The Exchanges

Q Yep. Yep. Okay. And I see nine employees on the LinkedIn profile, two and 13 followers. Is that right? Nine, nine folks full time.

A Um, no, it's a little deceiving. So we have a little unique company here in that, uh, we're in nine different countries around the world. We have about a 110 people that are part of the company. Um, we have a lot of, uh, contractor and contractor firms that we've hired for specialty areas, feeling that we do not need direct employees just to start a traditional company. So obviously we've had about 90 Developers working for almost three years to build the core platform that was released last month. So the core of the company is on the development side. And then we're just beginning to, uh, you know, bring in sales, marketing, PR, uh, product support, those types of folks.

AI assessment note: “no, it's a little deceiving... We have about a 110 people”

Q Huh? Wow. And, and how did you know, I mean, it's, you know, picking up from beautiful California and going over to Kiev to do diligence on this firm is a lot of your time and energy. How did you know it was going to be worth your time or energy? Like, how did you find these guys?

A Of all places, I found them on the internet, just searching for, uh, development shops. I probably looked at 50 or 60, um, kind of, and I started in the U.S. I just couldn't find what I needed, uh, or people were too busy to, to bring on a project like this, so I turned it more international. I looked on, posted some stuff on Upwork to try to get sources coming in, so I probably narrowed it down to five folks, and, um, I just kept coming back to this one gentleman, um, in, Kyiv. And I finally decided I just need to go spend two or three days with them, get to know them, get to know the people, see if we had a connection. And the connection was immediate. Like I, I just enjoyed them as people. And then technically they were as good or better than anyone I've worked with before.

AI assessment note: “Of all places, I found them on the internet, just searching for, uh, development shops.”

Q John, how do you find these people? Like, what do you do along Craigslist in, like, Bulgaria?

A I just got online and used my network. I looked at Upwork, Fiverr, like, I just tried to find the top people and just looked at the style and the type of work that they've done. Storgan had never worked in this industry before, but he had that eye and that style that I liked, uh, that was there. So I met with him. We spent two or three days together. We just hit it off. I mean, he's just a super great guy, and he was just super excited, and I said, you need to leave all your other customers, and you need to work with me a hundred percent. Just me. And after the first, end of the first three days, he said, deal.

AI assessment note: “I looked at Upwork, Fiverr, like, I just tried to find the top people”

Q Yep. Yep. Okay. And I see nine employees on the LinkedIn profile, two and 13 followers. Is that right? Nine, nine folks full time.

A Um, no, it's a little deceiving. So we have a little unique company here in that, uh, we're in nine different countries around the world. We have about a 110 people that are part of the company. Um, we have a lot of, uh, contractor and contractor firms that we've hired for specialty areas, feeling that we do not need direct employees just to start a traditional company. So obviously we've had about 90 Developers working for almost three years to build the core platform that was released last month. So the core of the company is on the development side. And then we're just beginning to, uh, you know, bring in sales, marketing, PR, uh, product support, those types of folks.

AI assessment note: “no, it's a little deceiving... We have about a 110 people that are part”

Q So how do these all work together? So, so, I mean, is Gearheart everything that's desktop, e-creative is everything mobile and Agency Enterprise looks over everything or how do they function?

A Yep. So, um, the mobile part is just Eat Creative. We also have a team at Eat Creative that does web along with the agency enterprise team. So we have three different development shops plus one of my co-founders is a CTO. Uh, the benefit that that gives us is we have CTOs at each of those organizations and internally. So the level of expertise that we kind of bring to the project is a lot, a lot more enhanced than you would typically find in a startup environment. Um, and we do daily stand-ups with those for about an hour and a half each morning. We go across each team individually, and then twice a week, we have all the teams together, myself and the CTO. So a lot of coordination, but, um, it works well for us, especially for the international folks. We have meetings with them in the morning, our time, which is at night, their time. We wake up in the morning. They've implemented all the stuff we talked about the day before, or they had questions about, and we move on to the next topic. So it, it allows our development to be very efficient.

AI assessment note: “the mobile part is just Eat Creative. We also have a team at Eat Creative”

Q slash valuations. Again, both plural founderpath.com forward slash products forward slash valuations. So, so this is your second, and by the way, I always like founders, you know, you take one dip, you take a second dip, you take a third dip. Did you hold onto some equity? So when the Dell sale happened, you got another bite at the apple and we get another bite when they go public.

A I didn't. In that particular instance, it was an all cash purchase price, no stock, which was great for us. Uh, that allowed myself, my wife and my mom, which was the founder of that company to then start what we call the Archer foundation, which is a family foundation. And we focused on entrepreneurial programs, women's initiatives and youth programs. Wow. And through that and our own personal investing, we invested in about 400 companies over the last 10 years, startups, either through venture firms or direct, um, And really the genesis of smart suite was that when we would work with these companies, one of the first questions that was asked is how do we manage all the processes internally to build the business that we need to build? And we were always trying to cobble together all these different systems. It typically was four to five different things they needed to do. And I got frustrated with that and finally just said, we're just going to build what those organizations need to manage work in a single place. And that's what kind of started this journey.

AI assessment note: “I didn't. In that particular instance, it was an all cash purchase price”

Q trying to think if I was in your shoes and I sold something for two million bucks, all cash, and I had a hundred million to play around with spending 10% of that or for three years, I'd have to have a lot of conviction about that thing. I'm spending 12.5 million bucks on what gave you this conviction? Was it just your own use case? You needed this thing.

A Yeah, I think it was my own use case, but it was also, um, you know, I built one of the first no code platforms back in 2000, which was Archer Technologies. The other big player in the space that started at the same time was Salesforce.com with Benioff. So I have experience in that space and what's changed over the years is the technology platforms now allow us to build the features that we really want to offer in a platform like this. You can bring together, you know, the, the communication, the collaboration, the file management, You know, the spreadsheets, the doc capabilities all into one place with a really rich UI so that people really don't have to jump between tabs and go to other products to get stuff done. They can really do the work in a single platform. And that's where the conviction came from was how do we pull all of those elements together into a single platform? But then it was also based on the UI and that the UI that we built is, is built for people ages, 23 to 38 who are Who we feel actually does the work in an organization. And obviously reports and dashboards and other things happen for people older than that. But we spend a lot of time understanding that particular genre, you know, millennials and Gen Zers, how they like to work, how they like to be social at work, how they like Facebook type components and sharing and collaboration built in. So that's th…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I think it was my own use case, but it was also”

Q So how do these all work together? So, so, I mean, is Gearheart everything that's desktop, e-creative is everything mobile and Agency Enterprise looks over everything or how do they function?

A Yep. So, um, the mobile part is just Eat Creative. We also have a team at Eat Creative that does web along with the agency enterprise team. So we have three different development shops plus one of my co-founders is a CTO. Uh, the benefit that that gives us is we have CTOs at each of those organizations and internally. So the level of expertise that we kind of bring to the project is a lot, a lot more enhanced than you would typically find in a startup environment. Um, and we do daily stand-ups with those for about an hour and a half each morning. We go across each team individually, and then twice a week, we have all the teams together, myself and the CTO. So a lot of coordination, but, um, it works well for us, especially for the international folks. We have meetings with them in the morning, our time, which is at night, their time. We wake up in the morning. They've implemented all the stuff we talked about the day before, or they had questions about, and we move on to the next topic. So it, it allows our development to be very efficient.

AI assessment note: “the mobile part is just Eat Creative. We also have a team at Eat Creative”

Q slash valuations. Again, both plural founderpath.com forward slash products forward slash valuations. So, so this is your second, and by the way, I always like founders, you know, you take one dip, you take a second dip, you take a third dip. Did you hold onto some equity? So when the Dell sale happened, you got another bite at the apple and we get another bite when they go public.

A I didn't. In that particular instance, it was an all cash purchase price, no stock, which was great for us. Uh, that allowed myself, my wife and my mom, which was the founder of that company to then start what we call the Archer foundation, which is a family foundation. And we focused on entrepreneurial programs, women's initiatives and youth programs. Wow. And through that and our own personal investing, we invested in about 400 companies over the last 10 years, startups, either through venture firms or direct, um, And really the genesis of smart suite was that when we would work with these companies, one of the first questions that was asked is how do we manage all the processes internally to build the business that we need to build? And we were always trying to cobble together all these different systems. It typically was four to five different things they needed to do. And I got frustrated with that and finally just said, we're just going to build what those organizations need to manage work in a single place. And that's what kind of started this journey.

AI assessment note: “I didn't. In that particular instance, it was an all cash purchase price, no stock”

Q So what was the style? You were taking equity in companies? Was it mainly B to B SaaS, or how'd you style the advisor shares you were going after? Was that part of your standard deal?

A Yeah, so I invested either directly, uh, through companies, mainly in SaaS companies, uh, that was there, so I would take, in a lot of cases, I'd put in, two 50 was kind of the minimum number that we would put in, um, and then I would take an advisor role or a board seat inside of those companies. I found pretty quickly that it wasn't good for me to be the only person in a deal, that the companies that had other people like me or venture folks that were in the deal were more successful, so then I kind of pivoted to more venture investing, so I have about 11, Uh, venture companies that I work with, that I've invested in their fund, they invest back into companies, and then they reach out to me when they feel that I have expertise in a particular area that can help the entrepreneur. And that worked much better for us.

AI assessment note: “mainly in SaaS companies... two 50 was kind of the minimum... take an advisor role”

Q think you already shared that, right? Yeah. Incredible story. So how does your brain now switch to think of, okay, I'm going to be pre-revenue for three years. I'm going to spend 12.5 million bucks on M&P. I'm going to hire over, I think, hundreds of contractors. How did you get your brain in that space and why did it take so long and so much money in your opinion?

A Sure. Well, let's talk about the idea first that, that was in place. So, you know, as I visited and worked with these 400 venture companies that I had, one of the first questions that comes up most of the time is, what's the infrastructure that we need to have in place as an organization just to get started, right? We need sales and marketing and HR and IT and customer success products to do things, and I got really frustrated with always having that discussion, and the idea from, from SmartSuite was to transform the way businesses get work done by providing a single platform that could manage Any workflow process or project in the company, right? So it's basically taking hundreds of point solutions that people have, building that into a framework where all of that can be in one core platform. So you don't need all these different sales tools, marketing tools, HR tools. You just, you've got one product that provides 90 to 95% of those capabilities right from the beginning. So the lift was massive, right? It's a big idea. We, it, we knew it was going to take about two years. It actually took two and a half years of development time About a hundred developers that were just working night and day to kind of, if we go to the next slide, to kind of build out all these core capabilities in this platform that would make that a reality. And once those, those capabilities are done, flip…

AI assessment note: “So the lift was massive, right? It's a big idea.”

Q Well, John, hold on. So obviously it's a sensitive, you know, we're There are things happening right now. Talk a little, I mean, how is your Ukraine team doing? Or, I mean, I don't even know the right question to ask. How are you thinking about those guys?

A Yeah, I did, I wanted to mention that at the end. It's, um, they're in a difficult spot, and, you know, they're people just like us. They talk like us, work like us. I mean, they're just normal people. They wake up one day, and they're getting bombed, and we have people in cities that, that don't have places to live anymore. They don't have gas, electric power. They're cooking outside with fire. Uh, they can't leave the cities that they're in. It, it's just, Incredible. Some people we can't communicate with for two, three days at a time until they get a mobile signal to, to just send a text to let us know that they're okay. Uh, from a business perspective, it's been challenging with the work that we're doing, but we've kind of got that worked out in the last week or so, so it hasn't affected us, but there's about 60 people there that are just outstanding people that are, are really struggling.

AI assessment note: “they're in a difficult spot, and, you know, they're people just like us.”

Q Huh? Wow. And, and how did you know, I mean, it's, you know, picking up from beautiful California and going over to Kiev to do diligence on this firm is a lot of your time and energy. How did you know it was going to be worth your time or energy? Like, how did you find these guys?

A Of all places, I found them on the internet, just searching for, uh, development shops. I probably looked at 50 or 60, um, kind of, and I started in the U.S. I just couldn't find what I needed, uh, or people were too busy to, to bring on a project like this, so I turned it more international. I looked on, posted some stuff on Upwork to try to get sources coming in, so I probably narrowed it down to five folks, and, um, I just kept coming back to this one gentleman, um, in, Kyiv. And I finally decided I just need to go spend two or three days with them, get to know them, get to know the people, see if we had a connection. And the connection was immediate. Like I, I just enjoyed them as people. And then technically they were as good or better than anyone I've worked with before.

AI assessment note: “I found them on the internet, just searching for, uh, development shops.”

Q trying to think if I was in your shoes and I sold something for two million bucks, all cash, and I had a hundred million to play around with spending 10% of that or for three years, I'd have to have a lot of conviction about that thing. I'm spending 12.5 million bucks on what gave you this conviction? Was it just your own use case? You needed this thing.

A Yeah, I think it was my own use case, but it was also, um, you know, I built one of the first no code platforms back in 2000, which was Archer Technologies. The other big player in the space that started at the same time was Salesforce.com with Benioff. So I have experience in that space and what's changed over the years is the technology platforms now allow us to build the features that we really want to offer in a platform like this. You can bring together, you know, the, the communication, the collaboration, the file management, You know, the spreadsheets, the doc capabilities all into one place with a really rich UI so that people really don't have to jump between tabs and go to other products to get stuff done. They can really do the work in a single platform. And that's where the conviction came from was how do we pull all of those elements together into a single platform? But then it was also based on the UI and that the UI that we built is, is built for people ages, 23 to 38 who are Who we feel actually does the work in an organization. And obviously reports and dashboards and other things happen for people older than that. But we spend a lot of time understanding that particular genre, you know, millennials and Gen Zers, how they like to work, how they like to be social at work, how they like Facebook type components and sharing and collaboration built in. So that's th…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I think it was my own use case, but it was also”

Q That's amazing. Talk to me real quick. You mentioned comparison sites. How are they working for you? How are, which one's the most, uh, giving you the most leads per month?

A Uh, you know, Capterra is, is probably, you know, Product Hunt did a pretty good job. We, we just get a lot of bandwidth from them, and I kind of consider them to be a comparison site, um, because people come in to just find out about new software and then look, you know, against the current players, but, you know, the Capterras of the world are, are, uh, where the real comparisons happen, and we've really just kind of dived into that in the last couple of weeks, um, but it allows us to, to show potential customers that are coming in that comparisons are Of how we compare against competitors, even if the site's not sending us leads, we can send our clients there to kind of understand that.

AI assessment note: “Capterra is, is probably, you know, Product Hunt did a pretty good job.”

Q That's amazing. Talk to me real quick. You mentioned comparison sites. How are they working for you? How are, which one's the most, uh, giving you the most leads per month?

A Uh, you know, Capterra is, is probably, you know, Product Hunt did a pretty good job. We, we just get a lot of bandwidth from them, and I kind of consider them to be a comparison site, um, because people come in to just find out about new software and then look, you know, against the current players, but, you know, the Capterras of the world are, are, uh, where the real comparisons happen, and we've really just kind of dived into that in the last couple of weeks, um, but it allows us to, to show potential customers that are coming in that comparisons are Of how we compare against competitors, even if the site's not sending us leads, we can send our clients there to kind of understand that.

AI assessment note: “Capterra is, is probably, you know, Product Hunt did a pretty good job.”

Q Well, again, this now, why you went from zero to 1.2 million run rate in four weeks makes a lot of sense here. So when you say you want to go out and look at a series A about how much Do you want to try and raise it at what valuation? You don't need to sell equity. You're personally wealthy, right? So why do it?

A No, I think that the connections that would come through the venture community and the value add that they bring in certain areas is what we're looking for. It's not just the cash, it's the relationship that's there. Most likely to be a series of two to three venture firms that would be involved, not just a single firm, uh, that was there. On the raise side, um, we're all over the place right now on how much we need to raise, uh, over the next, uh, you know, 12 months to really get to an interesting, uh, series B. And in some cases, people are pitching us on Just adding on to the Series A, I mean, excuse me, to the seed round that we've already done and positioning the Series A, you know.

AI assessment note: “we're all over the place right now on how much we need to raise”