A Founder's Life
Join me as I explore the powerful intersection of entrepreneurship, health & wellness, and parenthood. In each episode, I’ll be interviewing inspiring individuals who excel in one or more of these areas, sharing their stories, insights, and lessons. My goal is to provide valuable takeaways that can help you thrive both personally and professionally.
A Founder's Life
When Your First Business Fails - Lindsay Gorril - S6 - E2
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👤 Connect with Today’s Guest – Lindsay Gorrill
Website: https://www.stargoldcorp.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-gorrill-b98b07176/
In this episode, Lindsay Gorrill shares his remarkable journey from chartered accountant to mining entrepreneur — building multiple mines around the world and navigating the extreme highs and lows of entrepreneurship.
Lindsay talks about starting his first company with just $60,000, nearly going bankrupt, building operations across India and Canada, and why gold and silver remain critical hedges in a world filled with debt.
We also explore the realities of the mining industry today, the importance of environmental responsibility, how travel shaped Lindsay’s worldview, and the mindset required to survive the brutal early years of entrepreneurship.
What you’ll learn:
• Why belief in yourself is essential for entrepreneurs
• The brutal early failures behind successful companies
• How global travel shaped Lindsay’s leadership philosophy
• The reality of building a mine from discovery to production
• Why gold and silver may play a critical role in the future economy
⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 – From Chartered Accountant to Mining Entrepreneur
1:00 – The First Mine and Early Failures
2:17 – Global Mining Projects & India Expansion
7:26 – Family, Balance & Life Outside Business
11:23 – Pivotal Moments and Advice for Entrepreneurs
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Welcome to a Founder's Life. I'm your host, Leo Castetna. On this show, we dive into the real stories behind the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and how we pursue a more balanced and meaningful life along the way. This podcast is sponsored by Thanks, helping founders like us scale with reliable remote talent. Email founders at Thanks.com. That's T-H-A-N-K-Z.com with the subject line of founder's life to receive preferred pricing. Now I'm excited today to be joined by Lindsay Gorrell. Lindsay, thanks for joining. Would you like to introduce yourself?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, great to be here, Leo. Thank you. Yeah, Lindsay Gorrell, I'm um born in Canada. I went to school in Canada to get my chart of the accountancy and uh jumped out in um in my late 20s to be an entrepreneur in the mining industry, which is very, very rare in this world.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you've had an unusual journey. Talk to us a little bit about the journey of what brought you to where you are today and what your current business is doing.
SPEAKER_01Sure. Yeah, so I think I you know I was in my 20s, uh, going to get my chart of the accountancy in Canada, which is like a CPA in the United States. Most of my clients being from Canada were in the mining industry, and uh actually I got in a car accident and I was in the hospital for a little bit and sitting and thinking about my life in my when I was around 28. And me and my buddy who worked at Ernst and Money also said, hey, we should uh we should go out on our own and start our own little company and maybe we can run these mining companies better. And we started with $60,000 and acquired our first asset uh in my age now for all you people was in 1990, and uh and realized that was the wrong product, wrong business to be in, and and had a had a retool go back and uh almost went bankrupt and and uh looked at an asset in the States uh in Idaho and uh focused on that to acquire it. So basically the the first journey out as an entrepreneur was very difficult, very hard. And then obviously but obviously the information we found and understood during that journey, we found another asset that we could actually go out and try to acquire. And that that was really the stepping stone to my growth.
SPEAKER_00Let me go from the and and the business that you've got now, do you want to talk a little bit about what you're doing now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sure. So what was interesting is you know, I rolled through my first golden garnet mine in Idaho, then I went to India, one of the second companies in the world back in '94 to have a company in India, export 100% owned titanium. That was pretty interesting, very difficult. A lot of stories there. Almost went bankrupt then, also, and then rolled that up. Um, and then in the floor spar in Canada. But during the whole journey, I always believed in gold and silver as a as a as a hedge to dollars, not just US dollars, but the world currency. Um, and 13 years ago, I basically acquired a gold property in Nevada that I always wanted to put in production because my background was putting mines into production, which is very rare. Majority of people in the world, even in the mining industry, don't take a geological find and make it into a mine. And I've done that three times in my life already. And this will be my fourth. So again, I acquired the property 13 years ago, thinking after the 2010 collapse, you know, with all the debt, gold would go up, it didn't go up. Then during the COVID, I thought gold would go up there, it didn't go up. But now, obviously, with gold and silver prices today, um, obviously I'm a I'm a one-day success after 13 years. But I'm happy I kept the property, now we're pushing for production on that property.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. That's uh exciting where it can go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, it's it's interesting. And I think I think what people don't understand about mining is it's a really weird connotation. When I talk to people about mining, think of the turn of the century where guys are breathing cold dust, you're underground, you're you know, just there's dirt everywhere. And we don't understand in today's world, the environmental regulation that we have to deal with, that the runoff of dirty water off my mine site is less than if you hose down your driveway in the winter, kind of thing. So I think it I think it still has a bad name, mining, but I think how we do it today, and I'm a very responsible person, when you think about my first mine I bought, it was being shut down by the government for environmental damage. I I got to deal with the government to go back in there for a five-year permit, rebuilt two streams, won the number one national award on stream restoration in 94 and 95, and then got a 30-year permit. Again, if you do it properly, it costs a little bit more to get going, but you put it into your operation to do it properly. So I think that's that's one of the things I want to get through here, probably with anybody who under things about mining, is don't think about the turn of the century mining. This is way different, way more safe, way more environmentally friendly, etc.
SPEAKER_00That's exciting. I think uh I love the you know, something I mean, that's something I truly don't understand. Like there's lots of different things I've done over the years. Mining materials, that kind of world is is definitely not not a word I understand, but uh, but I uh I uh love that uh you're doing that. Certainly hot topics these days with all the requirements, especially for the for uh rare earth materials and things.
SPEAKER_01Oh for sure, yeah. And you know, it's it's and it's like anything, it's you have to understand, you know, the most important thing as an entrepreneur, it doesn't matter what business you're in, right? First the key is believing yourself because you gotta have a lot of belief because there's a lot of pitfalls that you go through that I've been I've been through my life like this a few times, and I just say, Little, I've got the right vision, I have to go back and reassess, maybe do it a different way, but I know I'm doing the right thing. You know, and I think that's a big part of it. And then if you do your due diligence on what you're trying to do, for example, the gold mine in Nevada, I was off on the timing of gold and silver going up, but I knew based on my world travels, doing business. I've been doing business in India, China, Russia, Ukraine, all over Europe, all over Africa in the year, my years, I saw that every country had debt. Every country has debt, not just America, every country has debt. And at some point in time, there has to be a hedge to a currency. I think that's why, that's why crypto became so big, right? Crypto is almost kind of a quasi-hedge, but not quite a full hedge. Where gold and silver is a hedge to paper currency. I think that now, as you see the skyrocket of prices, I'm not saying it's gonna stay where it is, but I think there's a lot more people acquire gold and silver just to have some support in the future if their paper currency collapses or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Makes sense. Every country has debt, and I still think America's got way too much, but that's a discussion for another time.
SPEAKER_01I think every country has too much debt, including America for sure. But it it won't, Leo, it's not stopping.
SPEAKER_00I agree. And our grandkids will still be repaying this debt, our great grandkids will still be repaying this debt. I I agree 100%.
SPEAKER_01Every new government talks about sorry, talk about debt. Not one has balanced the budget. I don't know, what, 30 years now or something? I don't know, maybe longer than that.
SPEAKER_00It's very true. So tell us what family looks like for you.
SPEAKER_01Family? I think what's also really important is, you know, I I always made sure I traveled a lot. So I traveled 50% of my life in my first 20 years of my businesses. I had business overseas and that. And really, obviously, I've had my my wife for 36 years. We were really family-oriented. So when I got home from my trips, I focused on the family. We have three boys. Um, and I think that's really important. So I, you know, I coached them soccer, coached them hockey. I'm always involved, always travel with them. And I, you know, a lot of my friends played golf, and I never played golf because I said, if I go play golf, I'm I'm away for a month or three weeks, I come home for two weeks. If I go play golf three or four times a week, well, I don't see my my family again. So I think what's really important is I have a pretty tight family. Me and my three boys are all in the you know, late 20s, 30s now, are close. And I think what's critical is, which I think you believe, is the family nucleus is really important to stay together and re really support them to make sure we turn them into good adults, right? And I think athletics. So we didn't, you know, I exercised a ton with the kids, right? So I think that's important, right? To keep that energy. And and it's really important because if you don't have the right person next to you, if I didn't have the right person next to me, a strong person next to me, which is my wife, Martine, I could never have done what I did. Impossible. Like impossible. Because this isn't 2025, this is the 90s. There's no there's barely any internet. There's no there's no video conferencing with the kids. It's on the telephone at a dollar a minute. So I think I think you have to take some, you have to take on your personal life. I really believe it's really important to spend time in the nucleus of the family, nucleus of the and and be with them and try to help them and be somewhat of disciplinary in some respects too, even though you're gone, uh, to help help them grow into, you know, again, young young adults, right? Young good adults. You know, so and I still play hockey with my boys. So I play hockey with two of my sons now. I play hockey with my my wife, so we all play hockey, so still doing that three or four times a week. And I love it. You know, we and now I'm coaching my now I'm helping to coach my grandkids, so it's even funner.
SPEAKER_00Love that. And and when you say hockey, you're talking about the uh American version in an ice rink.
SPEAKER_01Ice hockey, yes.
SPEAKER_00Well, you could say the Canadian version.
SPEAKER_01We call it the Canadian version. It's like it's like my my my mil my son, my my younger son was born in America. When we're when the Olympics is on, we're all picking for Canada.
SPEAKER_00Well, someone's got to.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Exactly. But you but you're right. I think I think it's important to keep that that that that nucleus because I think a lot of people who travel a lot lose that connection with their kids. And I and I think um, you know, I mean that didn't do a perfect job, but I think it did a pretty good job doing keeping that connection and helping them, helping them make decisions in their future life. What do you like to do for fun? Well, I think I read it, I read a lot. I play ice hockey as much as I can. My body lets me play. I play four times a week, which is pretty tough sometimes on your body, and ride a lot of Pelicon inside and I bike outside, and I and I travel a ton. I love to travel. So I'm kind of like you. I I travel all over the world. So we pick places to go to. I've been all over the world myself, but my wife hasn't been to a lot of places, so we just go to places all over the world. Like this year we're taking three trips this year: one in Europe, one in South America, and one in Asia. So just different places. I think it's fun.
SPEAKER_00Cool. And um, I mean, I would say, how do you uh live a balanced life? But it sounds like you've pretty much described that. Well we'll uh we'll we'll we'll go on to the next thing I often like to ask is what has been a pivotal moment in your life?
SPEAKER_01I think the pivotal moment would be the first acquisition when we had a major setback. You know, I'm sitting with a in a 72 Bronco, basically crying on the side of the street outside of Sacramento because all the product I spent all my money on didn't work, and the clients and the customers didn't want my product, and then I located this at this mine in Idaho that had a really good product but a bad producer, but they were doing things environmentally uh unsafe, etc. And just refocusing and driving myself to do that and and winning on that. It was difficult to get it, it wasn't it wasn't a quick, clear win, but basically just saying, look, I have the right idea, I can always go back to corporate life. It wasn't I can always go back, but keeping, I think just keeping that focus and saying, I can get it done, I can get it done, I can get it done. And once I did that, nothing else came, nothing was easy, but it gave me a it gave me a lot of strength and a lot of um conf confidence in myself that I can at least be I'm able to analyze when you're when you're such a low spot in your life, I'm able to analyze where do I want to go next, and it was successful. So I think that was a I would say I was in my late 20s, that was probably my a real pivotal time. And then going to India, uh going to India, started business in India. What I didn't understand was the caste system. They've got a I don't understand what the caste system is. Obviously, levels, it's really sad. It's almost like uh how they see different people based on where they're from. And also you got three religions uh dealing with uh Christians, Muslims, and and Hindus. And that was eye-opener that I didn't understand that I thought everyone would would see things the same. You're in a company, we're all got the same goal. No, no, no, no. We don't have the same goal because there's there's prejudices and there's religion differences and that kind of stuff. And that took me a long time to basically take my company, and I'd say, inside my company, it's called Trans World, and I'd say, inside my walls of my plant, we are trans world, we're not, we're nothing else. You're everybody's got the same merit, same thing, doesn't know what caste, what religion. And that took me about a year, but I got it done. And that was a major struggle because the company just wouldn't run, even if the plant was built properly, it wouldn't run properly because just because of the individual differences of the people that I clearly didn't understand. Like clearly. And it was a and I was there for one year, I was there probably 10 months myself, in in there, making sure it worked. Because if I didn't, it didn't bring kind of my energy in, guys. This is this is this is we're one. If we all work together, we all get bonuses, we all and that was a an amazing struggle. And I really opened my eye to understanding people's cultures. And you say you say, What do I like to do? I read about people's cultures, I read about all countries, what they do, and I look at if I'm gonna go somewhere, I read about it because I think it's important to understand who they are, what they do, how they act, and how you should act. And that was that was part of one of my most difficult mental issues with people. I don't know how you call it, but that was my psychological issue with people that was so difficult, but I got through it, and it man, it was it wore me. I think I aged like 20 years in one. I think, you know, I didn't understand it at all. I thought I'd get in there, build a company, we'd all be working together as one group, and nope, that wasn't it.
SPEAKER_00There's nothing easy about being an entrepreneur. The journey has uh plenty of uh twists and turns. Yeah. I I often say to uh and and I often say to young entrepreneurs, if uh if you're just in it to make money, you'll probably make more money getting a job. Long term, hopefully you'll make more, but certainly in the short or medium term. So what's one piece of advice you would give to a young entrepreneur?
SPEAKER_01I I think if you first believe in yourself for sure. You gotta believe in yourself, but don't believe yourself too much that only your idea is right, right? Because if you're building something, bring people around you that have better ideas than you and listen to their ideas. That's really important because as you screw through building your business, you don't always have the right idea. And then the second thing is don't if you make a mistake, acknowledge the mistake, go back, relook at it, move forward. Don't you because you're gonna make mistakes. And I think the most important thing is once you under, once you, if you understand you made a mistake, analyze it right away, what is it, come back, look at your plan, go for it a different way. I think those are the two biggest things. People around you, take their advice and to already identify what your focus is, and if you doesn't go the right way, step back, go the other way. And I think that if you do those those two things, those two things, and understand your business as much as you possibly can, and understand your competitors' business as much as you possibly can. Because even if you have a great idea, it might be the best idea in the world, but if someone has a better idea and you're in a competition with them, you may not win, right? So you really have to understand that whole thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think history's shown the best idea doesn't always win. So yeah, that's very true. And um, how can people get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, my uh my gold company uh www.stargoldcorp.com. Go on their website, my information is on there. And uh it's a pretty exciting time for gold and silver, so I'm excited.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you. It's uh been uh great to have a chance to have you on the show.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thanks. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00And uh thanks for listening for today's episode. If you enjoyed the conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the channel, tell your friends, and leave a review.