Ryan Miller
My name is Ryan Miller and for the past 15 years have helped hundreds of people to raise millions of dollars for their funds, and for their startups. If you're serious about raising money, launching your business or taking your life to the next level, this show will give you the answers so that you can enjoy your pursuit of making billions. Let's get into it.
Hey, founders, have you ever had a brilliant idea, but have no clue where to start? Well, this week's episode of making billions I bring on my dear friend, Fred Cary. Fred has built multiple companies taking them all the way to IPO acquisitions and more. Join Fred and me as we discuss how his company, ideapros, has received over 100,000 applications for help, and how only 400 made it into this program. Fred is about to drop some wisdom on how to launch a company and what investors are really looking forward to your pitch. You don't want to miss it. You'll be phenomenal companies, while pitching the big idea are all skills weeding, and our pursuit of making. Let's get into it.
Hey, welcome to another episode of making billions. I'm your host, Ryan Miller. And today I have my dear friend, Fred Caron, Fred is the founder and CEO of IdeaPros. It's a company that helps entrepreneurs to go from ideation to launch, not only has he launched multiple companies producing an aggregated value in excess of a billion dollars for him and his partners. But his work has also gone on and landed him in Forbes, USA Today and Entrepreneur Magazine as one of their shining stars. So what this means is that Fred understands not only how to turn ideas into companies, but how to help you do the same. So Fred, welcome the show, man.
Fred Cary
Thank you, you know, I was just telling my girlfriend before the show, I've done dozens of podcasts. And I've never been nervous before show. And for somebody you're like, so fucking cool that I was really, really excited to be on here. And I'm never I'm like, Oh, I gotta do a podcast. But I'm really excited to be on here. I love what you're doing. And you're, you're an awesome person, you have a great audience. And hopefully you can do something good for them today.
Ryan Miller
Awesome. Well, when you and I haven't conversation, we're going to crank out a lot of value, especially you. So thank you very much. You're very kind. It's truly an honor to have someone with your caliber and experience and even your your context. I know you you're friends with a few of dealmakers that I deeply admire I will get into that in a minute. But you know, so we're here, you're connected, you're cranking out these things are all the companies, you've started Nexus billions of dollars for you and your investors, for the people listening around the world that hear the sound of your voice that maybe they're just feeling like, how do I become Fred Carey or someone like that? How do I get into this business? Where did it start for you?
Fred Cary
Yeah, first of all, you don't want to become Fred Carey. I'll tell you that right up front, you want to be you. And I learned that lesson a couple of different times in my past, but if you're an entrepreneur, you're it's already there. When you're when you're a kid, I was looking at these old newspaper articles on newspapers.com. That's a pitch for newspapers.com. You go there, there's all these stories back from the 1800s and different newspapers. And I was looking for a story about me and a rock band I was in when I was 18, instead of found me when I was 16, a classified ad, saying that, hey, this spread carrier for 20, Cherry Hill Boulevard, I will work seven days a week 24/7, mow your lawn or watch your kids or wash your dishes. I'll help you with moving, I'll paint your fences, anything you want to have done, I will do it. And that's when I started as an entrepreneur that shortly after that is when my dad told me, You're never going to amount to anything. And a lot of people who are listening probably get that same story, you're never going to amount to anything, because you're different. You're unusual, you have your own way that doesn't fit the mold of everybody else. But it's those people that make all the differences in the world. And I started my first company at about 22 and haven't stopped since
Ryan Miller
man, that's phenomenal. And I'm constantly trying to raise my kids to come up with ideas or nine and seven, they're turning into little hustlers. So I'm trying to do my my VC thing and crank out to the young entrepreneurs, just like you. So thank you for sharing that. And my understanding. So we see then you've done all these wonderful things. I think you've started your career, professional career in litigation, maybe walk us up a little bit on that,
Fred Cary
yeah, I actually became an attorney by by accident. And I swear to God, it's another show in and of itself, I'll give you a short version. Because before I did that, I started two different companies, one in the food industry, and exited that when I was about 24. And then another one in the music industry. And I exited that when I was 27. At that point, I was approached by two lawyers who said, You know what, we love your style. If you become a lawyer, we'll make you our partner. And I'm like, I don't really want to be a lawyer. And they said, we'll make you our partner today. And you go to law school, and I said, okay, and they started giving me a third of everything that they made illegally, of course, and they're both deceased now. So it's good. I can say that. And I went to law school and learned how to do that. But I didn't have a four year degree. So I collect about four years worth of course of school credits in three weeks. So I've literally got a four year degree in three weeks, became a lawyer was really successful for eight, nine years never lost the case, but I hated it. Because my true passion is in building companies and I left law gave it to my little brother and launch 10 companies after
Ryan Miller
that man and two IPOs two were acquired. I mean, I think you still have a couple under your belt today. You mentioned you had one that was 800 million in revenue right now. That's one of your your companies?
Fred Cary
Yeah, well, that that's one that I can't take that much credit for anymore. You know, we started that one. And with a lot of the companies that we start, we really look for a hole in the market in a robust market, big problem that nobody's solving. And that's why I've had about an 80% success rate. But that one company is called Imagine communications. And it started as an idea that an idea that was impossible and ended up now I don't have really anything to do with it anymore. It's got all obviously new management and everything. And it does run 800 million a year and over half of the house, TV households around the world have its technology somewhere in the pipeline. It's the biggest company nobody's ever heard of.
Ryan Miller
Yeah, brilliant. And so you mentioned you started IdeaPro, maybe walk us through a little bit about all the trouble you're getting yourself in today.
Fred Cary
Yeah, idea pros. It was in some senses, the dumbest thing I've ever done. And in some sense, the most rewarding thing I've ever done, because, you know, they say that you spend the first half of your career building up your resume. And in the second half of building up your legacy. And I'm on that part, I'm on that journey. And I realized that the one thing where there's a marketplace, that over 90% of it is not being served. And that's an entrepreneurship, all the money. And now with social media, it's, it's ridiculous. Because you see a 24 year old sitting in front of their Lamborghini in front of a house just before the owner comes out and screams at him to get the fuck away. pretending that this is all there is and you can become a millionaire overnight. And so everybody thinks through social media that being an entrepreneur is really, really easy. But the reality is the multimillionaires and billionaires that are entrepreneurs, 94% of them went to Ivy League schools, 60% of them graduated from MBA programs from those schools, the professor can make a phone call and get you down into the biggest venture capital firms in the country with a paper napkin idea. And the rest of us were lost. You know, it's like, we need brain surgery. And we're out searching for brain surgery equipment, instead of a brain surgery doctor because there's no doctor available. So I became the Doctor of entrepreneurship to be able to guide people and help people along the way. And the reason I said it was stupid ideas. I now have 400 companies underneath me, startup organizations that each have their fires and drills and pivots and heartaches happening every single day.
Ryan Miller
Wow, that's phenomenal. So 400 companies all under your umbrella at the moment? Can you walk us through for entrepreneurs that are listening around the world, maybe walk us through a little bit about what idea pros does and how you serve your patients as the doctor of startups? What, like roughly just loose example of working with someone in your company or you personally, what can entrepreneurs expect to get from you that maybe they can't, or likely won't be able to get outside to be a person?
Fred Cary
Yeah, so the reality, it's really two words, outsiders, insiders, right? The insiders are those people that I was talking about to go out of those schools, that all the venture capital money, all the private equity, money goes pouring to that tiny bit of the entrepreneurial population. And the rest of us are really left not knowing what to do. We want to be entrepreneurs. 55% of Americans state that at one time or another, they had their own business. Well, over half of Americans had their own business yet, at any given moment, only 17% of us identify as entrepreneurs. So there's a lot of death and destruction going on in that population, because there's not a system in place to have you become an insider. So our flagship product and idea pros was this kind of all in partnership, pay us 100,000 to 250,000, upfront, give us 30% of the company that we're going to start together. And it's kind of an upside down venture capital firm, you put in some money, we put in money, we handle everything. And we go from raw idea to a nationwide launch. And that's a flagship product I've had all along. But I've had 100,000 applications, and only was able to take 400 people. So now we have all sorts of other products from free to a couple $100 You know, training, teach you how to turn your shitty idea to a great idea really gets you to understand your market. And so we've compartmentalised we have tons of different programs that idea proz.com that people could can sign up for
Ryan Miller
brilliant. Yeah, I love that. So you know, from all your experience, and I'm so curious, I mean, for a company is 100,000 applications, aggregated business value over in the billions. I mean, man, you've, you've been busy, busy building that legacy brother. And I raised two children. Yeah. And you raised a family and children. And I mean, my goodness, you've you've definitely been busy. And yes, children are certainly part of that legacy phase in our careers, as you and I Well, now, you know, I would love to just hear you know, two or three things in your opinion that you found to be successful, like, what are some, like main keys that you can find for a successful launch? What would you say to someone trying to launch a business? What would be the top five things you would say?
Fred Cary
Okay, before I would say that, I would say this, the largest failure point for new businesses, the largest is that you've created something that there's no demand for I mean, let that sink in. I mean, how stupid Are we that we've built something that there's zero demand for and the second to that is that no capital? No access to capital, right? But But for that to be the first thing is pretty horrific. And so five things that I would say is, number one, don't be revolutionary, be evolutionary, right? What do I mean by that evolutionary is maybe PESA. And everybody could argue now that's revolutionary. Now, it's not revolutionary, the first electric car was built in 1890. That was revolutionary. And then after that, there's probably 100 different attempts to build an electric car. And those maybe some of those were revolutionary, but right time, right product, right product market fit, and you have built something that's evolutionary to something that already exists. That's the big thing for you to come out with. When you first start out. That's number one. And number two, I've had probably an 80% success rate on the companies that I started on my own. And the reason for that is I look for a hole, it's pretty simple. You look for a marketplace that's gotta be robust already. It's got to be growing. And there has to be something in that market that's not being addressed well. And if you can find that hole in the marketplace, you got a winner, because now you have a really easy story to tell, when you go to investors and get capital, you can show this is booming market, there's just great demand. And everybody's bitching that they don't have this, and I got this. So I'm doing what everybody else is doing. But I have the missing ingredient. That's a lot easier sell to an investor. And it's a lot easier way to have a winning organization, because you're, you've already got the market built in for you. That's number two. Number three, want me roll through all five?
Ryan Miller
Roll through all five. And let's hear you're on a roll. Brother, this is great.
Fred Cary
All right, number three, differentiate yourself. You know, just think about this, go into the past, besides buying Microsoft stock, you're sitting there, you're in an audience of 1000 people, and this little skinny guy shows up in a black T shirt on stage. And he says, Hey, guys, I want to have a poll here, I'm going to start a new company. And I want to compete against IBM, I want to compete against Microsoft and digital equipment, and all these other industrial names, and I'm gonna call my company, Apple. There's nobody in those cells and people they're gonna go, That's a great name. There's nobody, right. And yet, that name alone is the most expensive name. And in the world, it's with a true $2 trillion company right now, Apple is not a name that you would pick. But it works because it distinguishes itself from the pack just like Virgin for an airline's Who the hell would call an airline virgin. But now you realize you're the Virgin, you're going on, you're having an experience that you've never had before. And so when you distinguish yourself, and you live up to that distinction, then that gives you a real upper edge. So so don't name yourself, you know, the first Jiffy laser toaster, name yourself, if you've made this laser toaster, something like Zappo, or something that's way different than then what you tend to want to want to do. And then And then fourth is launch fast. You know, Reed Hoffman, who was, I think still is the CEO of LinkedIn said, if you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late. And we you know, having training all these first time entrepreneurs, they want to perfect. And when you do that, you're looking at companies that have spent $150 million with our app, by the time you look at them, you want to look at the very beginning, like Instagram had two pictures. When they first launched it was picture of the guy's dog in his girlfriend's foot, and then some picture of a bridge. That's all it was on Instagram. And all you could do is follow somebody you couldn't even like it. You couldn't comment, you couldn't share it, you couldn't do anything. That was V one v one of air bed and breakfast is what it used to be called, was two guys with three guys with an apartment and a couple of air mattresses that they were renting out on the weekends for 80 bucks a night. That's how they started. And they couldn't get anybody to give them any money. Because the venture capitalist said, Wait a minute, people are gonna let strangers stay in their house. I don't think so that's not going to work. And so they had they had to end up making cereal boxes. During the presidential elections. They had cereal boxes, Captain McCain's and Obama O's during the presidential election, they started putting them in their little bed and breakfast is in selling cereal boxes for 40 bucks. And one of the guys from Y Combinator said, You know what, if you can sell cereal for 40 bucks, you can get strangers to live in homes with with other people. And they gave him their first 20 grand. And so they went and did did whatever they had to do, they launched fast they launched way before what you see now is this multibillion multinational organization. And the last thing is you got to get very good at pitching and raising capital that CEOs have today. They have to be financially focused, because there's no way if you want to be successful, there's no way your cash flow, even if it's like this is going to be able to keep up with this kind of growth, this kind of demand and the cashflow is only as fast as last month. And if you're doing twice as well, the next month, you're screwed. So you got to be financially focused, you need to know how to speak like an insider. And you have to either be raising capital closing a deal or getting ready for your next deal.
Ryan Miller
That's phenomenal. So be evolutionary, not revolutionary, understand the hole in the market, differentiate yourself, launch fast and get good at raising capital and pitching. Speaking of pitching any I know what I've read any books that you would recommend that you have found or your students have found to be supremely helpful?
Fred Cary
You know, I'm very fortunate to have this really strange guys, a friend of mine, Oren Klaff, he is the really brilliant, really eccentric, got a little kid. And he goes around and does laser tag with him in his studio. And he wrote a book called Pitch Anything and that book is over a million seller, it does really, really well. And he, he does it way different than what you read, you're supposed to do, you can go get your little sketch out of Y Combinator, guy, Kawasaki, whatever the heck his name is, they all have their models. But his model is completely different. It's not the it's not the pitch deck model of problem solution. marketing, management, this is how we do it. This is why we need the money. His is very, very much different. It teaches you how to speak like an investor wants to hear, you know, if you're an investor, the last thing you want to hear is about how awesome you are how revolutionary as we talked about your product is they don't want to hear that they want to hear that there's this big shift in the world. And it's created this big gap between supply and demand, whatever that shift is, and you're going to help fix the demand side of that equation. That's all about that's investors wanna hear about two things supply and demand discrepancies after all right, they arbitrage on fractions of a penny all day long. If they see this huge gap in the marketplace, now you're getting their attention. And the second thing you got to understand, they're not buying your grand idea. They don't care if Justin Bieber is your spokesperson on Instagram, they don't care that you want to give back to the hungry, they care about one thing, they're buying a piece of paper from you. And that piece of paper is a stock certificate, or it's a promissory note. And they want to know, what do I have to pay for this? What am I going to get back? And when am I going to get it back? Then you need to focus on those things, when you're making a pitch. So you're focusing on the big change in the world. Forget about all the technical features of your product, they don't give a shit. And you're going in there, you're exploiting this marketplace hole, and you're gonna make 10 2050 times return for that investor. That's what you really need to get behind on on a pitch deck. When you're out there speaking to people,
Ryan Miller
man I can I can tell the wisdom and yeah, Oren Klaff. I mean, that guy's he's very well known in the circles that I roll in as well. So a lot, a lot of love and respect for that guy and the work that he's been able to do to support entrepreneurs and even fund managers. So I've got his books as well. So when building pitch decks, raising capital, I mean, what what advice you mentioned, that is kind of one of your final five of those, maybe you can unpack that a little bit about pitch decks and raising capital. Just some some quick notes on that part of starting a business.
Fred Cary
Yeah, look, a real important thing is to know when to walk away with every pitch deck, as I explained, you have that supply demand issue you need to start with the world is shifting the world is a different place. There's this, the same thing, you know, companies like Uber, just started out as an easy way to hail a cab and find out where they were along the way. That's that's how it first started. And then it grew, because they found that it's a pain in the ass to wait for a cab, and you don't know when the next one is coming. You don't know where they are. And so screw the cabs, we're going to have our own fleet, when we're going to have our own fleet, we're going to hire people that do side gigs and make money at it, right. So they found this big discrepancy in the marketplace. And that's what that's what led them to be where they are. So when you're starting a pitch, you need to be able to explain that big huge knot in a sense of a problem, this big, huge shift in the marketplace, right? Because hailing a cab was not a problem until we realized there's an easier way to do it. So the problem didn't exist until we created that problem. And then all of a sudden, everybody's like, yeah, this kind of sucks, I want something else. And so the world is shifting. So whatever it is that you're selling, whatever it is, you're trying to close on the pitch, you got to start with the proposition of the world has shifted, digitization of America has created this. And because of this, there's this huge demand for this type of product. And there really is not the supplier to fill that. And you need to ask right up front, whether or not the person you're speaking to buys into that. And if they don't, don't go any further leave, you're wasting your time you're wasting their time.
Ryan Miller
Yeah, and that that's one of my favorite technologies. But also investments right now is the angle of hey, we reduce friction. So again, that's evolutionary, not revolutionary. So revolutionary, says, Hey, we built a thing. And you and I spoke offline revolutionary, it's a tough sell. Because essentially, you're trying to sell something that nobody wants. There's no defined market, and maybe good, but usually it's not. And so evolutionary is saying, Well, we're going to scoop up an existing market that people already like, we're just doing it better. And one of the best ways is saying hailing a cab. It's a process. You got to ask people that phone number. What about two clicks on your phone and someone shows up? How's that for reducing friction. So it was such a beautiful evolution to an existing process of ride sharing. We they didn't even call it that you said call a taxi. But now we call it ride sharing, which is just a way of saying, Well, essentially, someone's going to drive it from A to B, in your opinion to do it. But in our model, we do it in a way where we help our clients do it in a way where it's almost seamless frictionless from payment to GP. Yes. I mean, I remember one time I was taking an Uber on a business trip. And we were stuck in traffic. And Uber messaged my phone and it said, we've noticed you haven't moved for a while. Please click this button if you're okay, or click this other button if you're in trouble. Brilliant, frictionless. So it was safety payments, transport. All done automatically. None of that existed. It was a beautiful, natural evolution.
Fred Cary
Yeah. And nobody was asking for those things. Right? Nobody was asking for those. Yeah, they demand it now. They demand it now. And you know what that brings up a side point. Because I know there's gonna be a whole lot of people listening, that are gonna say, Well, I want to do this thing. But either I want to make sure there's no competition, or oh my god, there's already competition there. I don't know what to do about it. Well, Lyft came along, after Uber. And Lyft is a multi billion dollar company. And almost any single industry that you look at, there's one or two big players. You know, before Facebook, there was Myspace, MySpace was searched for more than Google was searched for on the internet was the most searched for Word on the internet. And before MySpace, there was Friendster, and Friendster had the whole market, so Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, and now Facebook has had to go by all these other things like Instagram, because they were going to lose their share as well. So don't be afraid to competition, number one. Number two, if you ever think there's no competition, and you got something, you're gonna fail, like the rest of the majority of people that fail when they start a new company, you've got something that nobody wants.
Ryan Miller
Yeah, so startup advice, something that someone told me, I don't know if the startup advice or dating advice, but either way it applies, just because there's a goalie doesn't mean you can't score. So I'll let you decide where that applies. But sometimes if you got competition or anything else, that's okay. You know, it sharpens your your skills and instincts as an entrepreneur. And, you know, to your point where people get discouraged, I would tell them that same exact same thing, oh, there's already competition. So just because there's a goalie doesn't mean you can't score like build your business. If you don't, what's the right thing, and you can crank out evolutionary or reduce friction, or really make a better product in the market? Go for it, man. Take the shot.
Fred Cary
Yeah. And sometimes sometimes, by the way, you're better off when there is competition, because you, they've already built your audience for you. They've already with the internet, you can look for all the one star reviews and find out oh, where's the hole in that marketplace. Now you can build a whole company and a whole business around what those other companies do poorly. And when you're raising capital, it's really easy to say, hey, look, I'm not the first we're regular people, we just happen to find a really great solution to something that people are already talking about. Here's three other companies that have done eight of the nine things that we do, and they've all turned into billion dollar companies, we got the ninth thing that nobody has. And so you can look at the track record, you can look at the history, you can see the evolution of those companies. And from an investor standpoint, it becomes a lot easier to invest in you.
Ryan Miller
I love that. You know, one final thing that you mentioned early on, and I got all excited about pitching. Before we got excited about is you you mentioned No, when and how to walk away? Can you unpack that a little bit?
Fred Cary
Yeah, first time this happened to me, I was 22, I was pitching my first deal. And the guys sitting around the table said, You know what we we really, we really like this and we're gonna think about it. I left rolled up a joint was 22. And, you know, just proceeded to celebrate and never heard from them again. And then later on in your career, you start hearing things like you know what this is really good. But there's these two things I think you should do. And if you do those two things, then I think I'd be inclined to invest in this. So you run out, you spend three months you do those two things, you come back and they say you're too early, prove those two things out for me, those deals don't get done, you end up chasing your tail, two things happen. Number one, you make yourself look very weak. And ultimately, no matter how good everything else is, in the end, they're going to invest in you. Right? If everything else is aligns, and you don't align, if you're perceived as weak, you're never going to get a deal from anybody. So you got to stick to your guns, you have to know to walk away from situations like that with the Mr. Jones, you know what, those are probably really good ideas. That's not where we are right now. We know what we need to launch with. This is what we're looking for. We could use your capital, but we have a whole lot of people wanting capital from us, and I'm trying to start this business, I'm really busy. And I know you are too. I don't want to take a lot of your time or you're in or you're out and just walk away when it's not the right deal or when they put all these conditions on you.
Ryan Miller
And so when when to walk away understanding that learning how to pitch and then those top five things and what else would you want our fans to know?
Fred Cary
Well, a couple of things. Actually three or four things if you don't mind. The first thing is you can follow me on Instagram at official Fred carry car. Why? Lots of free advice every single day. Number two, if you go to idea proz.com We have a free insider checklist. There'll be a banner across the top of our page, go in there. It'll give you a lot of this information, plus several blogs that really go into detail about those things. And finally, if you're an accredited investor, we're out doing a round right now because we're getting ready to go public next year idea pros invest in dot com, you can go on there and pull down our prospectus and see if you're interested in becoming part of IDEApros, what what we love about it is that when you invest in our company, you're going to be investing in 400 companies because we own 30% of each one of those companies. So you got 401 shots of making it.
Ryan Miller
I love it. Is there anything else? As we wrap things up in round three base and head home? Is there anything else that you would want our fans to know?
Fred Cary
Yeah, unlike what it shows you on social media, you have to be a dumbass to do this. This is really, really hard. And and I'm kind of facetious when I say dumbass But literally, Apple had that commercial about the crazies years ago. And that's what we all are, that you have to have. Perseverance is the number one word, you have to have great resistance to pain. And you have to be able to fail and get up and learn from that lesson, instead of be defeated by that lesson. And if you don't have that makeup, if you're not willing to fail before you win, then stick with your nine to five job because you're not going to make it it's really hard. But the rewards are insane. They're incredible.
Ryan Miller
Man, I absolutely love that. So you know, just to synthesize everything that we talked about build evolutionary products, pitch the hole in the market, also the size, differentiate yourselves, launch fast and just get good at pitching. And then when you pitch focus on the shifts in the market, and finally know when to walk away. You do these things, and you too will be well on your way in your pursuit of making billions.
Wow, what a show. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Now if you haven't done so already, be sure to leave a comment and review on new ideas and guests you want me to bring on for future episodes. Plus, why don't you head over to YouTube and see extra takes awhile, you get to know our guest even better. And make sure to come back for our next episode where we dive even deeper into the people the process and the perspectives of both investors and founders. Until then, my friends, stay hungry. Focus on your goals and keep grinding towards your dream of making billions
