David Miller describes scaling his second company, an acquired Tennessee hemp-derived cannabinoid business, after transitioning from financial services.
Opinion
Miller: SEC used extreme, unethical enforcement tactics mirroring the show 'Billions'
“If you've seen that show billions, that, that New York AG in there, like they, there were some points of really extreme things that the SEC did that I'm not going to disclose. That is very similar to how they operate in billions. And it's quite unethical, but …”
What-if
Miller: Company would have made more money fighting the SEC
“And we would have made a lot more money had I continued fighting, but that risk was out there of, you know, they could impose millions of fines and they could, these legal costs could continue to grow.”
Insight
Miller: Emotionally charged feedback from cynics holds valuable lessons for improvement
“Embracing your cynics out there that are emotionally charging you with feedback is sometimes harder to interpret, but there's a lot of golden And gems and the and the cynics out there that are telling you how, how you failed and how to get better.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Miller predicts bootstrapping a new business to $10M within five years
“So if I were to start another business, I'd say I could probably do it in well under five, and this is bootstrapping with no funding, of course. It's all organic growth”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
A rogue trader cost Miller's firm over $10M, forcing voluntary client repayments
“So that, that ended up costing my firm well over ten million dollars that I was the majority owner of in addition to the millions and millions of dollars that our clients lost and ended up voluntarily repaying back our clients, but that, but yeah, that, that's…”
Insight
Miller: Leaders must match the execution pace of their team or fail
“I would say in leading people, You know, whether it's your team, whether it's a client or a customer, then you need to run as fast as they're capable of running. And you need to go at their pace. Because if you don't it doesn't matter if you see the answer, yo…”