You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
Building A Startup At IHOP Until 3 AM
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A lot of people talk about “building something.” Cameron and Sam actually do it, fast. Cameron is a Virginia Tech student with a deep coding background. Sam is a longtime hustler who has already scaled real service businesses through door-to-door sales, tight follow-up, and recurring revenue. When Cameron spots an opportunity in peptides, they move from idea to launch mode in about four weeks and they do it with the kind of urgency most founders only discover after years of frustration.
We get into what peptides are, why the space feels confusing for regular people, and why they decided to build Peptide AI as an educational, research-focused platform that brings clarity to a gray market. Cameron breaks down their AI approach, including a custom chatbot trained on clinical resources, and why they’re using Claude by Anthropic instead of defaulting to ChatGPT. If you care about AI in health, biohacking trends, fitness technology, or how founders actually pick tools, you’ll get a clear look at the thinking behind the product.
Then we go deep on growth and business fundamentals: UGC-heavy influencer marketing, code tracking, creator commissions, subscription pricing, retention and churn, and how they’re building a team pre-revenue through shared belief and equity. We also talk time management, staying locked in when your friends want to party, and how AI may reshape the job market while making execution and distribution even more valuable.
If you like real founder stories, practical startup strategy, and the unfiltered tradeoffs behind momentum, hit subscribe, share this with a builder friend, and leave a review with the biggest idea you’re stealing from Cameron and Sam.
www.themrpreneur.com
Welcome to the You Can't Afford Me podcast, where we skip the fluff and dive straight into the rise. Real entrepreneur, real struggle, and the unfiltered journey behind tech. Let's get into it. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me Podcast. Now, we had a young phenom on the show before, and these two gentlemen uh ended up in my DMs, and we got to chat and we jumped on the call, and I was like, yeah, I gotta have you guys on the show. Um, I'm really excited seeing this new era of entrepreneurs in this generation because these guys are catching on to things way quicker than I ever did. So I'm excited to talk about their business, what these guys are doing. Uh, but today on the podcast, we have Cameron and Sam. How you guys doing today?
SPEAKER_01Doing good. How are you?
SPEAKER_03Awesome, awesome. Doing great. Good stuff. You guys give us a quick rundown individually who you guys are and what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01Yes, so my name's Sam. Um we both went to Glen Island High School together. I've been in business as long as I can remember from a pressure washing business, landscaping, basically everything you can think of. I've tried it out and done it, but the most of the things that stick was a pressure washing business. We've scaled up doing like major airports and commercial commercial businesses around Richmond. Nice. Um, he had this idea, approached it to me. I thought it was great, so I decided to hop on and kind of help him with the marketing and the launch and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_03Nice, nice. What about self camera?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh I am a student at Virginia Tech. Um I'm uh from a less business background from Sam, but I have a big tech background. So I've always been into reselling things and I've always been into building things. Yeah. So uh I'm really good at coding and I'm really good at decrypting stuff. So I came up with that this idea probably four weeks ago and reached out to him and we got rolling.
SPEAKER_03Jeez, y'all rolled that quick?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Sneakers Flips And Early Hustles
SPEAKER_03Oh my god. Well, first let's talk about you said you mentioned reselling. What were you reselling?
SPEAKER_00So I would resell shoes actually. Me too, man. I had yeah, I did the same thing too.
SPEAKER_03I had a mat. So uh prior to us moving to this office, I think at my if I had never sold anything in my collection, I would have had around like 600 pairs of kicks. Wow. When I sold off my collection, I think I had 275 pairs, and some kid from Atlanta came up and collected like he bought them all involved. Yeah, he cashed me out for the whole thing. So you can definitely, and I took, I think I took it was like 75% of that I took and put into my crypto account. Um, and then the other 25% I just went off and had a little fun with.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome though, man. That's awesome. I probably sold 60 pairs of shoes, maybe around there. And then Sam was also into it too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I remember doing that all through high school, going on the sneakers app trying to hit for something. Uh I had people at like Hibbit and Snipes that would back up me pairs, and I'd go and flip them. It was fun. But the the sneaker game is changed kind of died down. It is changed. I used to do like 170 retail for some ones and then sell them for 350. Yep. Now, you know, it's like you'd be lucky to really break even. You have to push like a hundred pairs to make any profit.
Pressure Washing Sales And Coding Roots
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And then after all the running around and everything, you're basically making minimum wage. So it's like, why even do this? Um, so Sam, let's start with you. In terms of you said you've been in around business, been an entrepreneur since you're about 11 years old. So talk to us about the the pressure washing business. How did you get that started?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so me and one of my friends, um, he already had a pressure washer. And in high school, I did like door knocking for a roofing company. Yeah. So I decided to just do that, but just for the business. So I would knock like eight hours a day, and I'd set up tons of leads, and we'd run them and you know, make sure everything was good, do the follow-up, and then we also do like a recurring subscription. Nice. So for the window cleaning, we get them on yearly, obviously clean it biannually. Smart. And it's just kind of an easier structure than cleaning something once and just kind of leaving.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. What what led you to say, hey, I'm not gonna go work part-time at a restaurant or Kroger or something like that? Like, uh, I'm gonna do my own thing.
SPEAKER_01Um, I used to sell cars, and that was like 12 hours a day, five, six days a week. Yeah. Kind of hated the hours. The money was good.
SPEAKER_03But how old were you when you were selling cars?
SPEAKER_01Right out of high school. Oh, yeah. So we we graduated in June and I started in July.
SPEAKER_03Gee, you guys don't play. Y'all move fast.
SPEAKER_01Um, because I was doing uh college online. So I do it online. I was like, wow, I have so much time, I can pick something to do, might as well, you know, see if I can get good at sales. Yeah. Stayed there for six months, got pretty good at it, decided that if I put that time into like my own business, I'd make a lot more money. So it just made a lot of sense to me at the time.
SPEAKER_03But you got a paid education for going to work for somebody else, honing your sales skills, and then being able to go off and do it on your own. Love it. That's the blueprint right there. Uh Cameron, what got you into coding? Obviously, now, like with AI and and stuff like that, everybody's like talking about coding and stuff like that. But um, I mean, that's a very particular skill set, and it's only becoming more valuable as time goes on. So, when did when did you start coding?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I probably started coding back in elementary school or middle school, back when Scratch came out. So it was like this block coding tool, and you could build pretty cool games with them. So that's when I actually started learning how to block code, and then eventually I worked my way up to building websites and things like that. So, yeah, that's how I really got into it.
SPEAKER_03Were you just doing coding and stuff like that for fun? Were you selling it to people? Were you doing it for your friends?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would say I was doing it mostly for fun. Um, I built a couple video games that people could actually play, which was cool. Nice, and then um, yeah, it was pretty much for fun.
SPEAKER_03Nice, nice. What what led you both into entrepreneurship? Like, what was that decision to say, hey, like the traditional route is not the route for me?
SPEAKER_00I think it's a combination of a lot of things. For me, I see like I mean the current state that we're in, the the job market isn't great right now. And I always wanted to start something that for myself that's bigger than I am. So I just was looking for months on stuff that I could think of starting, like real estate, uh sales, like startups, and I finally found this one idea that I could finally put my all into. Nice. What about yourself?
SPEAKER_01Um I kind of got started just based off of the fact that I was in high school, I had good grades, but I just didn't want to go to college. Yeah. And throughout high school, I was I was making enough money to where I was like, if I even got a degree, I would probably still be making the same I am right now. So if I just if I took those four years and put them all into sales and marketing and experience, when I get out after those four years, I'm gonna be a lot ahead of a person that even has a marketing degree.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Absolutely. So we got we got a two different dynamics. He's at not just any college, he's at Virginia Tech.
SPEAKER_01He's just getting into business though. So he's I don't know. I think he's he told me he already kind of realized that in like you know, the four weeks we started the business, he's learned more than his whole degree has taught him, and I I think that's true.
SPEAKER_03Is the is the mindset shifting with higher education?
SPEAKER_00Um, I think my mindset hasn't shifted. I think higher education is good, but you have to do everything in it. So you have to get involved, you have to join clubs, you have to join organizations to make it worth it. Yep. If not, then going to school I don't think is enough anymore. You have to do other stuff to supplement that. Nailed it.
Peptides Explained And The App Idea
SPEAKER_03I I tell people college, the biggest benefit you will get out of university is the networking. The relationships, because especially a school like Virginia Tech, people are not just coming from all over the country, they're literally coming from all over the world. So the connections that you have there, my first three companies that I started, I I co-founded all of those with guys that I met in college, most of those being my fraternity brothers. So, like, if you hone on, hone in and and create those relationships, like that's a sweet sauce right there. Um, man, this is you guys are blowing my mind because I'm like, I I didn't become an entrepreneur until I was 30 years old, and I was like, man, if I was thinking like you guys, I mentioned this to you guys on Zoom call, man, I'd be a billionaire by now if I was thinking the way uh you guys are at your age. Um talk to us about the the business that you guys have come together and and and doing together.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh I can take this. Um so about four weeks ago, I was sitting on my couch and I was looking to these things called peptides. And they're these amino acids that come in your body, and there's ways to increase them. So some of the ways to increase them.
SPEAKER_03Or what do peptides do for you?
SPEAKER_00So they can do anything from like uh increase your bone growth, uh, get rid of joint pain, fat loss, muscle gain, focus, all of this stuff.
SPEAKER_03Sounds like a miracle drug.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it basically is. The only problem is some of them aren't FDA approved right now, but I would say there's a good five to ten that are, and 14 got approved last week. Oh wow. Yeah. So we're looking heavily into that space, and that's where I got the idea from originally.
SPEAKER_03So break down the model, like what's the service that you guys are gonna be providing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so when you look at these peptides, there's not much to track them, right? There's not much research on the internet. There's only research studies actually in calculators to take them. So there's a very it's a very gray area. So we're making a product that takes away the gray areaness, like that's an even word, uh, of the peptides. So we made an app for clarity, basically.
SPEAKER_03So, all right, now you're talking over my head. This this is sounds very scientific. So, how are those things getting tracked through the app?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we have an AI chatbot that's customly trained to take in information from different clinical resources and break it down and give it to the user. So we have that and it's AI powered by Claude right now, and we're using Claude to train the actual bot to do the things.
SPEAKER_03Nice. Yeah, let's stop right there a second on Claude, because I saw I saw an Instagram post the other day and it showed like the top 10 downloads in the app store right now, and I think Claude is actually number one. So I've been a hardcore ChatGPT user. Like I literally use it every single day. I'm using it in the right way, not like most people, where they're just like basically doing Google searches with ChatGPT. I'm actually getting it to do things for me. Um, talk to us about the difference why you guys are using Claude versus like a ChatGPT or something else.
SPEAKER_00So I use Claude specifically because I think anthropic is much more tech forward. Um, you see every single day these people leaving their jobs to go to anthropic. It's happened to OpenAI, it's happened to Google Gemini. They just leave to go to Anthropic because Anthropic is tech forward. They always have the first thing. Anthropic like comes out with better models, better performing models than anybody else has. So that's why I use it, and I think it's also more user-friendly and more intelligent.
SPEAKER_03All right, yeah, I finally downloaded Claude this week, and I was like, I'm taking the weekend to really dive in on that because I have heard some things in terms of like uh some things that chat GPT can do, but Claude can do it uh at a higher rate, switching some of that up.
SPEAKER_00Claude is really good at coding too. Nice, really good at coding.
SPEAKER_03So, where what's the the strategy on the marketing side?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so what we're trying to launch with is we're gonna launch next week, probably around like Friday is when the Apple develops.
SPEAKER_03Jeez, hold on, pause, man. Dude, y'all are moving at lightning speed, man. How yeah, before you answer that, how are you guys able to move? Because you you're running a power washing business, yeah, you're in college. How are y'all taking literally a month and a week and making a company and launching it? I think it's just a grind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're like, all right, we gotta work, but it was like 12 o'clock at night. Yeah. So we went to uh the only place that was 24 hours, we brought our MacBooks to IHOP and just worked till like you know, two, three in the morning.
SPEAKER_00Love it, yeah. And then 80-hour work weeks, I would say. Yeah, is what we're putting in.
SPEAKER_03That's what you guys are recognizing a lot of things that takes other entrepreneurs years to realize is that really your first three years in the business is a grind. Now, I've never been on the tech side of things, like tech companies can scale way faster than traditional like service-based businesses, but um I I've always believed the people that win are the ones who execute the quickest. You don't always have to be the best. You don't always necessarily have to be the first to market. But if you're moving at a rapid pace, you can create some serious growth that way. Um, back to my original question with you. What's what's uh the strategy with the marketing side of things?
Launch Sprint And UGC Marketing Plan
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we're just gonna go really like UGC heavy, meaning we just get a tons of creators making personable content, all pushing code usage to our app. So that's kind of how we're paying out commission structures. A lot of bigger creators in the space ask for retainers. Yeah. So we're not really gonna do too much of that yet until we see proof of concept, see how many, how many people come in from each UGC video, yeah, then kind of scale up from there. But obviously, in the future, we're looking at major retainers with bigger creators. Yeah. Get like them to post five videos for X amount every month and then keep renewing it if they do good enough.
SPEAKER_03That's an interesting model. So, number one, let's look at the the level of influencers you guys are bringing in. Like, is there what are the qualifications that you guys have set to work with certain influencers?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right now we're just looking for like a good market fit. Um, really big in the fitness industry is the peptides. Yeah, it's bigger with like people our age, you know, trying to lose fat or gain muscle, or you know, you can get your hair, you can lose ac you can lose like acne from it. There's a tons of benefits for it.
SPEAKER_03Jeez.
SPEAKER_01Um so we're trying to target that niche a little bit, but at the same time, it can be for like joint pain and therapy and stuff like that, like cognitive. So there's kind of a lot of different verticals we're trying to target. Right now, we're kind of going for you know, men our age also, probably like 30 to 50. We have a couple older creators that we're gonna push out to. Then eventually, after we do that, we're gonna get some women creators because you know they're big peptide users too.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. So, can I give you guys a suggestion on the marketing side? Yeah. Um what I hear, because I mean, I've been an athlete most of my life in terms of like school, like I ran cross-country soccer, all those things. I go to the gym like four or five times a week, I watch what I eat, I take my creatine, I get my protein powder in. I've never heard of this before. Um, so the first thought in my head is you guys have to educate the marketplace. So, like when I started our wedding division, um, big thing I noticed was that when I started interacting with couples, videography was the last thing on their mind when they came to their wedding. They were looking at the venue, the caterer, the cake maker, the florist, and then it was like, oh, we got a grand left. Let me see if we can hire a videographer. It wasn't the first thought that they had. So for six straight months, I just went into education mode in the marketplace in terms of educating. Like, I didn't sell them on anything. I just said, hey, here's why wedding videography is so important. Imagine this is the first time that both your families are coming together. Um, you know, your grandpa and your grandma, they they may be those people that never really own a camera and you guys don't have a lot of content on. Like, this is gonna be one of the few times you have to capture those moments. And then I would paint a picture of like, imagine you get married and you have kids one day, and your daughter is sitting on the couch with you one day and say, Mommy, daddy, what was your wedding day like? Do you want to pull out an old dusty photo album and like scan through that? Or do you want to sit her on the couch, hit a play button, and let her relive that day with you? So after six months of that, educating the marketplace is when sales really started to take off for us. Um so with you guys, like what you're saying, like again, I've never heard of this before. Yeah. So just getting that common knowledge out to the marketplace.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot of our creators already kind of educate their audiences. Nice. They'll do like before and afters of what this one did to them and how they feel on week whatever of this peptide they're currently taking. That I'd probably say that's around 50% of them. Nice. The other ones just do more like lifestyle content. Yeah, but I would say if you saw their videos more than once, you know what peptides are. That's kind of why we try to go for that target market fit. Gotcha. And then obviously, if that works, we'll you know, branch out and try to do, you know, educating everyone about what they are, how to take them, how often, and and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_03Gotcha. Yeah. What's the what's the model that you guys are looking at with those influencers? Is it a percentage rate? Is it a flat fee? How are you guys doing that?
SPEAKER_00So, yes, it would be a percentage rate of their commission. So we're actually giving creators around between 50 and 60 percent of the first month revenue or first month profit, and then they also get a percentage from their code. Nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that's how we track the whole thing, is is they go into your bio, they click the link, they download the app. We've already tracked that on the back end so we can pay you out at the month's end.
SPEAKER_03Gotcha. So what's the what's the model with this to um generate revenue? Are you guys doing this through ad dollars? Is there a subscription fee? How are you guys doing this?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we have a subscription fee. Um, it comes after the two-day free trial, but I believe. And I we haven't completely set the price for them, but it's not too much.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. In the range of like 10, 15, 20 bucks. Yeah, a little less than 10 a month.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right around$10 a month. If you buy the year, obviously it will be maybe like$7 averaged out over the month because we're trying to make sure our churn rate isn't really fast. We're trying to keep people on for the whole year. Yeah. Because lots of subscriptions that usually have a fall off after, you know, like two, three months, or people realize they're not even using them and just go in and cancel it and stuff like that.
Pricing Strategy And Creator Commissions
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Nice. That's sounds smart. Let me ask you guys about your your business partnership. So I kind of see it based on what you guys have said, but I've had great business partnerships and I've had horrible business partnerships. So I've I feel like I've kind of figured out the formula in terms of what works for me. What made you guys think that this was a good pairing?
SPEAKER_00I just think um when I needed somebody to market this, I had the idea, but I needed someone to push it out to the right audience and then get it scaled because an idea is just an idea, and you need someone to actually push it out to people. Yeah. So that the first person I thought of was Sam because he's really good at sales. Nice. What about for you?
SPEAKER_01Um, I mean, I just thought the idea was really great. I know that me myself, I could never code something that good. I've never been good at that. I try to, you know, stay to what I'm good at. So I saw how well it was built out, and I was like, okay, I think this is gonna do really good for the market. So we just decided to connect and get it rolling. But we've been friends for like what, like 12 years maybe a while. Elementary school.
SPEAKER_03Nice. There, so what you guys just broke down, you got the yin yin yang kind of component. Like my most successful business partnerships have been with guys that the stuff that they love doing and were great at, I hated doing. And the stuff that I love doing, they absolutely hated. Like my best business partner is a guy who liked doing the spreadsheets on the back end. He never wanted to be in front of the cameras. Sometimes I'd have to force him to. Um, but he understood, like, hey, Sam's the marketing guy, he's gonna run this side, and I understood that he's gonna handle things on the back end. That sort of dynamic defining those parameters, which it sounds like you guys have. Yeah, um, when you guys formulated this partnership, did y'all sit down and kind of define the roles and different things like that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we have I'm the CEO, but we have, I guess, three other people on our team, two other people on our team. Um, we have I'm CEO, he's CMO, chief marketing officer. Then we have Bennett, he's chief technology officer, he does most of the coding. Yeah. And then we have Connor, he's chief financial officer.
SPEAKER_03So how how are you guys pre-revenue able to put together a team?
SPEAKER_01It's a lot of people from college wanting to put stuff on their resume. You know, also if you do the work, you get the equity, they believe in the idea. Um, so yeah.
SPEAKER_03Nice.
SPEAKER_01People just like to have experience no matter, you know, even if we have revenue or if we've even launched yet.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, I love that. Sound sounds like you guys know how to how to sell something. Um in terms of your long-term vision for this. So, mistake I made as an entrepreneur was every time I started a business, I didn't have an extra strategy. I was just thinking like, oh, I'm gonna start this thing and I'm gonna do it forever until I lose interest, whatever. Um, what's the goal for you guys? Is it to build this to a level where a Microsoft, a Google, or some major company would come purchase you guys, or is this something that you guys want to see for the long term?
SPEAKER_00I think this is gonna be something an idea that I haven't quite quite figured out yet. I'm thinking we are definitely gonna stay in the business for a long time. Um, it's something that I think that we can grow for a while. With stuff becoming more prevalent, there's probably 12 different revenue streams that I can think of that can come out of the business. Nice. So I think even if we get bought out at some point, I would want to keep being on this team and keep getting it. What about for you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's a lot of ways we can get like in-app purchases of different supplements or even maybe eventually the peptides themselves. So I think it's really long term.
SPEAKER_03Nice, nice. Are you guys looking to do you talk about the 12 streams of revenue? Give us a couple of different ideas. So you got you know, just people purchasing the app and paying the monthly subscription. What are the other ways you guys?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot of times when you take peptides, some of them can have side effects, especially if you're doing the full dose instead of just loading on.
SPEAKER_03And are these just like a pill or liquid or something?
SPEAKER_00They can be injections, they can be nasal sprays, or they can be pills. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So any of the three basically. But when you take them, some of them do have like minor side effects to them. In the app, it caters vitamins to you to negate those side effects. Eventually we're thinking about selling those in the app along with a blood test, which is kind of what you're supposed to do before and after every cycle. Yeah. That's a really good kind of like a high profit thing. You just take the needle, take some blood, and you ship it off, and then we s put all your um Put all your stats into the app so you can track them.
SPEAKER_00Nice. And another source of revenue would be we're actually looking into build a custom peptide protocol AI. So we're gonna have some machine learning concepts, and we're usually gonna bring on an AI engineer pretty soon so that we can make a custom LLM to kind of process this information in the app. And I believe at some point we can sell that. Nice with all the user data that we have.
Revenue Streams Bloodwork And Custom AI
SPEAKER_03Nice. With uh as you just mentioned AI, like for me, looking at my marketing business, there there used to be a time like I wanted like 50 employees here. Um I have no desire to do that anymore. Like I'm I'm kind of capping us out of 12, uh 12 staff. Um but with what you guys are doing, do you see the use of AI technology being more instrumental where you guys won't have to bring on a lot of team members? How how large do you think you need manpower and how much is going to need to be AI?
SPEAKER_00Honestly, I think we have most of our team already built. Um I would say I would be looking to hire maybe four or five people uh later down the line, but I think we have our team pretty built, and AI does a lot for us. Um it helps us with coding, helps us with documents, helps us with everything. Yeah. So it's definitely a great tool that business owners can use and should be using.
SPEAKER_03Let me ask you guys a question. Do you think AI is gonna wipe out everybody's job?
SPEAKER_00I at some point, at some point, yeah, but I think it's complicated because an AI, like an AI like Claude, can already do entry-level positions, like say an investment banking analyst, they have Claude code for Excel, and but they need people to present stuff. Yeah, and they need still need the human interaction component, and then you also need people to rise up the corporate ladder, too. So I don't think it will take everybody's job, but I think it will take a lot of people's jobs. No, what about you?
SPEAKER_01I think it's gonna happen fairly soon. I'd probably say within like the next 20 years we're gonna see like a crazy shift just for kind of like how bad the job market is now. I think AI is only gonna make it worse.
SPEAKER_03Well, I think Amazon didn't Amazon just lay off, what is it, 20,000 employees? Yeah, something like that. No, they I think up to this point they laid off 40% of their workforce because of AI. And this is just the beginning stages of it.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. It's a lot easier. Like developers don't even really code anymore. Yeah, like they literally just have everything just type in words and it comes up.
SPEAKER_03But prompting is a skill set, it really is. Yeah, you can't just type in the bare minimum into AI tools and expect it to kick out exactly what you want. You you have to interact the right way, you have to use the right prompts.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think once that's gone, then it's then something's gonna happen.
Time Management And Social Tradeoffs
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, for sure. I I'm in agreement with you guys for the most part. There are certain industries where I don't really see it affect like electricians and plumbers, I think, are gonna be eating for the next 10 years. Like I think the next major waves of millionaires is gonna be from sectors like that where AI can't touch it. And there are things like public speaking and like, you know, uh, you know, and and religion and stuff like that. We're we're not gonna replace pastors and bishops and stuff like that with AI, like people are still gonna want that interaction. Um, let's dive into your you guys' time and how you guys are managing your time. So, Cameron, let's start with you in terms of school and running this business. So, here in this moment, I brought you guys on the show a little quicker than normal after meeting somebody because you're like, yeah, I'm on spring break and I'm gonna go on a vacation and then I'm back at school. How are you managing your schoolwork with building, launching a business?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it's all hard work. Um, I wake up at 7:30 every day, uh, don't get on my phone, I get out of bed, I get straight to work. Um, but at Virginia Tech, I'm fairly involved. I'm probably a part of five different clubs. I do research, and then I also have another job. Um, but I just try to stay as focused as I can. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But time-wise, like something's gotta give. So like can't can't be chasing skirt all the time. Like, may not be able to keep a girlfriend locked down.
SPEAKER_00That's probably the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_03Can't can't be part like is those times are coming where like your boys are like, yo, you come to this party, and it's like, do I sit here and code and work on this, meet up with Sam and talk about the marketing, or do I go to this party and let some steam off? How are you balancing that? Because that's a very difficult thing to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would say I don't go out much. Um, I did a freshman year a lot and maybe last semester a little bit, but I don't much anymore. Uh, I try to stay locked in on the gym. I probably go six days a week with one rest day, and then everything else is just business from there. Um, I also have an internship this summer, which I've worked pretty hard for. So I also dude.
SPEAKER_03He just keeps piling on. Like, dude, it's that is I think probably the biggest skill set for any successful entrepreneur is time management. Like, we all get the same 24 hours in a day. Like, if there was a pill that I could take where I'd never have to go to sleep, I would take that pill in a heartbeat. Um, so I'm very impressed with like how you guys are managing time. What about yourself?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I just get up, I go to the gym, I go to work, whether it's um I work for a roofing company too. So I have like a whole sales team that I train and and work with them, and then the power washing is usually right after that or before it, and I'm busy until probably seven or eight. Then I'll grab my, you know, grab a breakfast, usually skip lunch and then eat dinner. Yeah. And then we'll probably work on the business after that. We get on a call every night at nine o'clock and then just kind of work from there.
SPEAKER_03The discipline, dude. That that is people don't understand. I want people listening to this to understand. Think back to when you were 19 years old. You're in your prime and you're at college campus, it's Friday night, and you got the decision to work on your business, build your future, or go to a party. Nine times out of ten, most people are choosing to go party. Yeah, you guys are understanding the simple fact that like if you sacrifice a little bit now, you will live the the life that you want for the rest of your life later on. So while your other friends are they're just gonna be getting started in their careers, you guys will already be established and like have a roadmap, have a game plan, you're gonna be set, and they're gonna be looking at you guys like, man, I wish I had done what you guys have done.
SPEAKER_01I'd say we still have like a fairly good balance with it. Like we'll still you know go out. Still gotta have fun. Yeah, go out and have fun every once in a while. But it's like once you do that every week, it becomes part of your habit. Yeah. Next thing you know, let's say he doesn't code one night. Yeah, then that happens every then that happens another week and it just kind of like compounds after that.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Let me let me ask you guys in terms of like the the influence that you guys have on your circle, are you because the higher you go, the more others will fall off. And it's not always necessarily like I need to cut this person off, but it's just like you're moving to different heights and they're just not on that that wavelength with you, they're not thinking the way you guys are thinking. Have you guys experienced that already in terms of like there's some friends that like have kind of fallen off because they're like, oh man, he's just all about business, like I'm trying to go party or whatever.
SPEAKER_00I would say so a little bit, yeah. Um, I don't hold anybody against for that, but um, yeah, I would say so a little bit. Um, but I do think everybody that I'm friends with and everybody that I know is supportive of me and supportive of my mission and what I'm trying to do, so that really helps a lot. Nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'd say I kind of have like two different groups of friends. One group is all like business owners that like will travel together and have fun and like network. Like we just went to Florida last week, went to Tampa, had fun, but we're also like meeting people, that's just good to get to like get out there and actually talk to business owners. Yep. And then my other friends, I'll hang out with them when they come back from break from college, and you know while I find it's like a good way to like let loose and have balance.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Cameron, I got a question for you. If let's say you guys launch next week, yeah, next week.
SPEAKER_00Uh, we're just waiting on Apple store improvement right now.
SPEAKER_03Gotcha. All right. You guys launch next week. Let's say this is wildly successful. You guys are just raking in the dough. And I mean like immediately. I'm talking seven, eight figures, right? Do you stay at Virginia Tech or do you say, hey, I need to roll out?
SPEAKER_00Uh I think for now I will stay. Um, but I'm really pushing to graduate early. So I'm a sophomore right now. I'm trying to graduate probably May of 2027, if not December 2027. But I should only have like one year left of school.
SPEAKER_03Nice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03What's who's been the like we all have like mentors from afar that that we watch? Like Gary Vanderchuk ultimately, he doesn't know what I've never met Gary V, but like he was a catalyst for me building what I've built here. Like everything I learned about social media came from that guy. Um, who are some mentors, and it could be people in your family or whoever, but who are some mentors that have kind of like led you guys down this path?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would say um I I have a lot of different mentors, I would say. Um, but I would say my friends, like I bounce ideas off a lot of people, and they all say they're like decent ideas and give me feedback on them. But I think my friends help me a lot uh with just making my ideas like happen. Um they give me approval and I just finally take the initiative. Yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, we've been talking to this one guy, he's built and sold apps before. So I knew him personally. I connected him with me and Cameron. We get on calls, he really helps us out with this business that we're launching, like how to track the codes, how to do everything. He'll go in and send us things we need to add and to tweak on our on our early access app. And he's been helping out a lot. Another person I watch like all the time, like throughout middle school, high school, even now, is like Alex Harmozy. Oh yeah, these videos are really good. Harmozy is that dude.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he is him.
SPEAKER_01He's like at the best like at sales, like walking away from a deal. Yeah. How to like not just start a business and instantly leave and start something else, like how to actually just buckle down and make one thing good.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Because you you guys already mentioned something that took me years to figure out. I always heard uh millionaires generally have seven streams of income. So immediately I heard that and I was like, okay, I need this business. I got these two other businesses here, I get paid from public speaking, um, I'll do some one-on-one coaching, I'm gonna invest in real estate, I'm gonna invest in stockbrok. And then I talked to one of my mentors and he's like, Man, that's not what multiple streams of income means. You can get multiple streams of income from a single business. Yeah, like here at Inzo, we make money from video, we make money from podcasts, we make money from weddings, we make money for photography. Um, and you guys have honed in on that. Like, what what was your upbringing? Because I have to feel like your parents had some hand in the way you guys are thinking.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. Um, so my upbringing, my parents were very not very strict, but strict, made sure I had discipline. And I believe being a swimmer my entire life helped me a lot. I was waking up at 4 a.m. every single day in high school. Um, I kind of replaced swimming with I think this mindset of being professional and entrepreneurial. Yeah. Um, because I originally was uh a pretty highly sought-out recruit for swimming. So uh I probably had a couple D1 offers, and I really transferred all my like work into going into college to get a job, and then now trying to be an entrepreneur. That's awesome, man. How about you?
SPEAKER_01I honestly don't really I mean, so my none of the parents are yeah, none of my parents have like a business background or anything. Yeah, I don't really know how I fell into it. I was I was like a kid. I remember I wanted to make some money. I was too young to even get a job. I think I was like 11. Yeah. So legally, I don't think you can work till like 14. Yep. And I had a push mower. So I just went around my whole neighborhood knocking doors like a little kid. Like they're obviously not gonna say no to you.
SPEAKER_03That's a real entrepreneur right there. I'm like, where when we moved into our current home like five years ago, I'm like, yo, where are the kids that are knocking on my door asking if they can cut my grass and make 20 bucks? Like, that is left.
SPEAKER_0110 bucks, something quick.
SPEAKER_03Super simple. Super simple. Huh? That's awesome, man. Um man, I'm I'm truly just blown away by you guys. Like this thought process, are you guys you find yourselves reading a lot, like engaging in podcasts, like give people your age, like what are some of the podcasts and books and things like that you guys are into?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, so I probably listen to a podcast every single day. Um, I wake up, watch the news, and I I would say I read probably once every week um just to keep my mind flowing. Uh, but one book I read recently was The Lean Startup. Um that was really good. That one's on my list. I haven't read that yet. That's a good book to like get started with thinking entrepreneurially. Um and then what was the podcast name? But I listen to the same podcast pretty much every day, and it's just a mindset podcast. Yep. Like gets you thinking about the right things. It's not necessarily business, but it's how to make decisions in your life to increase your the the better or how to better your system. Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then I probably read maybe once or twice a week. Not really. I used to read every day. I kind of like don't really have enough time for that now. I found something that works a lot better.
SPEAKER_03Audible.com, man. Yeah, I listen to audiobooks when I'm in the car.
SPEAKER_01I I listen to podcasts more, but what I found works better for me is that I try to like journal everything I'm gonna do before the day starts. Yes. So I'll get up and at least put pen to paper on what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01And then at least just try to execute on it. And if I don't do it, then I roll it into the next day. And if I realize I've rolled something through a couple of days and something's wrong, and I gotta do that.
Waitlist Growth On X Instagram TikTok
SPEAKER_03Another major tip like you you guys are doing so many things that personally I didn't do in the early days, and I know a lot of other entrepreneurs that are successful today didn't do these things. Preparing for the day the night before is like a major hack. Like, even if you just glance at your calendar so that I know the second I wake up, my mind is switched. I'm like, okay, like I can't lolly gag today because I got an earlier meeting, I gotta get this done. Oh, I gotta make sure I hit these emails before that meeting. Like, oh, I gotta get over town, do this. Like, just being able to clear your head and take that time, major hack. Um, let me drop some podcasts for for you guys. Let's do one I would recommend to you guys is uh My First Million. My First Million. Awesome podcasts. Like they just hit on so many different topics, like two best friends just kind of chopping it up and talking chop. Um, have you guys heard of Cody Sanchez before? I have, yeah. So Cody is probably my favorite entrepreneur in the world right now. She is, I consider her the female Gary Vanderchuk, but like with a little bit more tactfulness. Um she talks about like a lot of service-based businesses. Like um her, I had the idea for a vending machine business, but like when I heard her talking about it more and more and more, I was like, yeah, I gotta get I gotta get into this business. Um her pocket, I can't remember the name of her podcast right off the top, but just search Cody Sanchez and find her. Another one that I absolutely love, founder. So this one guy, he reads biographies on the most successful entrepreneurs. And you know, some of these bi like Steve Jobs biography is like 600 pages long. And Steve Jobs is like my favorite entrepreneur of all time. He reads the whole book and he summarizes everything for you in an hour podcast. So like you feel like you've read that whole biography during that one hour podcast. So like all those things are like massive hacks. Like, that's awesome. Um, what's the name of the app that you guys launched? And I want to make sure we get enough of the information up there on that.
SPEAKER_00So the name of the app is Peptide AI.
SPEAKER_03Peptide AI. All right. It's gonna be available on Apple and Android.
SPEAKER_00Apple, Android, and we might have a web app. We're still deciding on that.
SPEAKER_03Nice, nice. And official launch date, because we don't know as we're recording this, is March 6th. What's the official launch date you guys?
SPEAKER_00And then if not the 13th, the Monday after.
SPEAKER_03Nice. And you guys said you already had a waiting list for this app? Yes, yeah. So how did you guys conjure up the that was the other point I was gonna make is oftentimes you'll find that your first customers are gonna be complete strangers. Normally it's not your friends and family that are the first to line up and buy your product or service. How did you guys get a waiting list going for this?
SPEAKER_00So yeah, uh, we basically got the waiting list off Twitter and then Instagram.
SPEAKER_03So people still on Twitter like that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Honestly, apps blow up all the time on Twitter. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03All right, well, let me pause right there. I I just interrupted myself. But what what are what are the top two social media channels that you guys use? I would say Instagram and Twitter.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if not. Really? TikTok's right up there with Twitter, too.
SPEAKER_03I kind of like all about cancelled X. I was like, ain't nobody I'm like, unless you're already someone famous or you're in sports or something like that. Like I just kept Twitter around like when I was a sneakerhead, like getting the dib on the drops and stuff like that. Like people would announce that stuff, and then like your Adam Schefter's during fantasy football where like he's announcing trades and injuries and all that stuff pretty quick. But X, really, yeah, yeah, it's a good platform.
SPEAKER_01Great traction.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so like all your friends, like y'all primarily are communicating on X more than anything else. No, definitely not.
SPEAKER_01It's not like for like friends, it's just for like the reach we've been able to get. Yeah, it's a lot easier to kind of get traction organically on X and Alright.
SPEAKER_03Talk to us about that because I'll I'll give you guys an example. So um Facebook has been my moneymaker for years. So like Facebook came out, dating myself now. Facebook came out when I was either freshman or sophomore in college, and you had to have a college email address to even sign up for Facebook. So it was only for people between the ages of 18 and 21. So my age demographic, that's been our go-to for the longest time. Recently, I was like, you know, I really got to start digging in on TikTok. I just kept hearing more and more, and I'm like, okay, I think my audience is there now, I need to dive in. So I don't think I've announced this publicly. I was gonna drop some on this next week. Um mid-December, I started going hardcore on TikTok. I mean like eight videos a week. I had 350 followers on TikTok just like peeling around. From about December 13th to today, March 6th, um, I gained another 2,000 followers. I had three or four videos go viral in that two-month time frame. So I see how it works with TikTok. How the hell is that working with X?
SPEAKER_00X, um, it's a little bit more difficult. Uh, we're just looking for views on X.
SPEAKER_03So these videos, like caption posts?
SPEAKER_00Caption posts, and then we will start posting videos, but right now it's just caption posts, just getting people excited about what we're building.
SPEAKER_03And you guys are seeing responses in real time, people are getting back on X?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Really? This is blowing my mind because all my numbers that I've been like going through, I'm like, ain't nobody using X anymore. But for this demon, okay.
SPEAKER_00I believe our Instagram already almost has a thousand followers. Yeah. So we're doing pretty good on that platform. And then um X, we probably get a decent amount of views. Um, and then we're also trying to up our personal brands too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're trying to go heavy on TikTok too for the page, also.
SPEAKER_03Yes. I tell people all the time TikTok is where you go get discovered because it is the most advanced algorithm we've ever seen on social media platform. I believe the other platforms like your LinkedIn, your Facebook, your Instagram is where you develop the relationships. LinkedIn. They're gonna find you on TikTok, but they're gonna create the relationship with you on these on these other platforms. Um, man, y'all gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna be doing some major research this weekend. That that blew my mind. I was like, man, ain't nobody using X. Um all right, so we we got the app coming out uh the 13th. Um who it let's talk specifics. This app is for I want you guys to talk directly to your audience. This is for people that are health conscious, nutritionists. Like, give me the rundown.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I want to make sure we say this. Um, it's a research purpose is only in an educational platform. Since these chemicals are not approved yet, but they are going to be moving to being approved.
SPEAKER_03Somebody's had a conversation with an attorney.
SPEAKER_00So uh we actually have an attorney part of our team. Nice. But um, yeah, so this app is for anybody 18 plus, so 18 through as like 65 or 75. Yeah. Um, I would say it could be very useful for older people because they have a lot of joint problems and memory problems, and they can help with that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because I'm as you're describing this, I'm like, is this something that can help with dementia and things like that?
SPEAKER_01Like I wouldn't say something so that extreme. I would say maybe just like kind of the start of it, it just kind of would make you feel a little bit younger. Yeah. Like it almost like brings a couple years back from your cognitive function. Then also for the joints, it it helps a lot. It helps a lot with recovery.
SPEAKER_03Do y'all think this is something the general public really knows about?
SPEAKER_00I I think not the general public, but I think it's starting to get bigger because what were the numbers? I believe the peptide industry was supposed to increase by forty billion dollars in the next 10 years. Jeez.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you can see that just them getting FDA approved themselves, big pharma's trying to get a slice for themselves, that just kind of shows that the market's only really going up.
Biggest Risks Focus And Execution
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Man, love this. Alright, if I want to wrap this up with you guys. Um because I have a normal final question that I that I ask people, but since you guys are so new in this business, I don't want to ask you that same question. I would I would ask you this. What do you guys anticipate? I want you guys to answer this separately. What do you guys anticipate being your largest obstacle in entrepreneurship and launching this business?
SPEAKER_00I think our largest obstacle, so I'm gonna say there's two. Um, the first one I think is the uncertainty that we're heading in with the peptides either being approved or not approved. There could be a government crackdown eventually. But I don't think it will happen. Yeah. Um, because there's just too much money in the business and people are figuring out about it. So it's hard to shut something down when it's already so prevalent and it's gonna become prevalent. Yep. And then the second thing I would say is just staying focused. Everybody needs to be a hundred percent in. Um, we all need to be grinding 24-7, even after it launches, to just keep scaling and keep scaling. Yeah. And one thing I'm trying to figure out as a CAO is trying to hire the right people and bringing on the right employees that all have the same vision and mindset that I have. And that's eat, eat, eat, and don't stop until you win.
SPEAKER_03Yep. The mmm, man, you nailed it right there. Right now, after I mean, it wasn't until my tenth year that I felt I finally put together the right team. There were periods throughout where I was like, I think I got it, but then you know, some things start to crumble. Finding the right players for the team, like everybody wants to be Michael Jordan, but Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen, he needed Dennis Rodman. Um you have to have people on the team that understand their role and they're willing to play in that space. So, like, yeah, putting together that all-star team, that's huge. Well, what do you see as obvious?
SPEAKER_01I would just say execution because we're kind of going into an uncertaint an uncertainty of the marketplace. Yeah. We obviously think it's gonna work because we know that the audience is big, but you don't know what they are. So that kind of shows some sort of uncertainty that you know the general public doesn't know what it is. Yeah. I would just say execution, bringing tons of traffic to it's gonna be the hardest thing to do. Because I mean, you can really pay anyone to code an app, but getting traction to it, getting users, making sure the users are happy and not just dropping off after a month, uh, it's probably gonna be the hardest part.
Where To Follow Peptide AI
SPEAKER_03For sure. And you and you said you guys said something earlier that I think kind of helps with that. And this is the way I've grown my businesses. I fully believe that if you brand the founders, it's a lot easier to get get sales because people don't want to do business with the logo, they want to do business with other people. And when you can get your story out, when they see your face, when they hear your voice, when they get to know the personalities and your interests, like you know, so many of my followers know the name of my dog. Like, we'll go out and like I'll run into somebody, and like my wife will be there and she's never met them before, and they call her by name, and they're like, she's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't know you, and it's like, well, I've seen you in Sam's content, and da-da-da. Like they've seen my kids grow up. Like, they've literally I've documented from the beginning 11 years ago what this journey was for me and how difficult it was. So allowing people to follow you and your journey and your story, like it creates that brand loyalty. Like, I always use the example of Apple. I got iPhone, Apple Watch, MacBook, Apple TV. I'm a I'm a fan of Apple because of the story of Steve Jobs, like starting one of the largest companies that the world has ever seen in his parents' garage. And I go ask somebody who has an Android, like, hey, who's the guy who started Android? Nobody knows. So if the next iPhone has a hologram that pops out for FaceTime and it's the exact same price as an Android, all those Android people, they have no brand loyalty. They're gonna make the switch over to Apple. So the more you can tie people in with your story and introduce you guys, man, is that that help going forward? Um, man, this has been awesome. I'm excited for you guys, man. I'm I just met y'all and I'm proud of you, man. Like thank you. It's awesome what you guys are doing. Absolutely. It's been awesome. Uh tell people where they can find you guys, the socials, your socials, the business socials, where they can go to download the app.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh you can follow our Instagram at peptideai.co. Um and then on X, I believe it's Peptideai, and then I believe on TikTok it's peptideai.co. Nice. And we're on those three platforms looking to release Facebook soon, and then my social on Instagram is Cameron with an N and then an M and then Cook. And then on TikTok, I'm Cam Innovates. Yes, stuff.
SPEAKER_01On Instagram, I'm Sam W Doyle. That's about it. Don't have TikTok.
SPEAKER_03We gotta get you on TikTok, man. Yeah. We got as soon as y'all y'all gonna be working, you're working every every day at least by nine o'clock. You gotta make sure this man gets to TikTok. I will.
SPEAKER_01Because there was a kid, uh the Cal AI founder, 19 years old. He just exited for 150 million and he tracked the entire thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Have you guys read the backstory on the guys who started YouTube? No, we have not. I'm not even gonna share it. It it relates so much to what you guys are doing. There's like a short documentary actually on YouTube about the kids. Go watch that. Like you guys will be so inspired after after hearing that. Like, obviously, those guys probably wish that they still owned YouTube, but the amount that they made on the sale of that company, I'll I'll give you this snippet. They all it was uh this was the basis of YouTube. Not a lot of people know this. Uh, the basis of YouTube getting started. You guys remember the Super Bowl with uh Justin Timberlake and um Michael Jackson's Janet Jackson. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh and we had the the boobage slip in that, right? They immediately were like, why is there not a place like because you know during that moment if you turn your head and you were in the kitchen or something like that, everybody's screaming. You're like, you know, what happened?
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh man, I missed it. There wasn't like replay on TV yet. There was no place online, you could just go search videos. So they were like, why doesn't something like this exist? And from that frustration of not seeing Janet Jackson's boob, they went and started YouTube. But it's a lot more of that story, but you guys need to need to hear that story. It relates a lot to what you guys have going on. Uh well, dude, appreciate you guys being here, man. Much success. You guys, I'm a resource for you now. If you guys ever need anything, don't ever hesitate to reach out to me. Awesome. Thank you so much for having us. Absolutely. We'll see you guys on the next episode.