Listen in to hear Tripp chat with his business partner, Jake, about the current state of Green Hill, Advaita Integrated Medicine, and all they have in store for the future. From raising capital to operating at scale, Tripp and Jake share their insights from their personal experiences with Green Hill Recovery.
The discussion also moves into the realm of conscious capitalism and what that means in the context of doing good in the world.
Listen in to hear Tripp chat with his business partner, Jake, about the current state of Green Hill, Advaita Integrated Medicine, and all they have in store for the future. From raising capital to operating at scale, Tripp and Jake share their insights from their personal experiences with Green Hill Recovery.
The discussion also moves into the realm of conscious capitalism and what that means in the context of doing good in the world.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
All right, here we go. So, sorry about that, Jake, I think we just wasted 20 minutes because I forgot to hit record. So here we are welcome back to the business of human flourishing podcast. And today is another episode of partner corner. And we're going to dig into all things going on in our world. And on our first episode of partner corner, we discussed kind of the foundation of our partnership, our shared values. And you know, the idea that we work hard, we're smart, and we have those shared values. And today, we're gonna dive into how that kind of shows up practically in real time with the way we operate companies and discuss our new opportunity trying to do things at a larger scale. So Jake, thanks for coming. Thanks for having me. Happy to have you back. Yeah, big fan, big fan, big fan of the pod, first time, longtime. And that first time, second time, long time. Alright. So today, we're gonna talk about the gas and brakes nature of our relationship, and you want to dive in there.
Unknown Speaker 1:09
That's exactly where I want to dive in. Let me hit the brakes on this first. Yeah, so so one of the things that Tripp and I have identified in our partnership is that, and we use this as kind of a joke to the outside world, but trips, trips the unconstrained gas pedal, and I'm the brake pedal in the in our partnership. And, you know, he's kind of the one pushing us forward. And I, I sit in more of a risk management seat where I'm pumping the brakes and fact checking things and figuring out, you know, if we should use our time in the way that you want to,
Unknown Speaker 1:43
and by pumping the brakes, you mean, using our line of credit buying more real estate, like really not financial engineering? Not really putting the brakes on anything? Hey, we're gonna have to edit out that financial engineering. I don't like that, buddy.
Unknown Speaker 1:59
Yeah, and I think one of the things that I that you've identified is that, for me, as an individual, like, this is not my natural state. And I think this is one of the unique things about our partnership is that in other arenas in my life, I've always been the crazy one who, you know, went out and tried to get things that we couldn't do and said, Be when I ran the construction business, I, every person who asked us could we do x? I just said yes. And I figured it out. Um, so we'd like we never, you know, slow down to, to figure out what we could or couldn't do. We just saw opportunities, and we chase them. So yeah, I've always been the gas pedal guy, but I think for you and I, you're much better at at being the visionary leader and being the idea guy. And it's, it's been helpful for me to kind of pivot back to being more of the brake pedal Risk Manager. And I think why that feels a little natural for me is just having an investment background. So investing, everybody thinks about chasing rewards, but but really investing is about risk management. And it's like, you know, everything passes through the risk management lens first, and then you're figuring out how to get a reward in spite of the risks. So, you know, Warren Buffett is obviously a famous, famous investor. And, and He always talks about, you know, the number one rule in investing is don't lose money, like a permanent loss of capital is the only thing that is going to set you behind. So that's really what it's all about. And that's kind of how I act in our partnership is like, I get to be the one that says like, Hey, we got to slow down, this might derail us.
Unknown Speaker 3:34
Yeah. And we went through. So we went through an exercise, I read the book called traction, and we went through implementing the entrepreneurial operating system. And that was really useful for us. And maybe you could talk a little bit about what it was like before, we had identified kind of roles like visionary integrator, and, you know, discuss kind of organizational whiplash a little
Unknown Speaker 3:59
happy to. So every Monday, we would have this leadership meeting, and every Monday trip would come in with what seems like a different agenda. And people will be trying to grab me after the meeting and be like, what, what are we working on? Now? What what's the new idea? So we sort of had transitioned to this, like, you know, flavor of the week strategy, where trip trip would go read another book over the weekend, and he would come in on Monday, all excited about the next big breakthrough, we are going to have as an organization, and,
Unknown Speaker 4:30
and this went from everything from a marketing strategy to clinical interventions. I mean, I was in the weeds on all sorts of just shit. Yeah, it was crazy. And then we fixed it, though.
Unknown Speaker 4:43
Yeah, we did. And and I think, as you mentioned, we so we started reading traction and implementing this entrepreneurial operating system and one of the things that he talks about is how not every organization has a visionary leader, but the ones that that do Oftentimes a visionary leader can create what's called organizational fatigue or organizational whiplash, like you said, where this energy of picking different priorities and a visionary leader, you know, changing what we're doing on a on a daily or hourly or weekly basis can can just create a lot of fatigue for people in the organization who are at lower levels. So they're more focused on, they just want to do their job well, and where you see opportunity, they see, you know, moving goalposts and changing priorities, and it just creates a lot of fatigue, where people who don't have control over the strategy, begin to question that it changes. Um, so I think we were able to identify it through, you know, entrepreneurial operating system, and we were then able to figure out how to address it. And what it looks like. Now, in a more practical sense, is Nick, who's our executive director at Greenhill nominal operator, yeah, great operator. So Nick, and I essentially act as the the body armor or the buffer for the rest of the organization. So everything that trip wants to do has to come through us. And we actually remove trip from the leadership meeting for this very reason is like trip, Nick, and I have our own meeting, where we kind of talk about what's coming in the future and bigger priorities, and then Nick, and I get to choose what you know, cascades down to the rest of the organization. So that way, the organization gets to operate on a on a slower timeline, and we can sort of slowly introduce the initiatives that we all agree are valuable, um, you know, to the rest of the organization.
Unknown Speaker 6:34
Yeah, and I'm just, I think curiosity and appetite for change are kind of categories that I score very highly in. But, you know, stick with it, this is probably not. And that can cause a lot of problems. And I think, like, we've seen a lot less chaos that once I was kind of removed from that equation, and it doesn't mean that I don't have any influence or ability to, you know, have, you know, the visibility into operations, but optimizing operations is not my strong suit. Is that fair?
Unknown Speaker 7:12
Yeah, absolutely. And, and I think we develop this cool heuristic that we always write on the whiteboard. That trip does the first 10% of anything, Jake does the next 40% and then an operator or Nick, in this case, does the the next 50% so it's sort of like idea is your world on the build it guy and then Nick is the run it guy. And that sort of checks out with what I had said earlier is like, I'm also not a natural operator, like I to have a little bit of the visionary bone in my body. And I, I like to be more in that construction phase. And then once everything is running, I too get bored. But yeah, trip did some psychological testing. And as identified, he has big executive functioning issues and organization issues. And he's
Unknown Speaker 7:59
great verbal and spatial, great verbal, you can pick correct Tupperware 10 out of 10 times. That's my superpower, I thought we were gonna save that I wanted to dedicate an entire episode to the fact that I am a master at picking the right Tupperware for leftovers.
Unknown Speaker 8:15
It is an amazing skill. Yeah. But yeah, so we kind of live in this framework where trip is the idea guy, and he does that first 10% and then I figured out how to run something. And then once it's he has a little stability, then an operator sticks in. And that just leans in all of our skill sets were trips, a guy that he doesn't want to come in, to work every day and do the same exact thing. And that's, that's a very unique ability. And the fact that we have something like that, you know, in our organization, and in our partnership is, is what really has generated most of our success. So I think, and I think one of the things that you're exceptional at is just your self awareness like most, you know, organizational leaders, they don't want to seize control, and they are cede control and they don't want to, they want to be the guy that lives in the micromanagement in the details where I think you have correctly identified that you don't do that well, and you don't find value in it. So you have this unique ability to actually step out of things when necessary, where I think that's, you know, that's what other visionary leaders can't do. Well, where I worked in, you know, in my first job in finance, I worked for a visionary leader and the guy had crazy ideas, any any move the organization forward, but we felt this organizational whiplash all the time and he couldn't let go of things, he micromanage everything. And I saw this company kind of rot from the inside culturally, where nobody trusted what he said or what we were going to do next. And everybody, you know, got very fatigued with the changing priorities. And then he would just lean in and micromanage more where I think that's like your other superpower is that you're able to actually pull back and, and you trust Nick and I, when we say hey, we don't need you anymore. This thing's past often. Then Then you can let go of it, which I think is in very important.
Unknown Speaker 10:04
And because I know we're going to spend part of this episode talking about the first time we're trying to raise money as a as partners, you've raised money for a mango farm in Cambodia before. So you have some experience, at least in raising money. I've never done that other than kind of a friends and family raise to get to get Greenhill going, but maybe we can take a minute and talk about why, you know, not just why we're raising money, but the kind of the, the idea that we need to grow and what you have encouraged me to do to, you know, in stepping away from Greenville, you know, is it the way I always think about it is, we can solve a certain number of problems. And it's just what problems are we going to choose to solve? We could I could sit in Greenville and optimize some particular offering of a line of service. But you've correctly said, That's not where your unique contribution is. So what's your kind of rationale behind getting me out of the weeds? Well,
Unknown Speaker 11:07
as I describe you, I call you a great white shark in a pond. Right? So big one, a big predator carnivore. And Green Hill is a small organization. And I think what we did is we took a step back, and you know, what was best for Green Hill was not what you wanted to do. And I think what you wanted to do, and myself too, is we want to change the entire healthcare, healthcare landscape. And we want to make, you know, policy changes and research and modality changes. And, and greenhills is not the platform to do that. So it's a small business. And we reached this point where we talked about we're, we're in the process of passing Green Hill off to Nick. And it's really what Green Hill needs right now is not to grow, it needs to just mature as an organization, and it needs to let its, you know, people become more confident and, and it really needs zero of this organizational whiplash. And when we took a step back, it's just it's not the foundation to launch a massive, you know, industry changing company, it's more of a niche brand.
Unknown Speaker 12:05
And we like it, we believe in what we do. But that that amount of energy, I was just putting chaos into a system.
Unknown Speaker 12:14
Yeah, and Greenhill is, is a very high quality brand. And we do, you know, phenomenal work. And it's just not, you know, something that's infinitely scalable. So I think you know, what's best for Greenville is to keep it at more of a boutique level. And, and you know, we're really good at young adult treatment, and we just couldn't expand to other geographies or other demographics on that platform. So, so where that has led us is, you know, we know that we want to do something much bigger, and we've taken a step back and figured out how we can take all the lessons we've learned at Green Hill and use that as a proof of concept and draw the things out of that, that we want and create a better idea. Yeah, and something that is scalable. Um, so so that's essentially you know, why we're here today, right? you've, you've pulled out of Green Hill, and you've, you know, charted on this course with Ed VEDA where we want to be a much larger organization. And our first scalable idea on the VEDA platform is Educare. And it's, it's a deal that we're going out and trying to raise money for right now.
Unknown Speaker 13:20
And before we kind of jump into the fundraising component of our work right now, I'd like to just give the example of what happened this week as far as gas breaks, and our kind of personal relationship. So, you know, kind of currently, as of q3, for us, we have a couple of priorities. One, it is optimizing our outpatient line of service, it's currently you know, we lose money, we lost money for the past year and a half on one of our lines of service. And there are a whole host of reasons for why that is. And you know, we want to address that. So that's one kind of priority for us. The second one is launching this medical practice. The third is upgrading our technology and data collection. So we're rolling out some new systems at Green Hill. And then the last two have to do with kind of our parent company at VEDA health ventures, and establishing our board of advisors for that and then raising money for the first opportunity. So we got a lot to do this quarter. And what happened yesterday
Unknown Speaker 14:30
and typical trip fashion, I received a text that says Yo, you're going to be mad at me which is how most of his ideas come now. And then I usually just respond no or stop or what is it and then we can just cut through the BS here now I know that you're going to try and pitch me on on we sort of use this idea of trip is a vegan as everyone in the world knows
Unknown Speaker 14:56
what you said carnivore earlier. So thank you for clarifying,
Unknown Speaker 14:59
not a carnivore Absolutely not a carnival but so vegan food truck has kind of become the the joking placeholder we have for one of trips new ideas is when I get one of these texts out of the blue, he's gonna try and pitch me on starting a vegan food truck in the parking lot outside. So yesterday we had a vegan food truck moment. And as Tripp mentioned, right, we spent a lot of time putting together these okrs and these priorities and things that we need to do well to finish out the year. And, you know, we we nailed them down at Greenhill. And we've passed a lot of that off to Nick and then you and I were hard charging and raising money for our next you know, idea which I had thought we had settled on. So yesterday did. But nothing's ever settled, nothing's ever settled. And as Tripp always, the ultimate get out of jail free card he has is that we both firmly agree on the idea that you have to update you know, your mental models and your worldview as new information comes in. So every day is a chance for new information. Tripp is an information seeker. So every day we can update whatever we're doing based on new information, and I just have to agree to that. So perfectly, that's a good idea. So So yeah, trips, latest and greatest idea was, so he tried to pitch me on, you know, he called me immediately I was like, I have an idea. It's concierge, medical care. And, and really, it's about, you know, as we, you know, head down this path of human flourishing and betterman it's, it's really about primary care is not set up in a way it's very reactive, like people go to the doctor or when something is wrong with them. They're not thinking they don't view healthcare as a platform to get better. So So really, the idea you were heading is more of a primary practice concierge model where it's it's about wellness and better men and using data to be ahead of the curve and, you know, help us healthcare to optimize performance and all that stuff.
Unknown Speaker 17:01
Yeah. So I wanted I got really interested mainly because of a couple podcasts I listened to this weekend. And then a couple conversations I had, I got interested in this idea of because mainly, honestly, because I wanted it. I was like, hey, look, I'm thinking about you know, we're about to start trying to have kids, like I want to be as healthy as I can I had this like panic moment that even though I'm you know, this, this vegan yoga guy, like I was like, oh, man, maybe my health isn't good enough? How do I go get this like really kind of boutique performance optimization and longevity focused primary care. So I thought it was a great idea. I also talked to one of my friends who former Congressman, and he's consulting with a concierge primary care company. And the kind of the confluence of those things coming through my headspace led me to say, maybe we should do concierge primary care. And I still think we should, but the point being that, you know, one of my kind of responsibilities as a leader and CEO, and as we've made it vision, you know, this kind of title visionaries, I just do need to go out there, I need to kick up a bunch of dirt and and see what sticks. But this idea did not land yesterday with Jake. And didn't land at all. So but what I think was is really illustrating for us, and I have to, you know, really applaud you for the way you handled me yesterday, was, you had pretty much shot me down and said, Hey, like, let's not talk about this. We've got enough going on. I pushed a little further, I had a couple more conversations with people who mixed reviews. And then, you know, you started sending me you texted me, links to other people who were, you know, in your mind already doing air quotes. This is already being done. What Why do you think we should do this? And I replied with a probably a couple snarky replies. And then I said, Hey, if you do want to understand what's differentiating this, check out this podcast, go read David Sinclair's work. Anyone who's interested in performance and longevity should definitely check out. David Sinclair, you can find his website at Dr. Sinclair calm. And he's really one of the foremost experts in this kind of health optimization. And then you responded with thanks for sending that. And you immediately diffused a situation where I knew I was probably kind of often one of my tangents, but those tangents sometimes lead to a good place. And so you don't want to, you know, to stifle that kind of creativity and curiosity. But we also just need to be aligned. And I think one of the things we focused on in our partnership is just coming back and making sure we get alignment on a regular basis.
Unknown Speaker 19:52
Yeah, absolutely. And the magic thing that I'm always chasing with you, it's just the opportunity cost of time. It's like you know, like, we had it In the morning, we had pitch to venture firm on on our next idea. And then by the afternoon we're we're working on on the next next idea. So it always comes down to me for an opportunity cost thing, where I just don't want us to pour our time. And, you know, eventually we have to pick one. And I think this is the great challenge of every entrepreneurs, you know, once you become an entrepreneur, what did you do, you saw an opportunity, and you chased it. And when it goes, Well, it builds confidence in your ability to go chase more opportunities. So when you're in a position like Tripp is right now, where you're very, you know, curious external facing, looking for the next idea. You get in this place where it's hard to turn down opportunities, and I think that's what you and I struggle with is, yeah, is like, while this may be a great idea, it's really about where it stacks up in relation to the other ideas, and does it achieve our objectives of scale? And, you know, policy changing and all these different things. So it's like, we just have to throw it in the mix and level it against other ideas. And I think that's kind of what I do. But yeah, I think what you brought up to is that you're you have trained me to live in this place of curiosity. And like I, I, everybody's familiar with Occam's razor. But there's another one hand handlings razor, which is that which can be asserted, without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. So it's basically like Tripp has trained me to, I have to, if I'm going to shoot down these ideas, I have to do my research. And it has to be more than just a reaction, right? I have to respond to it in a way where I have to maintain that curiosity. And I should go out and look for competitors. And if I'm shooting down an idea, like I have to have a good reason why. And I think that that's what you and I do well, it's like we can meet live in that curiosity space, and I want to be able to paint, you know, we're both very competitive, and we like being right. And we're both smart guys. And if like when we have these moments of conflict, we both do our homework. And I think we you know, what it does for us is we we reach a final conclusion with a ton of information. And we're able to push back on each other in these microwaves in the moment and not let we don't really dig in and we get to the place where the idea has, you know, been fully fleshed out. Yeah. And you know, why I said, thanks for send me That is because like you, you do your homework. And it's like, these ideas don't come from nowhere. And I think that you have met me halfway by by developing them on your end and finding the research that backs it and justifying your position. So yeah, it's just it's very cool how we ideate back and forth.
Unknown Speaker 22:44
So that was our kind of partnership moment of the week, I think, as far as it went, really, we've had, we've had much more passive aggressive interactions than what happened, I just view this as us maturing to, like, it was pretty cool to me to kind of take a metacognitive approach to that entire interaction and just witness how quickly it could be, you know, diffused. And, and that was awesome. So you mentioned we pitched a v enture fund, so why so one thing I'm, even though I, you said, I can let go of the reins, like I have no effing desire to give up equity in anything. And yet, here we are trying to raise money, which, I mean, we could theoretically be doing debt financing convertible notes, but that's unlikely to be what we need to we're going to shop around and give up equity. Why are we doing this? What are we looking for in a deal? Because we need to come up with this deal criteria, you know, this week, too. So what's going on with the fundraising side? Why are we Why are we doing this? Why not just stay slow and steady and just kind of organically grow?
Unknown Speaker 23:55
I think what we've identified is that if we do say slow and steady and organically grow, we're we are not going to have the capital, you know, at one time to to launch something that is scalable. And I think I think we've arrived at a place where we're really are is it's just a timeline thing like you and I want to do X right now, we're not really needed at Greenhill. And if we use Greenhill as the bank account like you and I would be totaling our thumbs for three years before we had enough money in the bank to to launch a big company. Um, so we reached a place where we can either wait or if we want to shorten the timeline and really have the ability and freedom to to blow our next thing out of the water, we need to go out and test the market for investor dollars. And I think one of the other things that you and I have identified is were people that like mentors and we'd like guidance and, and really what we're looking for is not money, but we're looking for a strategic partner that we can grow with over the next few decades. Cuz you hear all these success stories of venture firms where, you know, they don't invest in idea they invest in people, and what happens is one venture fund will invest in and four ideas from the same entrepreneur, or they will, you know, participate in an initial investment, they will participate in an accent, and they will roll, they just keep, you know, running it back, if you will. Um, so really, that's what we're out there doing is we want to find a source of capital, like, if we're going to change the health scare healthcare landscape, it's not going to be done in a small business. And I always talk about, you know, greenhealth, closer to a lemonade stand than a fortune 500 company. And that's just the truth. Like we've Yeah, we've built a big company, but the scale at which, you know, Oak Street health, or these big public health care companies operate is is is so far away from what Greenhill is. So we just need to go raise a bunch of money to set ourselves up on a new trajectory, where it's, it's just starting from a much larger foundation.
Unknown Speaker 26:01
So how does this not make us the bad business? Guys in healthcare? We're just trying to blow something out of the water? I mean, I can answer that, and I will.
Unknown Speaker 26:09
Well, I
Unknown Speaker 26:10
always take the stance that, you know, if we're not going to do it, somebody else's. And what we know is that, you know, we are good guys and trip, and I always, we might have said it on the partnership podcast last time. But we're were people that are more likely to score ourselves and screw each other over. And we just have that identity as businessmen like we, we care about people, and we care about your long term changes. And we were in this for the right reasons, if you will. And and I think once you're when you're there, you can look around a field and you can see who is in it for the right reasons, and who is in it for the wrong reason. So you know, a lot of our referral partners and marketing strategy in greenhouse has been about going and finding the people who are doing this for the right reasons. And then, you know, we have to team up, I'm like, I don't know if you're a Star Wars guy, but I always kind of view us as
Unknown Speaker 27:02
you think I'm a Star Wars guy. No, no. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 27:07
So like, you know, we're sort of the Rebel Alliance, right, like the bad capitalist guys, and these big companies are, you know, out there, and they're the Darth Vader's. And they're the evil empire, and they're the ones with infinite resources to destroy the world. And, and kind of our view is that they are going to destroy the world. And unless people like us, you know, rise up and build these Coalition's of other entrepreneurs who care about the world. And, and, and build something big, like, we have to build something big to compete with the bad guys. And I think that's just the tension we have to live in is that, like, if we don't operate at scale, then the bad guys win.
Unknown Speaker 27:41
Yeah. And I think like the, you know, kind of riff on that one, it's, you know, if we could do this organically, and kind of do small proof of concept like, that would be great. But unfortunately, you know, when we're talking about making systemic changes in the healthcare landscape, you just actually have to operate at scale to have a seat at the table. I mean, we don't have any ability to advocate for policy change, or even, you know, use, the small amount of data that we're collecting is not really enough, in order to make those systemic changes we're interested in. And so we view this, you know, raising money, having a large organization is not is not just about growing, for the sake of growing, but we're not going to be able to tap into all of the information and tools that we think are going to drive healthcare forward, if we don't do it at a larger scale. And it's just, you know, that's just the reality of it. And we could continue to do really good work have a great impact on the lives of the people that we serve. But that's not necessarily going to move the system forward. And that's what I want, you know, my legacy, you know, to be about really making a positive change. And I think we like the healthcare space in general, like, it's, it's fun, you get to show up to work and you are dedicating, you know, what you do to bettering other people's lives. So I just think, for us, I mean, for me, it's really difficult to think about raising money, though, and just, I just, I want to be in charge. You're still going to be in charge? Yeah. It just it, you know, it's, and I think, you know, what we were trying to figure out, like we said, like Jake said, it's not just about the money, but it's about the strategic partner. It's about us finding, I think what one thing that we've done pretty well as we have, we've built a network of advisors and mentors that are kind of super powerful, important, mature in their careers, etc. And we've done a good job getting something off the ground, but that kind of middle ground like we're kind of, you know, early 30s, but we're entering that, you know, up ramp and our own careers and we want people who are a few years ahead of us that can help kind of shape Along the way, so that we can have the impact we want.
Unknown Speaker 30:05
Yeah, and I'll just dig into the raising money thing a little bit. Um, so sort of our strategy and raising money and is, is it's more of a dating approach. And I think, you know, we're, we're trained when we interview for jobs that, you know, it's, it's somebody who's asking us a bunch of questions, and we're supposed to only have the answers. And really, like, I've been told throughout my career, when you go into any job interview, it's just as much about you interviewing and getting to know that company as it is them getting to know you. Yeah. And I think people bring so much fear, and a scarcity mindset into an interview where they just want that job, they're not willing to drift back to this place of curiosity in their head, where they can entertain, that maybe that job is not a good fit for them, based on how the company, you know, operates or functions. So so that's essentially what we're doing with the fundraising strategy is like, we want to find a long term partner, and we're willing to date around so we get it and and I think we ask the hard questions. And we approach these these pitches where we're not just trying to sell someone on a on an idea. We're trying to sell somebody on on partnership. Yeah. And a quick little story. So when I did the mango farm, we essentially had, you know, two investment theses for that project. The first one was that land was undervalued in Cambodia, it would, and it would appreciate. So it was sort of a real asset, land play. And then the other one was, commercial farming doesn't exist in Cambodia, and we able to optimize, you know, and generate much higher profits by creating more of a system around mango farming. And what we found is that, you know, those two ideas have very different timelines, like, the land strategy is much more of a set it and forget it, and the operational strategy is much more of your quarterly results, let's review financials. So, you know, I had to learn this lesson the hard way. But you know, when when we attracted our investor base for that, you know, what I came to learn after we had launched was that really, I had these two competing investor camps where I had, you know, one, one camp was in the set it and forget it, let's not worry about it. This is a long term game. And then we had another investor camp where they were dug in on the, what are you doing today? What what's what's changing today? What, when are you going to buy that equipment? And so we were living in this tension, where we were getting micromanaged by half of our investors, and then the other investors were like, slow down, chill out, like, Why are you so it's like we were, I didn't know who to try to please. And it's like, and from our seat, it's like we're doing both at the same time. Um, but so that's the type of situation that we're trying to avoid in this round. It's like, we want to find a partner, you know, that that's grounded in our values and their long term thinkers, and they can see the long game and we just want to take the time to find that right partner.
Unknown Speaker 32:51
And one of the things that's, I think this is actually interesting, this is an example of you maybe being more of the gas and his situation, is you've really pushed us for this fundraising. Because I think I just get distracted by new concepts, new ideas, trying to add and refine our existing concept, you know, and we talked about Educare. That's really the the big one. And what's difficult for me, though, is that you can always get better. And then so we can always get better every day. Like Jake mentioned, we're adding new information, which allows us to refine a pitch, refine the model, really understand things better. And that's endless, you can do that for ever. And so I typically do, I spend a lot of time doing that. And at the same time, though, I get very frustrated when I see people who've raised a bunch of money for projects that are dumb and shit. I mean, there are so many stupid ideas out there in healthcare. I mean, everyone has mixed up a few buzzwords, and they have digital interventions, digital therapeutic, social help, does that. And you just it's a it's a word, you know, word scramble of things that really I don't think are going to make systemic change. And so I've spent, you know, we've spent really the last two, three years refining a concept for collegiate and focused healthcare, that we think has a lot of a lot of legs and just for systemic change, you know, really looking at being in the middle between patients, providers, payers and policymakers. But that that in and of itself is huge. Like if we could if we, when we do this, we will have done something very special. But we got to get out there and start doing it. And I think one of the one of the things you have correctly pushed us on is you were never going to have a perfect pitch. This is never going to be a perfect idea. And it's always going to be an idea until you get out there and do it. And so one of the aspects that we're kind of leaning into with this fundraising process is like, let's Just go out there, I think our goal is 50 pitches in the next three months or now two and a half months, we just did our first one. And we've got another one coming up this week. And a lot of this is just about information gathering and refining what we're doing finding out if anyone else is out there doing something similar looking for additional partners in this, etc. So I'll let you jump in. But as I'm just thinking, you know, this is information gathering and an opportunity, you know, for you to be the guy saying, like, shut up. And let's do this. Because I do think even, you know, even though we talked about the chaos and the different ideas that I have, I can really, really over kill an idea. You know, I want to perfect. Absolutely. And that's that's an interesting tension, though, kind of the opposite of what we talked about earlier. But also one of the reasons, you know, you wanted me out of day to day operations at Greenhill is because I want every aspect perfect. And which one to improve first, that's, that's where it's chaos. I'll come up with 50 things you got to do that day. So
Unknown Speaker 36:03
yeah, so So essentially, what I told you is that we have to go out and test the market, right? Like any idea, yes, yesterday was a great example of that, right? Like, you had a good idea, you tested it on the market air quotes with me, and I pushed back and said, I wouldn't do this, I would do this, I like this, I don't like this about it. And then we started to reshape the idea immediately. So anybody goes to, you know, pitch their first idea. And Laurie, largely, they think it's a perfect idea, like anybody who goes into the room of a venture capitalists, like they are coming to that room prepared, and they want to show up with their best stuff. So, you know, we can make the assumption that they think their idea is perfect. Yeah. So and then basically, what happens is you a, you know, in a very simple sense, you either get money or you don't, right, so like the market is going to tell us what the market wants. So we're going to come to market with an idea that we think is great, but my, my big energy is that like, you know, pitching is that the new information, and we'll see if things work, or they don't work. And, and, and we will sort of bend this idea to where you know, the market needs it to be, and that's just how people successfully raise money is, is they give the market what it wants, they give that venture capital firm the idea that they have been waiting for, and nine times out of 10, people do not get money on their first pitch, and they go back and they they iterate and they make changes, and they take feedback from some arenas, and they you know, and they put it into their project. And but also, you know, you have to know when when maybe the market is giving you bad information. So that's another component of it. So like, you might go to a VC and they might tell you, that's never gonna work. And we had that, you know, before where we talked to a potential advisor months ago, and he said, like, this has got to be 100% tech, or it's not and, and we could have taken that as gospel, but we retreated back and figured he was wrong, right like this, this does have to have a brick and mortar element to it. So I think that, you know, the best way to pitch and go get money is just to try to align our values and our idea with the market and then the market, the market will give us the money that we need. So yeah, I think for me, pitching is very much a fail forward approach. And I've just seen, like, you know, these, you hear these, these stories of people that, you know, went to 10 different VCs, and then the 11th one said, Yes, and Hey, now they're Airbnb, like, even these mega unicorns, like, they didn't walk into Sequoia Capital in their first pitch meeting, and they said, Oh, yeah, sure, they'll give you $10 million. And you're off to the races. And the other thing, too, is that like, there is no standard deal in venture capital, right? Like you talked about how you didn't want to give up control, it's in there. And we're selling equity in a company. But there is no template for that, like, there isn't like, hey, in your first round, you're giving up 10%. And the valuation is always this. So the other nice part is that, you know, we in testing the market, like it's also it's a qualitative thing. But it's also a quantitative thing where we could go to our First Person, and they tell us, your idea is worth $5 million. And we want 20% of it. And then the next person say might say, your ideas were $10 million, and we want 10% of it. And here's why. Or we want this type of control, this type of monitoring. So it's really like getting out there and pitching is the only way to find the deal you want and the partner you want.
Unknown Speaker 39:33
And I think one of the things I struggle with in this process is not that I don't think any of our ideas are quote, perfect. And I think this just goes back to, you know, trying to find a strategic partner to grow with, but I do think if someone and I think what we're trying to do is even with stuff like this podcast is show our thought process, because I think like if we become better decision makers better information gatherers, better synthesizer There's better communicators, then things get better, everything gets better. One of the things that frustrates me is just this intellectual rigor. I mean, you you do, one of the funny things about this is, you know, venture has a certain kind of risk appetite and needs, you know, needs there to be a potential 100x return. And then if we're talking to family offices or more kind of traditional private equity, they may, they may view this as a much more kind of brick and mortar standard, run a profitable company type play. And I think we have the appetite to do both. And we don't see any reason to say no to certain opportunities. I mean, you You make me say no, to a lot, but in a good way. But I think like, that's been one of the tough things. And one of the things we're, you know, again, getting to test out, like how big of an idea Do you want, like you want to go big will go big? Space spacebase? And are mentioned for all I care? I don't know. Yeah, so now we're about to fly out, fly out to Phoenix meet with someone we think would be would be a phenomenal partner. I think our biggest, my biggest apprehension about this is I think we are likely to end up with a deal that, you know, if we get that far, that makes us a portfolio company, whereas we want to be treated more as a venture investment and be running on our own platform. So we'll see how that goes. The only way is to go out there and check it out. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun. I'm not gonna spend any more time trying to build out this concierge primary care for executives interested in performance and longevity. But hey, if you are interested in that, please let me know. Because that's really valuable data that I can get back to this guy with. Alright, we're gonna get work now. Yeah, let's go. All right. Well, thank you for tuning in to this episode of business of human flourishing. It was Episode Two of the partnership corner. So thanks a lot. We'll see you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai