The Exchanges

Q I would like to go into that larger issue that you overcame, but first I'm curious to know what exactly did you say to this client to get them to flip to prepay? Cause you said you told them what you needed, but I didn't hear you say at a high level that you told them what the, that there was a problem and you needed their help.

A Uh, well, I had pitched, I had pitched this, this to two, two fellas on like a bunch of strategic things, right? Including them buying us and like all kinds of things, you know, cause you know, someone giving me five million dollars for the company that would have solved it. Like, you know, I was coming up with various solutions and just one of the things on this tin. So they actually said no to most of the things, but the one thing they said yes to was I'm like, or instead of giving us millions of dollars and buying us, what if you just, Started prepaying us, instead of be paying, you know, instead of paying me net 30, And then I basically told them if you can, instead of paying me a 100,000 dollars, 30 days late, right? 30 days after the month, if you start prepaying me a 100,000 dollars, I can go from giving you this many users to four times as many users, right? So the benefit to them was they get, and they wanted more of our audience, right? But I could only get more if I could get the cashflow, right? And starts because I had to pay the Facebook's and the Googles at a certain time period. And that was worth it to them. And they were spending lots and lots of money. So in reality, the money they were giving me was, it was just, they were just fast forward paying it a little bit early. And I don't know why they said yes. They don't. I'm literally the only company in the wor…

AI assessment note: “if you start prepaying me a 100,000 dollars, I can go from giving you”

Q And I spent time in Washington DC talking to congressmen, but so these, these people, these, uh, refers of yours were adding code to your, your toolbar or they were, how were they, you said they were doing it without, uh, Player permission. What does that mean?

A Yeah. Yeah. So there, there was a way to do it on computers years ago that was called the drive by install where you could use like some kind of JavaScript to force. Cause it was basically like, if you remember a long time, same time period, like there was this shareware sites where you could download like, cause all like all the early. Uh, companies, when you want to download those, it would be like, to get this, you also need this, and this, and this, and this, and you would install this other software. We were one of those place, place, uh, software products. And 98% of the people who distributed our software did so above board, but some of them didn't. Some of them installed it. Well, some of them installed it with, uh, with the, um, botnets. You know, they were literally European dudes. Packed other people's computers. When they were sleeping, they would install software in the background. The next day that person comes and sees our ads and they're like, you know, what the heck are you doing? They'd complain to us. They'd think we did it. We're like, we're not doing this, but they couldn't tell us where they got it anyway. So after years of investigation, FTC shut down some companies in the space for doing exactly what people accused them of doing. And we didn't have those problems. And so, uh, so like it just, those are, and then there were more, There continued to be con…

AI assessment note: “called the drive by install where you could use like some kind of JavaScript to force”

Q his original, uh, name. Where he's firing a bunch of people, not paying bills on, you know, the buildings he's leasing and, and all of that. It just seems like a huge mess. And, uh, you were able to get out of it. Let's see if he can get out of it, but this isn't about him. So how did you get into that kind of debt to begin with?

A So the, when the company started, we were in a slightly different business and we, we pivoted to partner with Facebook when they first released Facebook audience network, or can actually show Facebook ads in your apps. And, you know, in those days we were, before we launched the product, we were making, you know, thousands of dollars a day. Uh, and then we launched with them and within six months we were making a 100,000 dollars a day. And so, but we were basically taking the money we were making from them and pumping it back into their ads to send us more business. So they were very much in love with us and I was very much in love with them. Right. So like they're giving me money to, uh, well I'm spending money with them to get me users. The users are seeing their ads. I'm giving them points for checking out these Facebook ads. They're like, it's crazy. How are the, Click through rates so high. I'm like, I'm giving people points for trying out your ads. Like, that's what you said I could do. And they're like, it's still amazing. I'm like, I don't know. It doesn't seem that amazing to me, but here's the thing that was the problem is I knew that I didn't actually know what the person was doing. So I knew we needed to be able to actually reward people for doing things more than just installing an app and walking away. But during this whole time, it was growing so much. And everyb…

AI assessment note: “taking the money we were making from them and pumping it back into their ads”

Q I had to give up, because for me, the option was start paying for it again with my own money, or walk away because no one else wanted to fund it, and I chose to let it die because I had already put way too much money of my own. Did you put any of your own in when you started this, or how did you get started with it?

A Uh, well, I know I had raised money from investors, but there was a time where I basically stopped taking pay. So I worked for about two years during this time period and used all my savings. So I didn't, I didn't put it into the business directly. Like I didn't invest. Well, no, that's not true. I did put some into it. Yeah. So I put in money, but we had raised, uh, Over the course, by that time we had raised several million dollars, you know, now we didn't have that money at the time, obviously, but I had investors who trusted me and I'd get like 50,000 to a 100,000 dollars at a time, but I'd have to pay that money back in six months with solid interest. So I just had to be very, I had to be, so I was basically taking these short-term loans from investors and Uh, I was able to calculate out the cashflow gaps that I needed based on these things changing. Right. And so, and there was like one time where we had a partner in the middle of all this kind of recovery, we had a partner that was like, 400,000 dollars and they were going out of business when they basically stopped paying their bills. And I'm like, that's gonna really suck that we get this whole thing pretty much back on track. Then we get destroyed by this.

AI assessment note: “So I worked for about two years during this time period and used all my savings.”