Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:40:37 · Alexa von Tobel, Michael Brown
[00:40:37] S1: By the way, I... You and I share in common that I I love being locked in a room while porting a problem out [00:40:43] S0: and Absolutely. [00:40:44] S1: And and and and not leaving until you figure it out. That is one of the things I always like about being in person. [00:40:52] S0: It's also a great thing for if you ever have to get into a negotiation. I think it's a really... Because, obviously, when we buy the businesses, we have to go through sort of, you know, negotiation. Thankfully, sort of venture docs are pretty straightforward and pretty standardized. Right? There's not a lot of that in venture financing. But I've found that if you get to some sort of set of key issues on a transaction, getting on a plane and going in person and just saying, like, we're gonna get in a room for a day, we're gonna sort all these things out, works very well. [00:41:21] S1: By the way, it's old school. It's really effective. Works a [00:41:25] S0: lot. At a minimum, they're not like on their second screen doing Slack or multitasking. So you have each other's full attention. [00:41:33] S1: Yeah. No, I like that a lot. What would you say is one of the most unique small businesses you've encountered?
00:41:42 · Michael Brown
[00:41:42] S0: Unique. Oh, wow. We've seen a lot. So I'll give you a lighthearted one and a grim one. Good. So we we saw an onion packing plant in Idaho that only made money when the price of onions was at a certain price. And so it was like... It was dead on arrival because it was, like, zero profit zero profit, 3,000,000, you know, 1,000,000, negative one. It was so bizarre. But that was just the most... That was by far the most volatile. We also saw a business that had... We've seen two businesses that have one customer, which is really interesting. I'll give you the the morbid one. You know, this one is... It it was one that was an interesting case study of, like, a good business that we didn't take on. So it was a business that was in the space of actually cleaning up after violent acts and stuff like that. Wow. And so... Right. Of course. Wow. Right? So if you think about that and detach yourself and emotionally, oh, that's a service that needs to exist. That's a traumatic experience for everyone who's sort of involved in that. And so that service has to exist. Right? But when we thought it through the lens of Teamshares... And it was a it was a good business financially. What we thought about through the lens of Teamshares, like, I don't think that that... There's there's... There was no ethical issues or anything like that. It was more just like, I don't see us being able to hire and retain a president. It's like growing that business just felt weird inside of a corporation. And so that was an example. That was a very, very unusual business. But we've... I mean, we we closely look at 1,500 per year. So we've seen the full we've seen the full gamut.
00:43:16 · Alexa von Tobel
[00:43:16] S1: 100 per year. There we go. Few more quick things. I... What's one piece of advice you'd give any founder that's listening based on what you've learned being in this seat?
00:43:28 · Michael Brown, Alexa von Tobel
[00:43:28] S0: Have conviction and don't give up. I I think the thing is you have to... Like, don't start a business to make 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 or 3,000,000. Like, just don't do it. Just, like, work at McKinsey or Google or Morgan Stanley. Like, don't do it if that's your goal. There are so many better and easier ways to go and try and create financial independence in starting a company. You need to start a company. Like, you'll just know if you need to start one because it's... It almost... It it should feel, I think, like a bucket list item. And then I think you've gotta wait for the right time. Like, I had it on my bucket list to start a company. And after I started a company, it didn't feel like it was the right company. And so I think that... And that right company became Teamshares. It took many years of trial and error of other things that just didn't work along the way. And so I think that you need to wait for the right time. You need to have real conviction of what you're doing. It has to have fulfillment. I don't love the word passion, but I really like the word fulfillment. That it's it's something that you would do for free anyway. Right? And it's something that you really think is productive for society and not some short term gimmick. I I think that that is the best way to go and sort of build a business. Or, honestly, there are just way easier things to do. There's an expression of startup founders or people that quit a job to sort of work twice the hours. Right? And it's kind of true. So [00:45:00] S1: I'm only smiling because it's just yeah.
00:45:00 · Alexa von Tobel, Michael Brown
[00:45:00] S1: I'm only smiling because it's just yeah. [00:45:03] S0: You Because you're intimately familiar. [00:45:05] S1: Because I just... It's it's so... I always say it's just so emblematic of an inspired founder. It's somebody who is... Wants to change the world for decades, and it has nothing to do with being a CEO. And you are that to your core. Which brings me to my last fun question, which is, what has been the biggest pinch me moment to date for Teamshares? What was the day where you went home and looked at your wife and were like, this happened. Can you believe it? What's one that stands out?
00:45:38 · Michael Brown
[00:45:38] S0: Yeah, there's a couple. I definitely remember we had an on-site. So we built the company start... You know, in COVID, really. So we sort of... We made that decision to be national and and be, you know, distributed. And it's worked out really well because the companies are national. So, I mean, so we sort of have people all over the country and close to the companies, which is great. But then we would do... I think I think I think we sort of... You know, we're inspired from Zapier of doing sort of twice a year in person on sites, for culture building and kind of, you know, business planning. And, yeah, the first couple were pretty small and they were really, really, really fun. I think the first one, everyone gave a toast. It was that small. Right? Actually, the first one, it might have been a lunch. Right? But there was one where we were at a WeWork in Williamsburg or something and there were 80 people in the room. And I think all three of us had this like, how did I get here sort of moment while that was happening. Actually, I will say as sort of cheesy in a way as some of the bell ringing photos are, when I walked into the Nasdaq, we did our Investor Day at the Nasdaq the other day, like, I was kinda welling up walking in there. I was like, wow. Like, I... And I've known this day is coming since the day we started it, and we've started this process sort of last, you know, summer and fall, you know, working working with our advisers, all the stuff, writing a prospectus and getting comments at the SEC, even despite all those activities and planning and that this was always sort of the the the the graduation from college phase. I will say that, like, walking through there and seeing all those bell ringing photos, that was a bit of a pinch me moment like, oh, wow. This is happening hopefully in a couple of weeks.