• 45:03
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
founder, companies, business, ai, talk, entrepreneur, startups, investment, anthony, started, startup community, investor, fun, great, people, book, traction, event, pitching, lose
SPEAKERS
Anthony Franco, Damon Pistulka
Damon Pistulka 00:03
All right, everyone, welcome once again, the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon pistulka, and I am excited for our guest today, because I have none other than Anthony Franco here with us today, and we’re going to be talking about how to be a great business founder, Anthony, thanks for being here today.
Anthony Franco 00:22
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Damon Pistulka 00:24
Yeah, well, this is, this is going to be really interesting, Anthony, because I have, this is the first time I’ve I ever talked to somebody prior to meeting you on our last few calls. Is that help people actually learn how to be a better founder. So let’s, let’s talk about, I’m,
Anthony Franco 00:46
I’m really confused. I thought I was here to learn from you. You have the wrong guy.
Damon Pistulka 00:56
Because it’s, I mean, because really, this is, it’s an interesting topic, because there’s so many founders. We see them in, you know, startup founders, even well established businesses, those founders are still in them. It could be a multi million, could be $50 million business still run like the day they opened it up, other than it’s a lot more people or whatever. But let’s hear a little bit about your background and how you really evolved to the point that you said, I want to help people become better founders. Well,
Anthony Franco 01:26
so I, I’m, I’m by trade, a serial entrepreneur, which makes me unemployable. I, I, essentially, I launch, scale and exit businesses and help other founders do the same. That’s, that’s really what I do that help other founders do the same is a relatively new venture. I’ve found, I’ve found that my joy comes from hanging around other bat shit, crazy entrepreneurs and and it’s, it’s essentially, it’s my hobby, and I am. I do have a founder with another community founder member, just like me. And we just, we just gravitate towards, towards wanting to be around other people like us, and we wanted to make a we want to see if we can make a career out of it. Just do this for the rest of our lives. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 02:27
yeah. So let’s talk about your background a little bit. You said you you started out, launching, scaling and exiting your own business. Tell us about that a little bit. Yeah. So,
Anthony Franco 02:39
um, I’ve, I’ve started and exited. So I’ve started seven companies, exited six, two to public companies. I have done that as a solo entrepreneur and as a, as a, as a co founder. So I’ve had partners and done it solo, way, but way better to do it with a partner. I know horror stories exist, but it’s way it’s way more fun to have somebody else that you’re doing it with. Generally speaking, I’ve started a restaurant, a few technology companies, so I’m by trade, a software developer. Started a CPG manufacturing company, and that, that seven that I started doesn’t include how to found her. So I guess you could say I’ve started eight, eight and, yeah, my, my largest business was 150 folks, eight figures. Yeah. So very eclectic mix of kinds of businesses that I, that I jump into.
Damon Pistulka 03:42
Well, that’s, I was gonna say, you look at restaurants, tech and the CPG, what kind of CPG, roughly, kind of company was it? I mean, because that’s, that’s a lot different,
Anthony Franco 03:50
it’s a lot and manufacturing is a like CPG is a little bit different, but we manufactured our own products. Okay? The company, the company is still around, and it’s called MC squares. Actually had to shut the factory down, but still selling products and pulling those in from other from, from contract manufacturers, yeah, and it’s and it’s reusable office products, taxi markers, that kind of stuff. So in the office supply space.
Damon Pistulka 04:23
Yeah. So in starting these seven companies and then starting your eighth company, how to founder, what are some of the big things you’ve learned on how to founder?
Anthony Franco 04:42
So how to founders more about what not to do. So I have a lot more things that that I know what not to do, the the the fundamental issue. With being a founder is it’s incredibly lonely. And you know, you, you get, you run into, first of all, if you’re a good founder, you’re doing something that never that’s never been done before, and you’ve never done it before, so there’s not a lot of there’s not a lot of support. And and if you have employees, you can’t go to your employees. They have no idea what do, what I’m doing here, yeah. And if you can’t go to your investors, you certainly can’t go to your spouse, yes. And so there’s nobody to talk to. So it had a founder really started with this notion of, we want to first Help, help give a reference manual, for lack of a better term of the things that you need to have a good mental model for. And that starts from everything from, you know, what is work, life balance, if there’s such a thing, all the way down to, like our podcast this morning was about, you know, what business entity do I choose? So it’s very tactical. It’s very much how to founder, yeah, and it’s also, we’re also doing things here locally, currently on doing community events that are in person. We’re doing founder peer groups, so helping solve not only the the the the complete void of knowledge on how to do stuff, things that MBA professors won’t teach you how to do, yeah, and putting you around other people like you that you can have honest, genuine, authentic, vulnerable conversations with,
Damon Pistulka 06:35
yeah, I think as founders, you mentioned, you know, The lonely, most founders don’t understand that until they’re in it and realize that, yeah, you you can’t you can talk to your investors, you can talk to your employees and your spouse, but it’s not a good idea in a lot of cases, because there is, there is a lot of unknown, and most people are not ready for that kind of risk, you know, especially your your friends and family. I mean, that’s, that’s where you see a lot of it. And I you just do a couple of YouTube searches, and it’ll have 100 people that’ll tell you about, never tell your friends or family your real dreams, because, but, yeah, so, yeah, it’s funny. Heather. Heather dropped a comment. Lonely is so resonant. Yep, yeah, there’s
Anthony Franco 07:29
a reason. There’s a reason why we suffer from higher rates of depression, suicide, divorce, mental, mental, you know, mental challenges. There’s a there’s a reason for that, and that’s because of that, of the fact that we’re so alone,
Damon Pistulka 07:46
yeah, yeah. And adding the, adding the things that you’re doing with the peer group to communities, and really giving people founders a forum where they can build relationship with other founders that are in similar situations that they can talk to is, is very powerful. Yeah,
Anthony Franco 08:06
where we’ve just so this is a brand new venture for me. We literally started one month ago, nice and already it’s the most traction I’ve seen from anything that I’ve ever done. Just, there’s so much need we’re getting. We’re getting not only founders, and we have a pretty good network here in Colorado of founders. We hope to make this a national a national thing, but right now we’re starting here locally. Yeah, we’re also getting some really great traction with people that want to write us checks just to help other founders, like scholarships for peer groups and cities wanting to us to apply for grants to train founders. So it’s been, it’s been an incredible journey just over the last 30 days. I can’t wait to see where we go with it.
Damon Pistulka 08:52
Yeah, well, it’s, I mean, the startup community. Well, Denver’s a big startup community, and we’ll talk about that. You mentioned the the big event that’s coming up there, I want to talk about that. But you know, a lot of these cities have vibrant startup communities. It’s, it’s more common than you realize, and it is, as you said, it’s important for the communities, because they continue that new business development. They give people good, good jobs with these new startups. And it’s, and it gives, I mean, when you look at the startup community, or the founders that are found making these new businesses, and you look at the big publicly traded you sold a couple of your companies to publicly traded companies. I mean, that’s where I believe anyway, and that could be drastically wrong, but it used to be anyway. That’s where the real innovation comes from. These small companies are creating these innovative ideas, and then a lot of times, their exit is to a larger company that uses it and or to a public company, like you said. And this is, this is an innovation engine for our country.
Anthony Franco 09:59
I. I 100% we say founders are the pioneers of economic prosperity, and we’re here to equip them for the journey. That’s that’s really, you nailed our tagline right out the gate there.
Damon Pistulka 10:14
I’m writing that down. Founders are the pioneers for economic prosperity. That’s great. Um, yeah, it is. So we got Ruth stopped by and said, Hey, great to have to be able to join you all. She also said, too, that is incredible testimony on sponsorships. It is really when you get the sponsors coming in that early you want to help, because they do see the economic development that happens from these, these startup companies, and how they do, yeah, good stuff. Good stuff. So as we, as we move along, we talked about the, you know, it’s incredibly lonely. So what are some of the things you and you said you like that. You like to tell people what are help people with the what not to do. Let’s move in that direction then. So I’m a founder. I’m thinking about starting a company. You know, what are some of the things that we don’t want to do?
Anthony Franco 11:11
I would if I actually have a story about this, somebody came up to me once and said, I’m thinking about being a founder. And I told him not to. I told him, don’t do it. For all the reasons that I’ve already mentioned. It’s lonely, it’s higher rates of suicide, higher rates of depression. You are going into a market that against people that have more resources, more more traction than you could ever hope to have. The likelihood that you’re going to fail is incredibly high. So the first, the first mistake the founder, lot of founders, make, is they actually decide to be a founder. And what’s I think I say that with a lot of love, because the truth is is, out of one conversation, I can talk you out of it, I’ve done you a favor, because if I can talk you out of it, then you shouldn’t start there are the few that look like I have no idea what I’m talking about. That’s, that’s, they’re not going to listen to me. Great, you’re the founder, like you’re the entrepreneur. Yeah, if I can talk you out of it, you’re probably you’re probably not. And that’s, that’s fine. Most unknown truth, most entrepreneurs that have been doing it for years are envious of normal people with normal lives, that have normal hobbies. We’re jealous of you. We don’t understand why anybody want to do this, other than they have no other choice. So the first, the first to answer it again, the first rule is, don’t start
Damon Pistulka 12:59
Yeah. Decide not Yeah, and that’s it’s a great point, because if you having a conversation with somebody, could deter them from being a founder. They certainly don’t have it in their blood enough to be a founder, because they are going to get punched in the gut a lot of times. As a founder like you said, you’re going up against people with more resources, more traction in the market and and a lot of other things that you’re going to start out without. So and
Anthony Franco 13:26
then, yeah, and then the second thing I would say, the common, the common founder mistakes are, I see this a lot with people going coming from a corporate job into into being an entrepreneur, and that is expecting the support that they have, the similar support that they I hear about this all the time, like you’re interviewing somebody for a job, and they say, What kind of support will I have in this role? And as a founder, you have to tell them what kind of support you are. But if you’re a founder, looking for support, there is none. So So believing that there’s a support structure for you is another mistake, another a third mistake that I see often is doing the things that feed your ego versus doing the things that feed your business. You are not. You are both the center of the attention and can’t be the center of attention for your business. You can’t do it for the same reasons that you do almost everything else in your life. You have to exist for the business’s sake, not the other way around. And that’s that is a very common mistake. Another very common mistake, I see, is founders listening to advice. Ironically, I can’t tell you how many times a founder said that they did something because an investor told him to, and it didn’t work out, and they were blaming the investor. It’s like, no, that’s that’s on you. You did it. You have to. You have to justify it to yourself and your employees. To your investors, saying that somebody told me to do it is not a reason to
Damon Pistulka 15:04
fail. Yeah, yep, yep. And that is, that is, you know, as a founder, you have to be able to accept 100% responsibility, even if the market turns and everything else, because that’s the only way you’re gonna go wrong.
Anthony Franco 15:18
It’s entirely your fault. When things go right, you have to share it. Yeah, that’s there you go.
Damon Pistulka 15:25
Yeah, that’s great. It’s, it’s one of these things. I think that as you go into it, you do develop a, I don’t know, a tolerance for it. Do you find that like you, you’ve been through you’ve been through the founder process multiple times. Now, does it feel normal to you anymore?
Anthony Franco 15:53
It’s a really it’s a really good question. I I’ve lost my sense of normalcy, so I’m struggling to answer the question a bit the the I’m happiest in chaos. So I would say I was asked a question once you know what makes you lose sleep at night. And I said, I, I said, if things feel good, I lose sleep, because it means I’m missing something. And and so. So I think that sense of this, this weird dichotomy of being an optimist that you’re going to succeed and completely paranoid that you’re going to fail, that is where founders should live all the time. That’s normal, and so, so if you lose that, you lose your edge, and all of a sudden you lose, you lose what you’re working on anyway, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 16:53
yeah. I like that, the kite, the economy of believing you’re going to succeed when the paranoia of thinking you’re going to fail at every turn, yeah,
Anthony Franco 17:04
yeah, it’s this weird thing that we have to deal with. Yes,
Damon Pistulka 17:08
yes, and it is often the truth. I mean, your belief is the only thing I get you there and and you can get chopped down at any moment on the in the early years, that’s for sure. So as you’re seeing this over time, and you know, you’re just launching, you how to founder, you’re getting that going, but over the years as a founder, what have been some of the best resources? Best Thing you go, Wow, that really helped me as a founder.
Anthony Franco 17:43
So for sure, being around other founders that would I put that at the top, being talking to other folks that have done it, and just just asking for help, be not being afraid to ask for help and not even help. Just, hey, I want to talk through this thing with you, and just getting a second set of eyes on it. Very helpful. A book that I talk about all the time, that is, that is, there’s a couple books that I absolutely loved. Loved the Elon Musk biography that was, that was brilliant. Now, I know he’s a stereotypical entrepreneur that everybody talks about, but there’s a reason he’s so successful. And yeah, book really kind of unwinds a lot of that. The other one is a, is a it’s kind of a strange one. It’s a book called Strength Finders, or Strengths Finder and it’s a really easy read, and it kind of tuned me into being comfortable in the things that I’m good at, and being comfortable in letting other people, surrounding myself with other people and the things that I’m not. It has a lot to it also has a lot of analogies to or or analogs to the traction The Entrepreneurial Operating System and the visionary integrator dynamic. Yeah, and, and so being okay with not being good at all the things you need to be good at really kind of changed my perspective and opened my open my eyes quite a bit. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 19:14
yeah. That’s awesome, because it is. It is one of those things where you’ve got a you’re not going to be great at everything, and sometimes as as a founder or it’s just worth it having somebody else that’s good at it do something rather than you try to do it, because you’re going to waste time and not do it well as well as it needs to be done. I think that’s the thing that really is tough when we go because we’re, you know, nine times out of 10 your cash strap or time strap in cash or time your your deficit of one of both of those every single day, usually both. Yeah, yeah, usually both. And so I’m going to try to do everything. Saying, well, if I’m not good at something and I’m trying to do it with with not enough resources, I’m really going to do it poorly. And that’s, that’s where you run into trouble. I
Anthony Franco 20:09
think there is one thing that all founders need to be good at, and that’s sales. Yeah, if you are to be good at sales, 100%
Damon Pistulka 20:16
Yeah, that is that. That is surprising to me, because there’s a lot of founders that don’t understand that. Yeah, and they start a business and they don’t, they don’t last in business long because of that.
Anthony Franco 20:26
It is, it is a, it is almost a cliche about founders starting a great product and not being able to sell it. It’s a cliche as an entrepreneur, great idea, great execution on the idea, great product, and it sits on a shelf.
Damon Pistulka 20:44
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, conversely to that, though I’ve there’s been a few things. I watched something about the space race, some Netflix documentary here a while ago, last week or something. And there, there are some CEOs in there that are alongside SpaceX and some of the other ones around the world. And you listen to them talk, and their founders, yes, they’re getting lots of investment now on these kind of things, but there’s a whole different level of confidence and belief in their success. For some founders, I think, and and the ability to sell, because I’m the ability to sell, that allows them to go from one to 1000 where a lot of us are still trying to go from one to five to 10, one to two to five to 10 because their, their their belief is just their, their thought process is that they’re thinking big, or whatever you want to look at, you know, a cliche and book, they think at a different level. That goes, Hey, we’re, we’re, we’re here, and it’s amazing to see. And they’re not all successful, right? They there’s a lot of go down in flames, like everybody else, but it really is interesting to listen to the people talk, and like you said, the the Elon Musk autobiography, to really hear how some of these founders that have done it like that, the way they think,
Anthony Franco 22:21
yeah, the the So of all the things that I said, the reason not to be a founder, the and, and all the things that are stacked against you, the thing that you have going for you is exactly that. It’s, it’s, and the thing that your competitors don’t is the belief in what you’re doing, and that is incredibly powerful. They don’t have their employees don’t have that. Your employees won’t have that, by the way, either. Which, which is why it’ll make Europe be a better salesperson than anybody else will, is because you have that fundamental belief. When you lose that belief, it’s time to exit period. Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 23:01
Yep. And you can see that when people stay around too long after that too Yep,
Anthony Franco 23:06
exactly, right. Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 23:10
So what’s, what is the most fun you have being a founder.
Anthony Franco 23:18
So I like getting in the weeds. I like I like figuring so every founder, this is every founder, will tell you that they like solving problems. And so when, when I’m helping a brand launch with launch partners, or I’m helping a founder figure out a hairy, audacious goal or a really crazy negotiation problem. That’s that’s the, the most fun, the the operational stuff I know a lot of founders get into, like loving spreadsheets. And don’t get me wrong, I love a good spreadsheet, but it’s not where I want to spend my day, every day, yes. So it’s, it’s solving the it’s solving the the complex, the the Navigating the the unique. So the most fun I have is when, when I’m doing something I’ve never done before. Without a doubt, I
Damon Pistulka 24:26
Yeah, so as as we’re looking towards how to founder and in these this kind of environment, are you thinking that AI is going to be a huge disrupter in the founder community. Or is it really, once we get things going, it helps us be more efficient yet, or after that?
Anthony Franco 24:51
Yeah, AI so I have some experience in the AI space. One of one of my really early exits was in the AI space.
Damon Pistulka 24:59
Yes, okay, great.
Anthony Franco 25:05
AI is one of those things. So any new innovation comes along, people panic that it’s going to the printing press. Was an evil, an evil thing that came out that everybody was afraid it’s going to take jobs. It was going to it was going to ruin society, all of, all of SO, SO AI is no different. The difference is, what I’m a little worried about is the pace of at which innovation will happen with AI. Are we ready for it? So I don’t, I don’t know. I want to be able to predict that. I’m not sure. I do think, in a general sense, and I’ll talk about it as a founder specifically, but in a general sense, there will be a point at which AI gets so advanced that it will stop being advanced, because we won’t know how to leverage it. It’ll be it’ll make better decisions than we would, but since humans control the implementation of those decisions, we’ll screw it up. So there’ll be a plateau, because we just won’t have the brain capacity to understand why the AI made that decision and really trust that it’s the right decision. I think we’ll get there now for founders in particular, what, what? What I found interesting is some, some folks are talking about this now that teams, teams are going to get a lot smaller, and there’s going to be a lot more startups that aren’t AI startups, but they leverage AI at its core to help them deliver faster, better, cheaper. So I don’t think it’ll replace jobs. It’ll replace people that use AI will replace people that don’t for sure, yeah, and I do think it’ll allow companies to operate that used to have need 100 employees to be able to operate very efficiently at 20 Mm, hmm. So that sounds like you’re going to lose jobs, but now, instead of having one one employer with 100 people, you’re going to have five of 20 that that’s yeah. So I think this, it’s just going to increase, it’s going to exponentially increase the rate at startups launch and and and be able to pivot for customer. So I do think that we’re going to see a lot more startups because of AI and not not AI companies like how to founder isn’t an AI company, but you better believe we leverage the hell out of AI.
Damon Pistulka 27:38
Yeah, well, and it’s it really, I think that comes back again to fundamentally what AI can do that we can’t, and it can. It can comprehend things in different dimensions and different detail levels that we can with as humans. And it will identify areas of opportunity as founders to explore and and then you could say, Yes, this might be something that we want to try and,
Anthony Franco 28:04
yeah, it’s ideation, like, that early stage. Like, give me 10 ideas. It’s great at that. Six of them suck. Yeah, two of them are ones you thought of and one or two of you like, wow, I would have never thought of it that way. Yeah. So it’s, it’s really good at that, and it’s just going to keep, keep getting better.
Damon Pistulka 28:21
Yes, yes. And I like what you say about the teams getting smaller and leverage AI to go faster and better cheaper. It’s just, it’s, it’s a natural progression. And I think you’re right too, in that those teams, their productivity, will be better, and we’re going to see that, that companies are going to use AI because there already are, but they’re going to continue to use that, especially at the small company level, to be able to go farther, faster with the existing people, to really maximize their potential before they need additional investment. I mean, that’s the thing that’s really I noticed a lot in the startup community. It’s like some of these companies now, you look at and you go, it’s really a shame that you’re setting here, saying you you must have investment at this point, because from a from a founder standpoint, we’re always doing the trade off of, do I want an investor? Do I want to create more wealth for myself not have the investor that I have got to deal with at this point, and is it really my best opportunity now? Because there’s points if you if you start too early, you start too late, you miss these good windows where, where it’s the right time to take an investment in. And I think it’s, it’s a shame when I see people that want to do it too soon, and you think about how leveraging AI with smaller, more efficient teams may allow them to get a little farther where they can actually I don’t realize a better return on their effort in the beginning, because it’s really tough if you get into the investment world right away. Yeah. Well, I
Anthony Franco 30:00
and we danced a little bit about around this thing called investment, right? And I’m struggling with some like, I’m having this love hate relationship with feasties right now. Is Peter Thiel in particular, because, you know, he has that zero to one book, where he talks about you either need to be have a monopoly or be 10 times better than anybody else. You need to be first with a monopoly or be 10 times better, yeah, and that is true in the VC world, but I think the VC world has really stained startups in a very big way, because one, you don’t need to be a unicorn. VCs almost exclusively focus on unicorns, yeah, which their business model is, is one, one of their investments does the whole return for their for their entire Fund, which means you have 99 companies that don’t succeed with one that does and and that’s not in reality, really. It’s fostering big innovations, which we need. We need those really big innovations, which is great, but most founders focus on being that unicorn, when, in reality, they can start a really solid $5 million business. Yes, that is a legacy business for them and their family and they don’t need they could. They can bootstrap it. I found a really interesting I did some data analysis on startups and entrepreneurs. This is a surprising stat. So the more money you raise, the more likely you are to blame running out of money as the reason why you failed. It’s an inverse correlation the companies that blame a lack of money for their failure, the companies that do that have blamed that the least, are bootstrap companies. Yeah, I think it’s really fascinating. So so I’m over over explaining this, but it’s just I don’t think you need to think about investment capital for your first, second or third company, you just don’t just go start something, if you really have the entrepreneurial spirit, and do it as though you never are going to raise capital, and you’ll probably go pretty far. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 32:33
yeah, wow. I’m glad I’m asked those questions, because, you know, it is almost a preconceived notion that we’re going to start it up, we’re going to get investment, we’re going to do that, blah, blah, blah. And you’re right, when you’re you’re not going to always have unicorns. We don’t have the you know, we, let’s be honest. We’re not the prettiest babies in the world sometimes, and we and we still love them all day long. And it’s it’s just the thing that you said that was so telling is you could bootstrap a $5 million company all day that creates a nice legacy for you that you could exit, that you could then go on and do something else and do it again, if that’s what you wanted to do. 99.99%
Anthony Franco 33:22
of businesses don’t need investment. They don’t need it, but that’s where all the energy comes from. Instant startup community. That’s where all the energy is. It’s where all the press is. Yes, yeah, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 33:41
you’re 100% 100% you know how many you’re going to what’s happening in Denver here coming up.
Anthony Franco 33:51
So on that note, yes, every year Denver holds this, this event called Denver Startup Week. It’s the middle of September. It’s the largest? Well, I know it was the largest. I don’t know if this is true anymore. It’s the largest free entrepreneurial conference on the planet. It’s an open air, so it’s an open air, open venue, open venue, conference. And the original folks that started Denver Startup Week 10 years ago, who have kind of gone their separate ways over the years of getting back this year to to re plan the community side of the of the event. So had a founder and me and Chris. Chris Franks, who’s the other other gentleman that does how to founder with me. We’re we’re part of that group that’s pulling I’ll say that Chris really kind of spearheaded this conversation and said, Alright, let’s all get back together and and and, and bring Denver Startup Week back to its original glory. So we’re doing some really fun events. We’re doing some VIP leadership summits for founders. One of the events that that I’m putting. That I’m really excited about is this, this event called Startup garage. So think of as like, open mic night for for founders, where you you stand up, no pitch deck, you stand in front of a panel and just say, I have this idea. What do you think I’ve done it a couple Denver Startup weeks in the past, and it’s, it’s so much fun most of the time. Half of the people that stand up, they stand up into the mic, and they say, I wasn’t really planning on pitching this idea, but I had to, have to get it out. And there’s some that are just total train wrecks. There’s some that are just brilliant, actually, some companies that have come out of it that have been really great companies, so that we’re revitalizing that this Denver Startup Week and a lot of other events and and just follow us. You know, if you’re, if you’re in Colorado, you’re coming to it, just follow us at on LinkedIn, linkedin.com/company/how, to founder. And we’ll, we’ll, well, you’ll get notified of all the events that we’re doing very
Damon Pistulka 35:57
good. It’s gonna be very good. We’ll make sure to do that, because it sounds that sounds like a blast, actually, to listen to people just pitch ideas and and not, not because there’s an investor in the crowd and you’re going to get money. It’s just like, get feedback on my idea to be able to go, am I? Am I as crazy as I might have thought I am? Or is it something that Am I crazy in the right way?
Anthony Franco 36:19
Right? Right? It’s a little scary and intimidating, but it’s a friendly place, so, yeah, but, and you’ll, but you’ll get honest feedback. You’ll get honest feedback. I’ve done it in the past, and it’s, it’s great fun,
Damon Pistulka 36:30
yeah, yeah. So how much in your, in your how to founder, one of the things that when? And it’s been a few years since I’ve been around startup companies that much. But how much do you spend time with people talking about when I when I was doing it? It was a lot around the investment, like you said, the VC groups, the the other funding groups, Angel groups, all these, they put together these big pitch fests, or whatever you want to call them. And you look at these, these presentations, and the decks that people are putting together, the books are getting put together for these, and you go, how do you really, logically think you’re going to do what you’re saying you’re doing on on paper, when we talk about trying to raise money and this kind of stuff. How much you talk with with founders about that?
Anthony Franco 37:26
It’s, yeah, go ahead, finish.
Damon Pistulka 37:29
I’m sorry. No, no, go ahead. Go ahead.
Anthony Franco 37:30
You know where I’m going. Yeah, it’s a, it’s a really funny question. So the truth is, so again, I’m going to go back to, don’t raise capital, like start there. But if you really want to raise capital and and you want to put, you know, do the whole product market fit, problem, problem, solution, customers, team, kind of pitch deck. Great. It’s a it’s great, it’s great fun. And the question is, I think the question is, how does an investor know how full of crap that founder is? Yeah, and the the true answers, they don’t, you don’t, you don’t and, and in the really early, like early pre seed stage of of investment, it’s almost, um, it’s almost entertainment for the for early stage investors, they’re there to be entertained and be along for the ride. So if you’re pitching, if you’re pitching early stage angel investors, it’s, it’s a lot less about the I mean, don’t get me wrong, they want to make a return on their money. Like, yeah, that’s absolutely it. But they they want to have fun doing it. They want to be able to be able to brag to their friends that they invested in this company and and it’s them. Being around entrepreneurs is fun, and then what they want to be around other entrepreneurs because, because it’s enjoyable, like it reminds them of maybe when they were an entrepreneur and just starting out, but they don’t have the energy to do it anymore. So so I think it needs to be a credible business, and have have a credible Reforma, but more importantly, you, you have to be likable, and and, and somebody that they want would want to work with, yeah, or want to have a beer with you. And I hate the fact that that’s, that’s true, but I don’t all my anecdotal evidence points to the fact that that is true.
Damon Pistulka 39:52
Yes, I agree with you. That’s, that’s part of it. Yeah, because I, I’ve seen some that, you know, I. Books that are that are handed out on these things. And you go, how would you really, you know, hockey stick, a business like that, when it’s a physical product business, or something like that? And I think there’s there. I think you’re right. Though you have to have, if they, if the founder is the right founder, and people like it, there are along for the ride to see if they can really do it.
Anthony Franco 40:21
Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of really bad businesses get funded because it was a really fun founder, yeah, yeah, where it’s best, just like, I want to hang out with that person,
Damon Pistulka 40:32
yeah, yeah, that’s a great I mean, I think you’re right, I think you’re right there, but that’s yes, yes, yes. So you’re excited for the Denver Startup event. Yes, that is happening. You said when now middle
Anthony Franco 40:50
of September. I think it starts the the I want to say the 12th of September. I could be wrong, but it’s, it’s the middle of September, alright.
Damon Pistulka 40:59
So if someone wants to get a hold of you. Anthony, about that? What? What? The best way to get a hold of you, to get a hold of you on LinkedIn,
Anthony Franco 41:07
or LinkedIn is best. I’m, I’m, I’m just Anthony Franco on LinkedIn, go, go to the, you know, the How to founder, web page. I’m one of the, they’re the how to how to founder.com. Is way to get a hold of me, or or linkedin.com/company/how, to founder. Follow us there and and then we also do a live by semi weekly podcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays where we talk about these, these very practical founder and it’s so I didn’t mention the whole reason why we started how to founder was the founder loneliness, but the podcast is really because Chris and I want to write a founder reference manual. Think of it like it’s not a read through, like you’re not going to read it, but cover to cover. It’s like when I get in trouble, what I open a chapter and read about the thing that I’m dealing with. Yeah, so we wanted to write that book, but we don’t love writing, so we decided to do a subject on how to founder twice a week and have guests on and have subject matter experts on to help us. Essentially, we’re going to take the transcripts, run it through a and help us write that chapter of the book. Yeah. So the podcast is very tactical, very tangible, executional advice on on how to be a founder that we’re eventually going to bring into a book. And we do that. We do that religiously now every Tuesday and Thursday morning, night and and, and we do that, and it’s a live broadcast on LinkedIn. And again, follow us on that page and and you’ll be alerted when we, when we broadcast, again, awesome,
Damon Pistulka 42:44
awesome. Well, we’ll make sure we’ve got your tagged in the in the event here. So we’ll make sure that that’s that’s there. We’ll drop the drop the links in the How to founder in the in the post as well. When we, when we finish up, anything else you’d like to leave before we before we shut down here. Anthony, as as to if someone is out there in the founder game. Now they’ve got a company they’re rolling down the road. What? What would you like to tell them today?
Anthony Franco 43:15
My heart’s with you. I love you like I’m in it with you, even though I don’t know what you’re doing. So first of all, you’re not alone. Go find a founder community in your area. A great one that’s national, is 1 Million Cups. It’s a great one to get involved in. This just, it’s a it’s a magnet for for founders. So if you have one in your area, go to it. But there’s certainly founder meetups in your area, and if there’s not, you’re a founder, go start one, or reach out to us, and we’ll help you. We’ll help you build one in your community. Awesome,
Damon Pistulka 43:49
awesome. Well, it’s great to have you here today, Anthony, thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate you stopping to buy and talking about how to be a great business founder, talking to us about the new company launched with how to founder, talking about the Denver Startup Week and the things you guys are doing with them, and then just sharing your knowledge of on, you know, being a now, an Adex founder, and the things you’ve learned. Thanks for being here today. I
Anthony Franco 44:18
can’t tell you how much I appreciate you helping me get the word out a little bit here. I really do appreciate it. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 44:24
it’s great to have you on today, and I want to thank Heather for stopping by today, and Ruth and making sure we got Emmanuel, thanks for stopping by today. I appreciate that if you got in late on this go back to the beginning, because Anthony was dropping a lot of great information for founders, and it started right out of the box when he said, Do you really want to be a founder? Because you gotta be, you gotta be committed to this. And that’s one of the first things he talks about with people. So thanks everyone for being here. We will be back again next week, Anthony. Hang around just a moment. We’ll finish up offline. Alright.
