00:00] S1: It was three years. [00:00:00] S0: You had to convince yourself this? [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. Mm-hmm. [00:00:00] S0: Wow. Okay. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. And a little bit of like, because I always think both as an investor when I looked at companies and then a philosophy for myself is, the leader of the company, if they have to pick up the phone to fix the product, they're fucked. Meaning, the leader has to be able to really deeply understand the product and be able to fix it. And then all those false starts were like, it's kind of dependent on something else, or I didn't have the time to get the deep enough understanding of the product to make that change. And so with food, I deeply know exactly what to do. So it just became really obvious. And got my wife and then started what is today, David. [00:00:00] S0: When we talked the other... Why did you laugh? [00:00:00] S1: It was a very clear process. All right, check your personal life before, so you don't ruin your personal life again, because you're going to go all in on something. And then once that's done, and then- [00:00:00] S0: It just so happens you got the family, the non-compete expires, and now you're back at this.