The Exchanges

Q Wait, can you guys give me context? I don't really follow the news, so, I mean, Trump.

A Sure, so, so right now, uh, thirty-year mortgage is generally the maximum in the United States, so you pay off a home over 30 years. Trump wants to address the affordability crisis, which is a real problem. And said, what we should do is extend mortgages to 50 years. So you have 50 years to pay it off instead of 30 years. I think it's a terrible idea because basically what happens is you give people more money. So the monthly, the month, the amount that they pay monthly goes down a little bit, but actually you're not earning equity in the home after like the average length of time that somebody our age stays in their home is relatively low. And by that time, they'll earn no equity in the home, or almost no equity in the home.

AI assessment note: “Trump wants to address the affordability crisis... extend mortgages to 50 years.”

Q What do you got, Sheila? Hit us with your first one.

A Okay, so, a lot of these are based on, like, what's going on in my life today. So, I am trying to redo my backyard, and I redid it, like, 10 years ago, and it's, like, kind of a shithole now. I want to add pavers, I want to add, like, a nice, uh, maybe a waterfall, something like that. And so, I've been reaching out to all these landscapers, uh, all these backyard specialists, and the process sucks. It takes them forever to get back to me, And then they come here. All they do is measure. And like, I knew the measurements to begin with. And scheduling that on my schedule and their schedule sucks. And they're coming from like an hour away sometimes just to do this like 10 minute thing. And then once they take the measurements, they're super busy. They don't get back to me for a week. And so then I'm like, can I really trust this guy? And I was talking to a, to a guy, um, who Build a company in this space and said, like, one of the things that's really important to them is just getting back to you quickly. And if they get back to you quickly, you're way more likely to purchase from them. And this, this is a fairly large purchase. Let's, let's say 50,000 dollars. And so I was thinking there's got to be a better way and you could solve this with AI in, in part. So all I could do is give them my address and they know what my backyard looks like. Like they can get the measurements fro…

AI assessment note: “I was thinking there's got to be a better way and you could solve this with AI”

Q Like, where in China? China's a big place. You were just like, I'm just gonna go, I'll find a guy? What was the plan?

A Okay, so I, I went to Hong Kong, actually, originally. Like, I looked up trade shows, and there was this big consumer electronics trade show. So I was like, I'm just gonna go to this trade show, and then I'll figure it out. And I hadn't booked anything else, so like, I went to this trade show. There were Thousands of boots. And so like, I just went around having no idea about anything, just like went to these boots, found ones that made headphones. Their English was very poor. I have my Chinese is negligible. So it was a lot of like, they pull out a calculator and I'm like, this is what I want. And then like, I had some sketch drawing that I had made of what I was looking for. And then they are like entering a number into a calculator. They're like, that's, you know, five dollars, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. That's like, 83 cents. And then I actually went and visited their factories in, like, southern China, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and it was awesome. Like, it was a really cool way for me to get into business.

AI assessment note: “I went to Hong Kong, actually, originally... visited their factories in, like, southern China, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen”

Q Did you not hear the story about his friend?

A Yeah, no, it's a good data. So I think there is data on catalyst. Um, people use it. I think the question is whether these 35 dollar machines work. And I only have my one friend as a data point. And the funny thing is like, we've all seen it work for him. And yet none of us others in the friend group have done it. And the reason for that is it's annoying, like to put these things on and it's painful. And he's willing to like every plane ride. He's willing to just do it the whole plane ride. And I'm not. But when I did this workout, he took me to the workout class in New York two weeks ago. And when I went to that workout class, I was like, this is actually really fun. And I know I'm getting a great workout. Like you feel the next couple of days, it was like the good kind of hurt after a great workout. So I was like, I know this is working, but how come I haven't heard more about this? So I think there's opportunity in building a product and this like Barry style workout. Where like you teach people how to do it.

AI assessment note: “we've all seen it work for him. And yet none of us others”

Q Billion dollars by Stripe. So what's, is there anything actually going on here, or is this just all a lot of hot air?

A I think there's something real here. I think like they're transferring money internationally. Is challenging. And there's something called Swift, which is how banks do it. It's basically like a messaging protocol. Um, I, I think stable coins can make things easier. I think still at the end of the day, I think people, people are overhiding stable coins because at the end of the day in on ramp and an off ramp to get money and they aren't that like I had this issue. I had a wedding in India and, um, I needed to pay a lot of vendors in cash and it was a lot of cash. And I was like, Hey, I tweeted it. Can somebody help me get a lot of cash in Mexico? And the reality is there's a reason why it was so difficult. And the reason is like money laundering. And actually also, even what I was doing was illegal because, or what, what my vendors were doing, they wanted cash because they don't want to pay taxes. And so the reason it's hard is because the government doesn't want you to, do you want to skirt taxes? And I had this convoluted thing, actually you guys might appreciate. I convinced my bank to let me, normally you can withdraw a certain amount of money per day. I convinced my bank, Schwab, to let me do 4000 dollars per account per day, and I opened six bank accounts at Schwab, and I was able to go to an ATM and withdraw 4000 dollars of cash per account per day, and I was there for th…

AI assessment note: “I think there's something real here. I think like they're transferring money internationally.”

Q What does that do in India? Is that like a, like, is that like a McDonald's value meal? Like, I don't know the, like the, or, yeah, maybe like a McDonald's value meal per day.

A And so I think like what I learned from that, I think it was like supremely influential in my life. And I learned one, like, I don't need a lot of money to be happy. Like I was so happy in that time. And like, I went from, I was a management consultant in the United States, like making a six figure salary and I moved to India on a dollar a day. And I, I re I had a convertible here in India. I had like a bicycle and even the bicycle was like a big deal for me to buy. Uh, and I just had so much fun. And there, there's this concept in India called Jugaad, which is a Hindi word. It means like, there's no perfect word for it, but kind of means like creative problem solving. And I think like, I really learned a lot of creative problem solving during that year, like just reusing things. I learned like the importance of community resourcefulness.

AI assessment note: “I think like what I learned from that, I think it was like supremely influential”