He Built an $11M Business in 5 Months. I Told Him to Stop Growing So Fast.

Gustavs has built one of the fastest-growing businesses I’ve seen.

In the first five and a half months of the year, his greenhouse company generated $11 million in revenue. He believes it can reach $50 million—and possibly even $100 million—before the end of the year.

But rapid growth has nearly destroyed him before.

Gustavs grew up in Latvia after the fall of the Soviet Union and began his career as a freight broker. He became the company’s top salesperson, launched his own logistics business and grew it to €3 million in annual revenue.

Then a customer failed to pay a $200,000 bill.

Cash tightened. Vendors lost confidence. Revenue collapsed. Within six months, the business was bankrupt.

After trying to run several unsuccessful businesses at once, Gustavs discovered e-commerce and realized that an online store could turn his personal sales ability into a repeatable system. In early 2024, a friend introduced him to a greenhouse manufacturer in the Baltics. Gustavs built a website, launched ads and received his first $2,500 order within three days.

The company reached $1 million in sales within its first 100 days.

Today, the average order is approximately $4,600, the business is selling millions of dollars each month, and Gustavs is racing to build American warehousing, shorten delivery times, increase production capacity and expand into new product categories.

That is where our disagreement begins.

Gustavs believes speed and product expansion are necessary to win the market before competitors arrive. I believe his pursuit of $100 million in revenue may be creating unnecessary complexity—and placing the business in the same fragile position that caused his first company to fail.

We break down:

• How Gustavs went from bankruptcy to an eight-figure e-commerce business
• Why preorders can turn customers into a source of working capital
• The danger of confusing revenue growth with business strength
• Why faster delivery can dramatically increase e-commerce conversion
• Whether he should expand his catalog or concentrate on a few hero products
• How limited working capital should influence inventory decisions
• Why production capacity may be a solvable constraint rather than a permanent limitation
• The tradeoffs between European, American and Chinese manufacturing
• How a strong consumer brand creates leverage with retailers such as Home Depot
• Why building a B2B sales team too early may distract from the real problem
• How Filterbuy operates at more than $300 million in annual revenue with relatively little working capital
• The difference between removing limiting beliefs and ignoring legitimate constraints
• Why entrepreneurs routinely overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can build in a decade

This is not a conventional interview.

It is a candid operating discussion between two entrepreneurs with very different approaches to growth. Gustavs pushes back on my advice, I question nearly every assumption behind his plan, and we work toward the actual constraint limiting his company.

My central argument is simple: focus is not the enemy of ambition. Frequently, it is the only way to build something large without making it fragile.

Move as fast as you can—but build the foundation on rock, not sand.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Five and a half months, you've gotten 11 million. So you're basically on a 25 million a year run rate. In just a few months, he's discovered a multi-million dollar opportunity. We'll do over 300 million dollars of revenue this year. The working capital required for me to operate that business is less than the working capital that you think you need to hit your goal this year.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

So important to find people who have few steps after. I understand. And don't condemn.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Gustave has an opportunity most people never see. So I flew him to my studio to see what you can copy from it. There's absolutely no holding back in this episode. If you want to actually be successful, you'll learn more in an hour than most people learn in 10 years. For the record, I can still kick your ass. The weekend feds that you were born and raised in Latvia.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

I'm born in a Soviet Union, and after three years we got independent, and then everything else is Latvia. But I'm from Soviet Union.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Born in the Soviet Union, grew up in Latvia. Um, and when did you start your first business?

SPEAKER_02 1:04

It was 2014. I worked in a logistics company with my existing wife in 2013. After one or two months, I understood only logistics company in Latvia or where? Yeah, in Latvia. Uh and so like what does that actually mean? That means you find a client who needs to bring uh package from one place to the other, and you find a courier or company who does that. And the difference between that and this, you like a freight freight broker, basically. Yeah, yeah. Freight brokering, yeah. We call it logistics, but it's a freight broker brokering. I worked there with my uh wife, she teached me how to do that work. I was really good in that work. I I'm I was top one seller in the first month, second months, and I understood the only asset this company has is me. Uh after two years, I understood that's not only asset, but in that moment, when you have this ego, I was uh I was 26, 25. I was like, you know how people are in 25.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

So are you getting paid on commission primarily? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

All made the money is made by commission. There is no uh you don't have any base salaries, nothing. You just make a commission. I made really good commissions when I started. Uh I told to my father, I'm leaving that company, I'm building my own. And he thought, like, can you wait for uh one year and do that? And this was the first time when I listened to my father, I think. Uh and I did that, and that was really good because I learned a lot of things in that year. Then I built my company, uh opened my company in first year.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

You basically use that year to learn how the business works before you started it. Yeah, and you think that was good advice?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, that was good advice. Because that's that's that's always if somebody comes to me, what I should do, I don't have any experience. I I'm telling, like, just find a good entrepreneur, find good business, and become best uh best worker for him, like best employee. This is gonna learn you everything. Like, and then you can decide on the next steps. But this, if you can be the best there, don't think about entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, I think that it's actually the step one that I always tell young entrepreneurs like if you want to go be an entrepreneur, well, um, you know, go work for somebody who's done it successfully in that industry, like go become an HVAC technician and work for a good HVAC company, or you can pick any any niche in any niche you want. Um, but that's the that's the best way to like really learn where somebody else is paying for you paying for you to learn, observe, become a great employee, but then you can go ultimately go out and figure out how to do it on your own.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yeah, you can decide because that's a that's still it's a risk, it's huge risk. Uh maybe in my country it's not so huge risk because I had the parents, I can move to their pla uh place if something goes wrong or something. We our cost of living, if you don't do anything extra, it's like pretty low. So so so it wasn't a huge risk for me. Uh but yeah, then I decided to open my own freight career company. Uh first year one million, second year two million uh revenue, third year three million revenue. In the third year in dollar, you're talking in euros. In euros, okay, but even more. It's more than dollars, but it's like in that time I'm now it's like has moved, but in that time I think it's pr was pretty close.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

It wasn't that's that's that's meaningful. Can you have like a like a frame of reference maybe for people of like what the average salary in Latvia is?

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Over salary uh in Latvia is I would say 1.5 thousand euros, which is two thousand dollars. But that's a good salary. A month? You're thinking a month or a year? A month, a month, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Yeah, so like so like 24 grand, $24,000 a year. Yeah, yeah. It's like when you have a business that's doing one, two, three million euros a year. I mean, like that's even more impressive than than the equivalent of the US, I guess is what I'm trying to do. Yeah, what I'm trying to do on a on a relative basis. That's a big that's a big business for a million and a half person country.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Third year, three million celebration, everything good. And then I found uh uh new thing what I didn't know that exists is that people don't pay you bills. So I got this famous call. I'm coming coming out of the sales uh training with a team. We go to the old town to get some party, and I get a call from my client. He's saying, sorry, man, I can't pay you bills. How much money did he owe you? He owed me maybe 200k. Yeah, that's a lot. That was like my internal growth of uh trusting people too much. So that's why there was not only him, there was a lot. But in that moment, I understood that all what I have done for the last three years is like sucked out of the doors. I I haven't made any money. And in the same time, um, like because my problem was that when I got this information that they don't pay, I didn't solve that issue there because I was like, we are growing like crazy, we will we will go through that and start a problem. And I was starting to fix that problem in six months. After six months, like when you work in this niche where I'm working, all people talk to to get uh between each other and they say, like, this guy doesn't pay on the time, so please be and all my revenue was starting to go down because my uh employees couldn't get uh freight, uh they couldn't get uh because you weren't able to pay we were paying, but it was there was a tendency of of of late payments, and this is this started to move all the nations because you had less cash, you were paying your vendors slower, and therefore you were having a hard time book harder time booking jobs because um people were worried you weren't gonna be able to pay them.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Sorry about my English. Uh no, no, I'm just still learning. I'm just I'm just repeating it to make sure that make sure I understand.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, so uh and then in six months, uh I got bankrupted and uh kind of I I I started the bankruptcy process of that company, and at the same time I got my second child on on the hands, and I was like, how to feed this family? I don't have time to work because what good infrared career, and I told you about any any niche in in uh in our country, if you do like 16-hour work, you can make a lot of money. But when you have two kids, and what what year was this that this happened? 2017. 2017. Yeah, 2017. So I was uh I was going through the bankruptcy, I was going through we move we moved to countryside, and I had this understanding that I need to change something in my life because I really like selling, but I don't have a time to sell on the calls because like I was making thousands and thousands of calls every day. I made a lot of money because from those 30 million three million, sorry, three million, I made maybe 60-70 percent on my own on with my uh calling. I had it through like 20 plus uh people team, but there was more handling everything I had at but you're the real sales guy. Yeah, I'm the real guy who was yeah, you're the hustler behind. Yeah, I was hustling like crazy. Yeah, and uh and then I understood I don't have a time to custle anymore. And uh then I was watching a lot of YouTube guys online, and uh always a good idea. Always a good idea. And they told me that the open uh and uh okay, they didn't tell that, but the feeling from the content I was looking at that you need to have several businesses, that's the best idea to have. Yeah, I was like because if you can't do one business well, you can definitely do three. Three because and then in like six months, probably uh I I I'm standing with three businesses which all are not making money for me. I have so busy, uh but busy without doing any any any any money. And it was pretty hard for the family because uh yeah, it's it's hard when you when uh the husband did not bring home money and you have small kids and it's like it was uh interesting.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

And uh so you're very fortunate that there are more women than men in the in the country because otherwise you you otherwise she might have found uh you know somebody else in that time. It's a big joke. No, no, no, no, no. It's okay. No, no, I was safe because there is not a lot of uh not a lot of other options. So that that's one advantage. That's what I'm like.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

So that's what I felt okay. It's okay. I can uh I can do the same. But there was this uh understanding in my life. Uh when I was uh I have a beer brewery in that time. Uh you have a what sorry? Beer brewery. So we we made a beer. Beer you had a brewery, got it. So you made beer. Yeah, we made beer. That's what you were doing in your countryside, you're making beer. Uh yeah. We have like for 1.5 million people, I think we have like 50 breweries. So it's like crazy, like the culture of beer is like pretty deep, but it's not like the lager beer, like the basic one, it's like Ipas, and it's like a little bit like this different kind of the beer. And um I was being in expo in that moment, exhibition, and I was for three days drinking a lot of beer and and uh telling a thousand times that our beer is the best beer uh you which you ever would taste. And after those three days, I was like, no, this is not the way to do that. There should be something different because I don't need to pitch every time. And then I then I somehow got through the online and I found out that there is like online stores. Like you can in that time there wasn't much online stores in our side of the ocean because like the culture of uh e-commerce itself, it's going really slow in in that side. Like here we sell like 10,000 products, like easy. There you I I couldn't imagine what you need to do to sell the 10,000 product.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Yeah, but basically the aha moment you were having is you had spent your you had spent your career to that date being basically the rainmaker or the salesperson for all of your businesses. And so without you doing that, the business would not survive, more or less. And that was and you were like, well, you've you saw that there was something where potentially you could scale what you were doing without having to do it all yourself, more or less.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

I think I did so much sales of work that I understood that there's like system, how to make them do what you want them to do. Yeah, and I understood that this this system should be somehow recreated. Yeah, like you you can you you can do that without saying that all the time. There is some other ways how to do that. Because if we we if we check the online store idea or e-commerce idea, it's like automatization of sales. So you automatize your sales process. That's what you do with the store.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

You're creating a system around this, you're actually creating a sales process that anybody can run rather than just being you.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Yeah, yeah. So you don't need like I say sale always. If you are if there is run uh running ads online, this is that's that's a sales guy who doesn't need a salary, who doesn't need sleep, food, nothing. He just does all the time the work for you. And and that's my idea in the in my head. And I was I found the Russell Branson in that time. Yeah, the ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels guys, yeah. And I was like, oh, I think this is the real thing because he was telling the things, and I was like, Yeah, this is the true, this is true. And I started to visualize how the sales process happened. I started testing some e-commerce projects. So so what is it that you're doing now? Why don't we why don't you why don't you walk me through that? Ah, that's that's a good story. So I can I can get a little bit back. Like 15 years ago, uh me and my father had an idea to get a greenhouse. He ordered a greenhouse from my friend. Uh we we opened some beers, started to set it up, we set it up in eight hours, and um after six months, I got the first veggies what he has grown, like tomatoes, cucumbers, uh basil, like basic ones, what you can you use every day. And when I tasted that difference, I was like, oh my god, it's so crazy. And now when I'm watching back on those 15 years, all the rest of those 15 years was creating me as a person who can roll the business what we do right now. Because in 2024, in January, one of my friends, the same friend who sold uh greenhouse to my father, told me, Maybe you want to uh help us grow business in in America, because we know that business is working there. So they're making that business is making greenhouses in Latvia. It's not making Latvia, it's making Baltics. Uh, right now we sell greenhouses from Estonia, Latvia, and Baltics. Oh, sorry, Lithuania. So all three countries it's making for us, but it's made in Baltics. I I came to his office, I taught him price because in that time my main business was e-commerce agency, because after that success with uh those that brand, a lot of people wanted to work with me, and I somehow ended up with having an e-commerce agency. So in 2023, he offered me that part, and uh I told him the price, and he told, no, no, no, that's too much. And then I had a meeting with one guy from Texas, and I told him, Hey, what do you think about this product? And he was like, This is gonna be crazy. And it was a guy with a real business experience in in America, the product being the greenhouse, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like almost every second house in Europe has this greenhouse, so it's like huge uh proof of concept that it's worth. Yeah, so uh I uh uh in the evening I have this conversation with my client showing this product. He was like, Yeah, this is gonna work like crazy. I was like, okay. Um, I'd ask him, okay, I can I build it on my own. He was like, Yeah, no problem. Uh just buy it from me. Uh, and uh in one week we built the store. Uh, then we launched an ads, and in the third day we get the first order for I think $2.5,000. And uh, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

What and what year was this just so I think 2024 started? So you already said that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Start of 2024, like 15th or 16th of January, we we get the first sale. So like two and a half years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh and then uh from that day, it's been a new journey for me because if before that I knew the marketing side, I knew a little bit the business side, but now when you need uh because this business is you need to have deep pockets to do this business. So if any why why do you need to have deep pockets? Why don't you explain that? Because uh getting order for getting a client for $50 product is costs you one money, uh like I don't know, $25 max. Yeah, but getting order for I don't know, we have average order value right now is $4.6,000 for us. So getting one customer costs us at least $1,000. And how much people are ready right now to invest $1,000 per customer? Uh put down the money for uh for uh for a product, send them out, then probably get release of the money from Shopify and then move forward. We made in the first hundred days, we made one million dollar. And I was thinking, but that's that's it. We have sold. We are we have found everything we needed to find, and then the real game started. Uh the Shopify didn't give me out money. So what does the business look like today? In this year, we have made already 11 million dollars uh in revenue. Uh our goal is like goal.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

And so to put it in perspective, we're filming this mid-May. So you're saying like in five and a half months you've you've gotten 11 million. So you're basically on like a 25 million uh a year run rate, give or take.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

We we made a run rate for 50 million this year, and we are overtaking that uh that that run. So I believe we will be 50 plus million this year.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

If everything goes by plan, I am so you think you're excel you think you're accelerating meaningfully in the in as the year goes on.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe we can I can I really believe we can touch 100 million this year because when it's when I say sorry, you you you said you said 50 and now you're saying 100. So you're yeah, no, we have two goals. One is like we send to the people uh who we try to get on financing deals or something, which is like uh don't be crazy guys, like put some realistic goals. So we send them 50 million, but our internal team, like we have a a deal with my my co-po co-founder. If we will not make 100 million this year, next year we're gonna work for week like a bricklayer. We will relay brick for some company. Like this will be like a reason to reason to move today.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

So you you believe in uh I guess the carrot and the stick approach. So like you wanna you you you have like if you don't get it, then you're gonna have to you're gonna have to pay.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

And now all top management is is in the same boat. We're still like, guys, if we will not make it, you will join us.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah, but but let's unpack that a little bit because it makes me think you don't you don't learn your lesson. So like the the reason why you had all the pain early on was because you were growing faster than your infrastructure allowed, yeah, more or less. Like the reason why the Shopify's and the PayPal's, I understand why it's annoying from your perspective, but like but they're saying, hey, you're you're moving too fast, it's too risky for us. Yeah. Um, and so what what makes you think that you're going to be able to go to that level without running into the same problems? It may not be the exact same problems, but but there are lots of lots of ways when you try to grow that fast that you have these things that break. So, you know, why do you think that it's a good idea to to to even try for such a crazy you know goal?

SPEAKER_02 17:56

I had a conversation with because I have several people who help try to help me with the financing because we have a warehouse, we want to fill it with the products so we can get a faster delivery because our delivery is really slow now. Uh uh, so I told them uh that two years ago when I was talking with you, there was a problem that I'm not American, uh, so you can get it. And he told me uh, because we were doing three million last month, so he told me after three million a month, you are American. So this was what he told, and that's like a big thing. What I had okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Well, well, that's what what what does that mean?

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Well, I will explain I will explain. So uh when we were doing this 1 million uh hundred days, probably sounds cool, but if we talk with any payment providers or anybody, they are not like excited because like the biggest payment providing platform, uh I forget the name of that platform now.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Uh they told Stripe, maybe no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

There is like the big one which everyone uses, uh which has uh this customization. I will maybe uh remember. So they told me we are working with business only after one million a month. So right now we have several options. If somebody closes us, like we have on hold right now close to two million dollars in in Shopify right now. We are waiting them to be released. So we have several options. We know what's gonna be the problem to come. So it's not like uh it we are not new to that. The problem, the same I was telling about this bankruptcy for logistics company, that was the same problem. You are not prepared for the things which are gonna come. So I know that somebody can close me tomorrow. I have a solution like ABC solutions, and because we do this amount of the revenue, they will work with me because it's interesting for them. So that's why it's it's a big number game. When we right now go to those big numbers, we can easily change the things how we need to be changed. Like we can we have different discussions with all suppliers what we have in that process, and we can finally change something. Because before that, oh, you can pay, we will not send it to your auto. And now we are like, guys, we will make you this year at least 20 million. Maybe let's find a way how to how to do that together. So we have a point of discussion. So that's why in our case, volume right now really helps on soling all the things. I can finally open the warehouse because I have reason because I have big volume coming in. So it's a lot of things with volume helps uh me to be sold.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Well, it also brings a lot of challenges, and so like walk me through how you fund the working capital of that. So, like if like what I mean by that is if you're gonna do a hundred million dollars this year, you're doing more at the end of the year than you are today. So you know, you're gonna be you're gonna be um really getting to big numbers, and you're gonna have you have working capital in the sense that money that the credit card payments processors are gonna still be holding, you got inventory, um, you got which I would imagine is going to be substantial for this kind of thing. You're gonna have warehousing infrastructure, um, you're gonna have shipping and logistics bills that probably are not that are gonna have to be paid before you um you know maybe get your money from your payment processor in your current terms. So my my guess is you need like 20 plus million dollars of capital at minimum to be able to uh handle that. So where does that money come from?

SPEAKER_02 21:31

That's a good question. What I'm trying to solve now. That's my biggest goal right now, find that money because I understand that's that's an issue. But I know that today, not after six months when I need to pay those bills. And that's the difference between experience that you know, okay, I don't need twenty million, so we'll be honest, I need ten, but overall, if we grow faster to do it to if you're really gonna be where you're gonna say you're gonna need more than twenty, in my opinion. But because I will explain you the process how we sell, so that's that's pretty important. Which change our business totally is what I even couldn't expect that you can do. So we sell pre-orders, uh, and that's really popular in e-commerce niche. And if you guys uh want to try something, start with pre-ordering because this is amazing things. How to see what happens. So walk through the economics of how that looks like economics is like that. Uh we have delivery 12 till 16 weeks for few of some of the products. The most popular we try to keep lower, but that means in 12 till 16 weeks, we have guaranteed received the money from payment providers. We have uh we have a money to pay for uh the a lot of brands. If you check like the Comfort or other brands, they tell the same story. They have grown because of the pre-ordering. So it means they they put money today um down. We ship them out probably in four till six weeks. In this process, we have received the money, we have working capital, so we can we have become our own bank. So we're creating with this pre-ordering. The funny and the funny but interesting thing is that people really buy the stuff. We still can be profitable with doing that. So imagine what will happen when we have a working capital, we will put that in warehouse and we will uh put a seven-day delivery. It's gonna like double X the business itself. So when we go right now and talk with the people and showing that, guys, we are selling three million a month with 12-week delivery. Imagine what we can do with two, three-week delivery. And this is the thing we pitch to the people we want to get right now. We work, we we talk with a lot of fund uh uh a lot of companies who who would give us the money. We we are working on a crowdfunding platform, we want to build the crowdfunding because for our business with the speed how it grows, I think crowdfunding would be an amazing thing. Uh how to how to get money.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Uh and uh But why the pressure, like why are you putting so much unnecessary pressure on yourself to get so big so quick? Like what is the what is the what is the reason behind that?

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Because I know where this market is gonna be in two or three years, and the bigger I'm gonna be, the the bigger chance that I'm gonna you're worried about competition and you and you think that if you don't if you don't build it really fast, that somebody else is gonna get there first. Yeah, I need to build the infrastructure so it's clear for how fast and how we can deliver the product. It's for big size products, this is the biggest thing. And that's why this company, what I was doing, the logistics, is it really helping me because I understand. When I go to the warehouse and I talk with the warehouse guy, I understand everything he says. And and and or I talk with uh some logistics company, I understand all that thing. I I know what how they do the business. When somebody came to me like a few months ago told this is how it's done, I was like, no, this is not how it's done, it should be different. After one month, they they found a solution to everything worked like I was imagined that.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

So but maybe flip it a little bit and say, uh, like how how many SKUs do you currently sell roughly? Not much, maybe 15. Because we are adding a lot of products every week for testing. So if you have 15 SKUs, like do you are there a few SKUs that make up the majority of the sales? Or so so I guess why would you not be willing to grow a little bit slower and say, okay, I'm going to focus on my top two SKUs, and I'm gonna have them in the warehouse and have I'm gonna have that seven-day delivery time because I can stock them in Jacksonville or wherever, and and you order, you get it within seven days um max from here, um, and let the business add more SKUs as you have the capital to do it. Um so like you go ahead and get the you get those delivery times today, you start competing on that, um, and then letting it grow naturally. Like, why would that not be better? I like this question.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Like this is conversation I'm missing in my life. So uh um because you know I'm right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Not because I can technically talk about prove me wrong about that with the little sign, or prove me wrong.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

There is one more thing, which is uh production capacity. So for me right now to focus on one skew means I need to raise up the production capacity for X amount of the uh times. So you imagine what means to sell to the uh production uh guys, tell them I need five times more product. It's gonna be the project for them for months. I have already told that. So while they are working on improving the capacity of production, if I would have somebody I can go there right now, put an order for 10,000 units pay someday and uh send that to the Jackson, that would be the story. But in reality, nobody can produce that amount of the products now. That is not reality. I'll I'll guarantee you that's not true. No, of course, you can uh try to find other producers and and and and do all that stuff. But when when why so why why won't you do that? That I I don't understand. Because I want to bring the this production thing uh to the American. I believe this can be produced here. So for me to understand the production production process, I need to be at least 40-50% uh like from production capacity, what they sell. I need to sell most of that part so I can start taking over the process and I can bring that here. So for me, it's gonna take a time. Of course, I can go to the China or somewhere else, uh search for somebody else who can create the same product. So for me, it's uh I I want to grow the product line. So I have several product production lines which need to be grown fast, not not like organically, they need to grow to give me the bigger amount of the product, but I can grow in in the same time in uh in different products. So that's why it's for me, I want to open the warehouse, and after that, I want to produce a product in that warehouse or somewhere near to that warehouse. For me to do that, I need to learn the process of every product we right now sell, how to produce it here.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

See, I I think that you're doing, I think if you want to do that strategy, you should learn to do it on one product.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Yeah, yeah. We we do we start with one, but while we're doing that, what else do you we we we have a lot of capacity? Let's test new products, let's find new new focusing right now on one thing would not speed that thing up.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

So if we're sitting here January 1st, 2027, and you have not hit that hundred million goal, what do you think would be the root cause of not hitting it? Like what's going to keep you from hitting it?

SPEAKER_02 28:37

I think the biggest thing what is keeping me from hitting that is uh uh lack of uh lack of working capital. I think that's the only thing that can stop us. We will still grow. I believe we will go close to what we do right now, but just putting in that add to card that we can deliver in seven days will split it. Like we will get two times cheaper client. So, what's keeping you from doing that on the couple major SKUs going back to that? We are doing that. It's it's process what's happening right now. We finally sold the production capacity for uh two most uh uh products. Season in Europe is going down, so it means less orders than it is in Europe. Uh season in America is uh uh whole year. So we will keep it up, we will get there. But uh it's like um this working capital part is is is the biggest thing because we have a lot of money on hold, we have a lot of money somewhere. Uh we have some good credit lines with uh with the meta, which is a big thing. If you if you buy ads, try to reach out to Meta support and get the credit lines because that's that's really helping for business. So we have a lot of uh things moving right now, but for us to buy just we we have a lot of stock right now in Jacksonville, which we are unpacking. So we are already starting to implement that. But the speed like we have right now, I don't know, five containers, which is like up to thousand products we have right now there, it's not like nothing if we grow with that speed we want to grow. So our game right now on adding that in the product page, this faster delivery is the game we are playing, and only think what can help us is the working capital, because then we can put on bigger orders, we can get a bigger uh warehousing and thing, because uh other process I don't see it stopping us. Of course, we have we need to better ERP system, we need a lot of better systems, but that's always created right now already in the process. It takes time, but I think the working capital is the biggest problem of any uh big average order value business if you do that online because you will have the same problems we have. So, what questions do you have for me?

SPEAKER_00 30:47

I had some questions. Uh I figured that's why I was curious. It's like what did you what what what did you want to talk talk through relating relating to this?

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Hearing my my story, you already has an opinion, but maybe with my argument back, you have changed hearing my story. Uh how what you would do in in my position now.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

I think that you have contradicted yourself um quite a lot over on your working capital. Because like what I would say is um I do think that the delivery time on this kind of stuff matters, and you're gonna find that your sales velocity goes up a lot. I mean, and I've I've proven that in air filters, very different market than you. Um, but like we're now focused on same-day delivery, which is wild to me. But like we're we're really focused on that, and and the US consumer um delivery times matter. And it's actually just as an aside, um, that's a controversial statement if you actually were in the US e-commerce community, and that um I spent a lot of time talking to third-party logistics providers in the U.S. Actually, our first podcast interview was with a guy named a kid named John, who's very successful um 3PL. And he would tell you, and basically anybody in the 3PL industry in the US would tell you that customers don't pay for shipping times. They only um they only care about cheapest price. And so like they don't really care if um, you know, a customer gets it in three days or in seven days, or they're not gonna pay you more if you get it there in three days versus seven days. Um you know, and it's like the typical Shopify um typical Shopify seller um is only cares about price, does not care as much about shipping speed. But on the other end of it, you have Amazon um and who has basically taken over the US e-commerce market, and they have done that simply by focusing on speed. Um, and so I think that almost every e-commerce seller and 3PL um is you know focused on the wrong thing a lot of times by not focusing on speed and only focusing on price. Um, there's a lot of nuances as to why, but every time we have increased our speed, we have seen our market share go up. And um and so I do think that speed matters. Um, and so when I ask you the question, well, why would you not just take the work, take your limited working capital, which you by definition have limited working capital, and stop focusing on so many products and really focused on stocking the main products, if you really believe the speed that speed is going to increase velocity and all this kind of stuff, that is the answer to me. Like it's clear to me that that's the answer. Um, but then and you even say, like, what's gonna limit you was working capital, being able to put put stuff in my warehouse, like you get that as your blockers. But then when I say, Well, why don't you just do that? You give me the reason why it's not gonna help you, anyways, if you do that. No, no, we we do that. I told you we do that, but it's but you're doing that, but you're saying that that that what's gonna block you is from your ability to do more of that. Like, like that, like I when I say, Well, well, why are you not going to be able to hit your goals or like what are gonna be the stock? You say, Well, working capital from being able to to do that. And so it's like a circular argument to me. Whereas I would I would say, well, you have limited working capital by definition, so focus on putting all of your working capital in the things that you stock in that warehouse so that you increase your um delivery speed.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

To me, like that's the yeah, somehow maybe I have heard like uh maybe I I uh sound like a little bit crazy, but this is the thing we do. Like we have containers which are standing now, unloading, and we will have this opportunity for a few of the products. So we still do that. And I don't agree with uh 3PL or that they the speed doesn't matter. Speed matters as you mentioned that I agree with you that the faster you can do the work, uh the the more no more market share we will get.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

All else equal, like you versus a competitor, you get it here in a week, they get it here in three three weeks. P customers are gonna choose the week, uh always, in my opinion. So, like you you're like being if speed is definitely something that matters in a customer journey.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Yeah, yeah. So so our journey is pretty simple. Do what you said. Uh, we are trying to get more and more, find new products. Like this is the the the the find the new product for the same audience. So we have we don't have uh only one product and they go away. We have several products because if we're gonna do good work with one product, they will come back to us. So we are launching a new and new product lines, uh like wooden greenhouses, garden houses. Uh we what we wanted to even try the sauna's because it's almost the same, yeah. Yeah, but it's a different in each.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah, I mean, I I'll just tell you my experience. I mean, you take it for what it's worth, but anytime I've tried to expand too quickly into other products, it's come at the expense of focus on the main thing. And then like I've always grown more by doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on the on the main thing. And there's a limit to that for sure. I mean, and we're starting to expand it to other to other things for that. But early on, um, anytime I tried to expand product lines was a mistake because you know, the addressable market, you know, for just greenhouses is very large. I mean, like you're nowhere close to have tapped that out. So why would you even think about expanding into something else until you've squeezed all the juice out of your main thing? Um, it's almost always in my experience, I'm always been better off putting all my focus on expanding the main thing um until it can't really literally can't anymore. Um, that's always going to be the best return on your capital, on your return on your energy, return on your infrastructure. Yeah. And so you have to define what that is. I mean, like, you know, I I I don't know enough to know like how how far you can go in terms of limiting yourself. Like, I I don't know enough about the market to be able to to to tell you that. But like, you know, certainly expanding into saunas is um, I think ill-advised, like not to say you can't make money doing it, but I will guarantee you you can take it to the bank, you'll make more money if you just focus on one thing versus splitting your focus. There's no question to me about that. Yeah. Um and you know, I think that I I do think that a little self-awareness and thinking like realistically, where can you cut without without it hurting your growth goals? Um is what I would seriously be thinking about. I would be saying, how how few like if if if I if I had gave you the thought exercise, like, okay, you're gonna hit your growth goals this year. Like, I'm I'm not gonna keep, I'm not gonna say you can't go and do that, like say, okay, that's we're gonna do that. What um what are the minimum number of products that you can focus on um while still giving you an addressable enough market to do that? And I would limit myself to to those and try not to expand past that or say, hey, I'm just gonna, I'm just going to focus on this. Um, because that because I know that's enough to get me to my hundred million goal. Um, and then when you get there, you look at it and say, well, how far can this basket take me? Right? Like the more you can limit yourself, the higher the probability of success.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah, I think that that limit is the production capacity, and that's why we add more products in the same product line. Like we we create products about around the same problem. We just and that's how we're solving this our goal to get so it sounds like we do different things, but in the in the end of the day, we we do the same thing. We sell greenhouses or gardening, uh access.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

I'm just trying to see what your real limit is in the sense like production capacity doesn't make sense to me, and I'll tell you why, and maybe you can, but it's like um, you know, if you had like a few skews that you knew would be enough to get you to that hundred million, then you would go to everybody and say, I want you making these skews, yeah, right. And that's how you would solve your production capacity. But instead of doing that, you're saying I'm just going to expand my types of SKUs. And that's why that's why I don't get. I mean, it's like um I understand this. This is a good point. It can't, it can't be both of those things are not true. Like I know that. And and you know, I'm very big on like manufacturing in the US and this kind of stuff. But I also think you have to be realistic about what makes sense. And like I think you were doing yourself a real disservice by not understanding, like if you were to go to Chinese manufacturing route, for instance, I'm not saying you should, but I'm saying you need to understand what that cost structure looks like, because otherwise, if you don't, then like you're going to um you're basically going into a fight without all the information. And so like I think you have to like because if you can do it at 50, if they're set up to do this at 50% of the cost for effectively the same thing, then you're setting yourself up to fail if when you find that out after you've built it all yourself, you know. And so like like I think you're doing a huge disservice by not that by not understanding that, you know, to the nth degree. Yeah. Um, and the reason why why I went into air filters is because I know logistically they cannot like I that imports cannot compete with what we do. That's why I chose it. Like if I like we're starting to sell mini-split air conditioning um units, partly because we um have the logistics advantage on that. Um, we manufacture those overseas because it would not make sense. Like we could not compete and actually go on the market if we did it all here. So, like this is you know, you you you can't you have to be very honest with yourself. And some of that is like you've got to allow yourself to go down those rabbit holes and explore to understand before you're gonna go in and go all in on a fight, right? Because you don't want to go into a fight and then realize, hey, I I missed something over here, right? Um, because you don't know what you don't know.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah, that's a good point. I need to be, I need to have an answer, what you asked me in the start about what's the difference between producing the same product in different places. So this is the answer I'm gonna go and find.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Uh because I'm afraid what you're gonna find is that you could solve your your capacity problems and you could solve your pricing problems very quickly if you just opened your eyes to that. Yeah, and you're choosing not to look there because you're so principled on, hey, I want to do it this way. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And and um and this is when you're just gonna become your fatal flaw because when you find out because somebody else is gonna figure that out.

SPEAKER_03 41:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

Um, and then you have to compete with that, and um that's gonna be a tough spot to be in.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

You know, that that would be where I would I have one more uh question about uh what's uh it's a pain in the ass for me for the last six months is uh sales. Because we all like launch those stores. Uh like the people who watch your like what stores? Uh online stores. People like oh launch online stores, do their e-commerce business, but let's be honest, e-commerce business is just part of the business, it's a part how we do get the money from customers. Uh, but second part is you still need to build it as a business, so it means you need to have a sales team. So we have right now two sales teams, one is B2B, one is B2C, because we believe that we can sell those those products in containers, and uh uh other people can make in in uh in their counties uh just get uh uh more products and sell it uh with a same-day delivery. Like they can use that. And uh it's been like really hard to grow good B2B team, sell sell uh B2C team, which is working with the with the leads which he which we are having in in an online store one by one. It's it's growing good. I think it's we are going to the right direction, but with a B2B, it's been a nightmare. How to build a good B2B team which pushes your product because I know that a lot of revenue percentage-wise is coming to your business from B2B side, too.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Yeah, well, your B2B is very different than my B2B. So like let's define what your B2B is and what you need to focus on. Um, ultimately, um, you know, selling into Home Depot or selling into Walmart, um, selling into maybe Ace Hardware, like that that's really where your type of product would sell. And then there are lots of smaller independent, you know, home garden shops and and whatnot, right? That that those would that would be who you want to sell to, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Um, and that's a huge market in the US, and it makes a lot of sense. In my opinion, the real way that you do that is by building a brand. And like, you know, we we didn't talk as much about your advertising and whatnot, but like one thing that would make me nervous, you're very focused on sales, for lack of a better term, like and and acquiring those one time customers by meta ads and like all of the kind of sugar high stuff that the e-commerce is typically built on. Um, but building a brand is a Longer term game. It's not going to happen between now and the end of the year. And it's the most valuable thing you can build. Like you want to build the brand that people like if they're buying a greenhouse, it's the only brand that I know I'm going to go and I'm going to ask for your brand of this greenhouse, right? And the more powerful that is, the more, the easier it's going to be for you to go and sell into a Home Depot or any of these stores. Because then, you know, you have a brand that you're creating demand for them that they want to be able to harness through their customers. And so if I was building a B2B team, I would find somebody that was focused on selling to those independent stores, probably starting with the small ones first, and then you know, try to get in Home Depot. Just by calling them, yeah. Um, yeah, by by calling them and then in person, like with the smaller stuff, it'd be in-person relationships. And like there are people like as a try to there are bare people that specialize this in the US. Um, we have people that do it for us. Um, but like really you're gonna have to build the brand that they want to do business with. But then I'll say, like, um, you know, Home Depot.com, for instance. Um, you know, I think that would that was something you could probably get on, you know, with some work fairly quickly once you have the infrastructure here, or the same with like the dot coms for a lot of these stores, um, where they do um you know drop shipping, like selling on Amazon would make make a lot of sense if you had the infrastructure here where you're where you're doing the we still we still sell, but uh it's like nothing compared to what yeah. Well, that's because you'd you'd have to like if you saw if you focused on like I think you should, a few SKUs, getting them stocked, then you're gonna find all of a sudden that your that your ability to sell those SKUs multiplies big time. And that's why I'd rather see you focus on that than complexity, like you're doing. Um, because it would open up all these doors. Like all of this is all all of these things are gonna be opened contingent on your ability to um deliver product consistently um and your ability to create demand around your brand. I mean, like those are the two things you want to focus on. Um, and I worry that like you're dilute, like when I hear I'm doing saunas or we're doing 20 different, I'm gonna add 20 more product lines, you're diluting both of those things. The two most important things, the brand and the availability and consistency of your product and quality of your product, like those are what's gonna matter, but you're dilute, like everything you're telling me is you're going wider and you're diluting against those two things.

SPEAKER_03 46:32

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

And so like I would rather see you focus everything on on getting those two things right, you know, your brand and your um availability and quality of your product. You underst you understand? Yeah, yeah. That's why I those are the things that like 10 years from now, those are the two things that matter. Yeah, of course. I still see that that will be there. That's the asset. That's the asset that you're building. Yeah. And and you cannot, you, you should not be willing, like even if it comes at the expense of growing a little slower, you should not be willing to do anything that's going to dilute those two things. Like that should be immutable for you. That those should be like that has to be your that has to be your guiding light. Um, and then like you want to grow as fast as you can get to get there, but you cannot do anything that's going to detract from that. Selling saunas clearly distract detract from that to me because then your brand. Sauna's was a crazy example. Well, yeah, but but like the extremes are like that's the extreme to get you to agree with me.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

But then you if you're honest with yourself, you're gonna say there are lots of things that are kind of there, but you're trying to create mental gymnastics to so I had this goal in the start of the year that I will not be independent uh dependent from one product more than 20% of my revenue, because I I I see in business there can be a huge risk if 80-90% of the revenue are coming from one product.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

This is I see as a risk because you never That'd be me like saying it's a big risk that you know 90% of my business comes from air filters. Is that a risk? Probably not. No, it's not a risk, of course not. But it's like it's like saying, like, okay, like all my business like you're in that you're like I'm in the air filter business or you're in the greenhouse business.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

I mean, like I think that that's kind of uh that that's kind of uh But I still need to keep on uh long I can like the same as you was uh adding more SKUs for uh aisle filters, I will um add more different options for greenhouses.

SPEAKER_00 48:25

Well, I think you have to earn the right to do that by being really good by by by by doing a few one or a few really well first and building your brand around that, and then you get the trust that allows you to do that.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

How did you start it?

SPEAKER_00 48:39

Because you have so much SKU, so you started with several and then you expanded, or you had you started with all the SKUs and how I mean we're a very different it's a very different business, so it's kind of apples and oranges, but we started off with a actually buying from somebody else a few SKUs and then doing the customization work ourselves where we would actually cut and cap the filters to different sizes, and then over time we expanded the number of sizes that we actually manufactured. Um, but we did we did a lot of um kind of more manual work on a made-to-order basis. But how much SKUs you had in this first two years uh overall? I mean the pro it depends on how you define a skew, right? Because we sell a like um one pack, two pack, three pack, four pack, six pack, you know, of the same pack of the same product. No, no, but the product like Yeah, but like we probably started with 30 SKUs and now we have 350.

SPEAKER_02 49:32

I'm still working on those 30 skews.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

Yeah, but but but a green but I I don't think a greenhouse and air filters are are very are are are very different. I mean, um, you know, the the problem is like an air filter is only good if we have your size, whereas a greenhouse is a you know it's a more uh it fits a lot more it can fit a lot more use cases. I don't know. I I just I know in in my bones that you would be better off focusing and trying to do less. People always overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade. I like that. And you're you're overestimating what you can do in a year, and um because of that, you're you're you know, underestimating or you're putting yourself in a way more fragile position 10 years from now. And that's why like I you know I believe that you know you would be better off focusing more, being a little less ambitious short term, because I think that's what would actually allow you to have the stability to achieve what you say you want to achieve. Um that's just my opinion and experience. But um, you know, I I think that it's also not true. Like I think that by trying to do so much, you're actually um keeping yourself from kind of getting where you need to go anyways, because you're you're um you kind of can't see the forest from the trees. Like you're not like by not solving the problem of like, hey, I need to get my solve my production capacity, which you've agreed is solvable, and then you told me you just don't want to look in the places that you probably could solve it, and you have like you know, I know you just opened me the new way how to check in because I am my idea is like I will be married to this person, we will grow together, but you are telling, okay, maybe you need to test uh change your marriage. Yeah, so so like what that's why I ask you what's keeping you from doing X, Y, or Z. You're giving me the limits. I'm saying, well, like let's actually work on that limit. Work on that limit rather than just expanding the number of problems that you have, which is what which is what you're doing. And I think that you need to be more honest with yourself about, hey, are there ways that I can overcome these limits rather than just taking them for truth and then trying to solve them in less it less efficient ways. I mean, I that's what I see happening. What's your opinion about online store or sales team? I think for you it makes a lot of sense. I mean, it's like you how I've how you correct me if I'm wrong, but how I would envision yours being is like a lot of times people will see your product and they're not going to take out their credit card and buy $5,000 today. But like if you can collect their information and have a team that is, you know, willing to talk them through like how what the setup would look like and like answer all these kind of questions, probably very high value. Um, and so having a way of generating leads that then you can put your sales team on makes a lot of sense for B2C customers. For B2B customers, I think you need to go that route, but you can't do that until you've solved your first problem, which is which is what we're we've talked about, having inventory, having like a like a Home Depot.com, they want, or sorry, a Home Depot, just as an example, will want one SKU in store. But like if they're not gonna want 20, so like you want to go and become like what are you known for? Like what are people like what is like what are you best at? Like, why do people know your brand? You got like this gonna come from building one or or two or three really good hero skews that you're great at, right? You got to focus on that. But but I wouldn't go and work on the sales team until you've solved that problem. And then then they're gonna go with something to sell. You understand? That's why all your problems lead to that focus. I probably will all be solved by that focus. Yeah, I will guarantee you. There's not a question in my mind as as certain as you are about the opposite, I'm even more certain about this.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

No, I'm not uh I'm I I I don't I I don't tell that I don't trust you. It's okay. It's yeah, I I agree with you because but just uh I think that think what you showed me that uh I have a limiting belief that this is the only way how we can be sold. And I think that's a really good uh lesson for everyone who listens, that that every problem has a different solution. So when you just check on the one solution, you you close your uh mind to other ones and you just open that this uh water because we have somehow this I have this idea in my mind that there are gonna be one person with who will grow till billions. But I uh while I'm doing this, all this growth, I understand in that road, those a lot of people go away and new people come in. So this is something probably we need to change in our process to get sold the capacity of production. Yeah, and so how does somebody do this?

SPEAKER_00 54:28

Well, it's it's that it's exactly this conversation. We we we try to understand what are our limiting beliefs and then question the assumptions that are making up those limiting beliefs and say, hey, is there any way for me to overcome this? And it's like, and then um like don't don't just take it for granted that you're limited. Like you all you have to say, okay, well, like what's keeping me um from achieving what I want to achieve? And then are is there any way for me to um change those assumptions or change my strategy that would open that would fix this problem? And if the answer is yes, well, then I want to go pursue that before I go and try to pursue something else.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

Okay, the last question, what was your working capital road? Because I think uh I believe you you have some working capital too, and I I don't have any experience in America how to go that road.

SPEAKER_00 55:21

And uh, what was your road, how you how you get to the level where you can uh we're so much we're way less like like today, my business is like we'll do over $300 million of revenue this year, and the working capital required for me to operate that business is less than the working capital that you think you need to hit your goal this year. That's because you know, we we are very, we're a very, we're a very um and it and that's by design. I mean, and I I've kind of outlined it some, but um, you know, we're the way our whole process works is you know, we we effectively get paid up front, kind of, kind of, kind of like you do, um, and we keep um less than two weeks of inventory of finished filters in our whole in our whole system, but we have three months of raw material inventory. Um, and anytime that we manufacture a uh anytime we have we sell a product, um, like we on any given day, we're effectively manufacturing um on average what we sold the previous day. And so we're like our our inventory conversion cycle is very short. Um, you know, because we keep less than two weeks of inventory for our whole system.

SPEAKER_02 56:35

I think we create that system. That's the ERP system or what kind of system does that work?

SPEAKER_00 56:40

I um I it's custom built. I custom built it. I be custom built. Um, I I way before A AI, you know, 14 years ago, um started um had a team of developers and we um custom built our our whole um ERP system. Um so everything, so just as we've gone through this conversation, like said another way, it's basically from a first principles approach. I have this problem. Like, if I take away all my limitations, how do I solve that? Like it's just kind of going back to that. I've done that my whole business, right? Is I've said, okay, this is my problem. What is the path of least resistance for me to solve this? I go and I I solve that root cause problem, and then I do that over and over again. And that's how I built my whole business model. Um so you don't uh But I didn't try to go from zero to 100 million in six months, though, or a year. I mean, like like that, like you're not going to be able to or I'm not gonna say you can't do that, but I'm gonna say that um it's gonna be much harder to have a robust first principles foundation if you're if you're doing it that way.

SPEAKER_02 57:44

Yeah, I think uh that's that's really uh powerful that uh when you say that uh because we as entrepreneurs really like to jump on next uh shiny think and and go after that. Yeah, and I think we need to put it down uh in in in us and uh uh before we jump on that next next shiny tink, we just sit down on this one problem we have and just talk with ourselves what kind of the solutions there is. But your your focus on your business is because you have created a nice system. So it's like print on demand or with two weeks uh uh with two week print on demand. So you if you you you don't produce more than you need. Uh but the motivation of this process was uh that you wanted to run this business with the smallest amount of working capital you could.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

I didn't have the working cap. I didn't have the working capital to do it. It was about constraints, right? I mean, it's like I understood my constraint and I said, well, how do I make this happen with my constraint? I did not want to take on any investors, I didn't want to take on any debt. So that was those were the constraints. And so then how so like just as you have constraints, you say, Well, these are my these are my limits. Well, how do I do it anyways? Yeah, and you go and you figure it out. Yeah, and that's then that's how you iterate to find a business model that works. Yeah, that's that's really interesting. That's why I understand that's why all of my questions this whole time are like, what are your constraints? Like, like what are you what like what's limiting you? Um, and then like because then once we understand that, then you understand, well, what are the strategies to overcome those constraints? And that's the thought process, right? Um, but then but it requires you to be honest with you about your constraints because like it takes a while to like really get down to like what are those honest constraints? Because we always will say things that are easy or say things that sound may sound good in terms of constraint, but it's not the real truth. It's like you have to really get to the to the core of like what is the actual limiting factor.

SPEAKER_02 59:33

Yeah, but that I think probably powerful for when you find people who is I would not say bigger because I'm bigger than you inside.

SPEAKER_00 59:41

But I would think like, oh, those are shots fired right there. I don't know. Uh but just for the record, I could still kick your ass.

SPEAKER_04 59:55

We can test that. I'm from Europe from Soviet Union. We had the different roles there.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

But all right, it's like so important to find people who has probably few few steps uh before you uh uh not before you, but after I understand uh and talk with them. So it was really useful for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:15

I I really but it's because you realize I've made all these mistakes in various different ways, and that's why I'm so passionate about it. And I think that like the things that I'm most passionate about are the things where you know I've really gone wrong and um you know I wish somebody had told me. So, like an example being um, you know, in 2021, I famously um bought an HVAC service business because I really view the next um iteration for me as a business person of buying businesses. Like that's that, and that's really kind of like why I'm actually doing this podcast and like why I'm what I'm building building my infrastructure towards. But um in 2021, I rushed it. I tried to do it too quick and I wasn't ready for it, and I ended up um losing four and a half million dollars like that, um, you know, and in doing something stupid and too quick, trying to be something that I was not ready for yet. Um, and I can give you a lot of examples of where I where I've done made this exact mistake. So um I tell this from experience and from you know a lot of trauma from having having tried to to do something too quickly. Um, and so it's like anything, the things that I'm most passionate about when it comes to business or like why I'm most sure of something is comes from like learning the hard way, like why why it didn't work for me. Um just so you understand, it's like I think what you're what you're saying is actually a very natural entrepreneurial thing. I think a lot of entrepreneurs suffer from that because you have to be optimistic, you have to believe, you have to remove your limiting beliefs in order to go out and build something big. Um and so like when you have that mindset, um, you know, it can it can lead you to you know getting in trouble sometimes. And it definitely led me me to being that. And so that's why I try to question those things to just uh point it, you know, a different perspective. Um, because I I um because I've made those mistakes and I and and it's and it doesn't come from a judgment, it comes from a like, hey, I've done this and this is just this is why I would be cautioned against making that mistake.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:13

So for me, asking you questions is uh perfect way to getting those limited uh beliefs uh out. And what's your way on on finding answers on your questions? Because probably you have some questions to the world uh or to business or some limited belief. Uh, what what you are doing to find those answers? What helps you the most?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:34

Yeah, I mean, I'm incredibly curious in the sense that I'm always studying and like I listen to podcasts from people that I respect, or um I like to just observe how other people are do things. And um, you know, it's a combination of that and um trial and error. Um, and you know, I think over time, as I've gotten bigger and as I've gotten, as I've done, done this more, I've gotten a lot better about questioning my own limiting beliefs or like checking myself when I get into a um like if I'm gonna make a decision, like really um having this conversation with myself in my head. Like I like this is like a like a constant internal like if you were to see inside my brain, I have a constant internal dialogue just like this for myself, right? Like anytime I'm thinking about a big business decision or something bad happened or I'm trying to solve a problem, um, I force myself to have this same conversation and um you know try to be honest with myself. And I think I've as I've done it more, I've gotten better at it. But it comes from experience, just experience and kind of learning the hard way.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

What what people you respect in in manufacturing, in business building? What what are those people? Because I have some, but uh I would like to hear what what's your what's your top.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:53

I don't have like I don't idolize people in that way, if I'm honest with you. So like I for me, it's about learning the thought process of other smart people, um, or other people that are in the game, and like then like listening to it and then just cataloging it and kind of decided then seeing if I have something that rhymes with it. So it's like it's not one person, it's all all different types. I mean, like I'm um you know, Warren Buffett and Charlie Monger are definitely the biggest kind of philosophical um you know people that I kind of relate to. Um, and but then I also think that there's a lot to learn from and Elon Musk or um I was waiting that name. I was really waiting that name. You know, it's like I I'm so like so different than than them, and and I don't um want to be, I don't want to be that um be them in any way. Um, but I think there's a lot to to to learn from from them. Um but you know, I would definitely say I philosophically am more of a old school capitalist, um, in that, you know, I think I can hear it. Yeah, I mean it's it's is and it's just because I was so I was so um formed by like the kind of you know Warren Buffett um you know ideology. And I think that the world has kind of shifted away from that in lots of ways. Um, and I think that it will ultimately s shift back, actually. I think it's a pendulum that goes back and forth. And I think right now that's not as in, I don't I don't think it's as in vogue or as in fashion, but it's like it's the only thing I understand. You know, I think that philosophically, really Charlie Munger more than um than Ben Buffett, but are more like my um like when I'm when I'm wrestling with something or trying to understand something, I kind of go back to those um those approaches more than anything. Um and so I mean I've read I've read everything they've ever written or probably watched most interviews, you know, that they've ever ever had. Um and I actually think that it's way it's it's like I said, not popular now to it's like people want everybody wants that really quick win like you're chasing. Um you know, and everybody everybody wants the um you know instant gratification and to become a billionaire overnight and this kind of stuff. And um I very much try to um think of think of life as a long um journey where you're just trying to compound small wins over long periods of time. And um, I try to check my I have those tendencies if anybody that watches social media or YouTube like wants the quick wins and the all that all that stuff overnight. Um, but I really try to remind myself that it's a long game and it's about iterative small improvements over a long period of time. Um, and that's the most helpful, helpful thing for me. Um, and it's why like I always am thinking 10 or 20 years from in the future, and 10 years from now, I'll still be thinking that at the end of my life, I'll still be thinking 10 or 10 or 20 years in the future. Um, because I just view I view life as a constant um learning. I I want to be a learning machine that's constantly iterating, constantly getting better. Um, and it doesn't really matter how good I am today. Yeah for me, it's like it's just about that improvement. Um, and that's that's the only thing that matters to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:17

Yeah, I believe the same that long-term vision and uh seeing everything in the long term. Maybe I sound today like a crazy guy who's trying to get over net reach, but but overall I I agree with everything you said because uh we really uh need to see us in 10, 20 years. And um this is something that's really driving me that I know that I'm gonna do this for next 25, 40, 50 years, how long time I will have, I will keep doing that because there's so much deepness, what we can fix, where we can get and how we can improve uh deliverable of the product of everything. And I think that when you find something like that, uh you you feel safe, and it's really interesting because you are we chase like a money number, but in reality we don't chase money, we chase opportunity to give this product to to to provide this experience we had uh in in our past.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:13

Which is why if you have if you get anything from this, I would just encourage you to really think about what is the foundation that you're building.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

And because you want to build that foundation on a rock, not on sand. And so, like, you just want to make sure that whatever you're doing today like um does not come at the expense of that foundation because it's very it's once you start building, it's really hard, if not impossible, to go back and change the foundation. Um, and so like that that would be my my one ask is just to make sure like you could I want to see you move as fast as you humanly can. I think there's nothing wrong with that. Um, but it needs to be on a strong foundation. But uh our greenhouses can be built on on sand too. So well, with that, I think we'll do it. But but thank you th thank you so much for that. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you for uh so for uh for getting me here.