How Alvaro Gellings Built an 8-Figure Brand in Public

Alvaro Gellings co-founded Day One with Arda Saatci, Germany's largest creator, 2.5 years ago. They launched with the Cyborg Season campaign: Arda ran 3,000 km from Berlin to New York, generated over 1 billion organic views, and hit seven-figure revenue on launch day. No paid media at launch. Day One is now an 8-figure business growing 400-500% year over year.

Everything from this episode, structured into a free playbook:
https://www.elevatorgoods.com/talks/alvaro-gellings

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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:47 What is Day One and the Cyborg Season launch
04:55 Why Alvaro started building in public
09:00 How he started
14:10 What building in public actually gave Day One
16:39 500-2,000 job applications from a single Instagram Story
17:30 Network effects: founders and billionaires reaching out
20:28 The satisfaction of showing what it actually takes
28:09 Where Day One is now: 8 figures, 400-500% YoY
33:13 International expansion and the athlete partnership model
37:25 The 43,000-person WhatsApp community
39:37 Org chart, key hires, and the COO hire
44:39 The three hires Alvaro would make today
47:51 Leadership style and who he wants to become
51:33 Advice for new entrepreneurs in 2026
1:01:29 How to start with almost nothing: the ad validation tactic
1:06:53 Rapid fire round
1:13:56 The building in public trap: the biggest mistake first-time founders make
1:17:08 Best investment ever made in the company

#ecommerce #dtc #brandbuilding #entrepreneurship #dayone #sportswear #buildingbrands

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alvaro Gillings is the kind of guy that can post one story asking for help and 2,000 applications in his inbox. That's what building in public does when you actually do it right. And almost nobody does it like Alvaro.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

I got people reaching out to me that are billionaires that I looked up to, heirs of multi-multi-billion dollar companies that are well known. Founders that that are so much further than me and in the entrepreneurial world that I look up to, and they think it's cool what I do.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

For two years, he's documented everything behind day one, his premium active core brand. Not just the highlight reel, but the 15-hour days behind the chaos of building every single day. The result profitable from the first sale, seven figures on launch, and eight figures now, scaling significantly year over year. Biggest mistake first-time founders make. Today, the Master of Building in Public shows you exactly how it's done and why it matters. Alvaro, great to meet you and welcome to Elevator Talks. Super happy to have you on. Likewise, brother, thanks a lot for having me. So let's just get right into it. For anyone hearing your name for the first time, give it to me straight. What have you built? Would love an introduction from your side.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

In a nutshell, I've been building brands for eight years. And um, I the first company I founded was uh whilst I was studying. Then it was a games development company. I founded the second one towards the end of the studies, and the second one bought the first one because in the first one I had some students with me in the company. Uh I bought their shares and assets and then ended up selling that company again one and a half, two years later. Uh, that was my first exit. And from there I've been investing in brands, uh, especially in the creator economy and building brands, also, especially in the creator economy, together with some founders, but we'll probably get into that um a bit later. Sort of where you know my my the my area of expertise uh is, and yeah, I've been founding brands, that's uh what I love to do. And uh yeah, that I've been now doing that for eight years. And two years ago, I started documenting my journey on YouTube, sharing everything we do on one specific brand on day one, Sportsware brand that I'm also wearing right now. And yeah, that's uh mostly where my time goes in right now.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

So tell me about day one again. Let's just assume that you're reaching a new audience, people don't know you necessarily. What is day one? When did you start it, and what do you guys do?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Day one is a premium activewear brand. We are targeting runners and people that go to the gym. And I started it with um right now the largest creator in Germany. We founded it approximately two and a half years ago. We did our first launch campaign that um was called the Cyborg Season, where um my business partner, who is an ultra athlete, ran a 3,000 kilometer ultramarathon formally into New York. We documented his entire journey and we ran a huge growth hacking campaign in the background, generated over a billion views organically during that phase. And when he ran into New York, we launched the company, we did uh seven-figure revenue right away, were profitable from the very beginning. I initially put in approximately K from our own capital in order to find this because I knew I have built uh creative brands in the past where I knew how much power they have, and uh we wanted to have enough stock in order to you know uh sell enough or have enough because we we knew the demand was gonna be super high. And uh we took it from there and we we kept doing these marketing campaigns generating billions of views. They were the largest campaigns ever done in Germany organically, three years in a row, and yeah, it's been uh it's been super fun. And um right now we're you know evolutionizing from uh pure creator brand towards uh brand that stays for itself, which is um the the goal of both of us, obviously, because we wanted to create something that's larger than the two of us, and uh we're implementing all sorts of marketing strategies in order to grow past this audience, and yeah, it's been a fun journey, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:14

But that's I'm laughing because that's literally the craziest launch story of any business I think I've ever heard ever. First of all, I didn't even realize you could run from Berlin to New York. How does that even work?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Well, the distance uh over border he flew, but he ran from uh Berlin to I think it was 2200 kilometers uh to the um most western point of Europe, then he flew towards uh the most eastern part of the US and ran down to New York. So uh in total it's 300 kilometers run distance, but the uh the total distance over water would be I'm not sure how much, probably about seven, eight thousand. Obviously, he didn't run that distance there. But we got the question a lot because but the statement was from Berlin to New York because it's it's a lot easier to digest and more of a marketing statement. So that's uh what we've been using, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

I think um for this episode, one thing I was super excited to get into with you is just the concept of building in public. It seems like you've been doing that for quite a while now, even much before day one. Is that safe to say?

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, 100%. I've been doing it on on Instagram and um more passively because um I was getting into the creator space a lot a lot of years ago, and I sort of got attention through that, but not actively sharing behind the scenes of building a brand, but more so being known as the founder behind certain brands and investor behind certain brands. So I wasn't actively doing it. Um so the the real building in public journey started with day one. So I I before we even launched, though, I was already uh, you know, uh filming everything, the first uh visits in China where I was you know super happy about the wrap of the socks, and you know, I I was like proudly showing into the camera, and you can see it today. You can go to the very first video and then you see you know the the paper wrap. And I and I thought it was super cool and to now being the one of or if the the fastest growing sports brand in Europe. So it's uh it's been a long journey, but the real bidding in public where I actually show things that happen behind a brand uh started with day one. And prior to that, I was just only showing the results and you know, sort of the nice life that uh you you get through that. Uh if you go back on my Instagram, I've been uh having a certain type of lifestyle since I sold my company in 2020, 2021 for a long time, but people wouldn't catch what it actually takes to build a company. You're a founder yourself, and uh you know, all a lot of people that hear that this podcast are founders or want to become some, they now I have the feeling that this whole building in public thing actually showcased what it takes because people only you know they got in love with the idea of having the success of being a successful founder, but it didn't fall in love with the things that you need in order to get there. And now people empathize with you a lot more because they they don't look at the sports comes like, oh yeah, you're a super cool founder, but they actually see me working a little bit through the snippets and YouTube videos. They see that that I'm actually working 15 hours behind a day sitting behind the MacBook, and it's not so luxury luxurious as people might assume. So it's also a bit of an egoistic reason behind doing that because now people actually get what it takes, and they they they can actually you can transmit what you've been doing and what you do in order to get what you have, you know. So um it's very meaningful in in many areas to do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

So you know, I I definitely want to come back to day one because you said a couple things on day one specifically that I'm like super excited to touch on, but just for now, on the subject of building in public, you know. I guess my question for you is why? Or like how did you figure this out? Because you know, it it is a lot of effort to document your journey to carry a camera around. I I saw a YouTube video of you in Shanghai, and you were basically saying um that you forgot how heavy the camera was because you you know you stopped bringing on that trip you didn't have a cameraman with you, and you're like, wow, I forgot how heavy this thing is. I haven't filmed myself in a while. So I guess my question is like, why? Why are you doing this? What is it giving you? And like how did you even start? Because I know a lot of people, including myself, by the way, you know, the it's very daunting when you look at a guy like you and you've got tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of views, you're like, oh man, like that's gonna be impossible to achieve. But you gotta start, right? It's like one step, second step. How did you start? Why did you start building in public?

SPEAKER_01 9:00

I'll start with the reason why I started. So it sort of happened organically back in the days. I'm gonna I'm gonna wind back a little bit. So I started with Instagram in 2014, where we were showing like fashion stuff, you know, uh like uh wearing a cool outfit, and it got reposted by these Brazilian uh fashion uh Instagram uh pages. I I think I've never told the story, but um it got reposted and I get uh got a lot of likes back in the days with like 300-400 likes. I was like, oh damn, that's um uh that's that's sort of cool. And then brands reach out to me in order to send me stuff. And I come from a very simple household where it was not as easy to you know to get new clothes, let's say, and it was um it was a way of getting new and cool clothes. So I was like, okay, cool, I'm gonna keep doing that. And I started doing that for a while. And I had um, I don't know, 15,000, 20,000 followers back in the days, and that was super a lot. If you if you if you look back on 2014, like that there was a lot nowadays, you need like millions in order to say that. But back in the days was super cool, and that's the reason why I started. So I grasped the idea already that reach is a valuable asset to have. And then I started and I got into uh entrepreneurship, and I kept doing that, but like very low-key and not not really. And then I started with the brands founding brands with creators, and that's when I started getting attention from from more people, and they reached out to me in order to work for me, to invest in my companies, and I connected with a lot of like super valuable founders that got a lot of nice input and value that they could give me in order to to be a better entrepreneur. So I realized then that's super cool. And that's when I sort of when it sort of clicked, I was like, it would it would be super cool to do that at scale. So I would get more of that, more people apply, more people that want to help me, more people want to invest, more founders that I can talk with and exchange with. And it was you saw it first, I think it was Ben Francis. He was one of the first movers, the founder of Gymshark. He was documenting his entire journey back in the days, and it's super cool to watch nowadays. So it was like one thing was being able to looking back, sort of like a diary, and um and see what you've been building. And I do that today, and I'm super super happy that I did that because I'll be able to do that for the next 20, 30, 40 years and share that with my kids and my grandkids to show what it what it was back in the days on a visual, like in a nice visual way. And the second thing where it was when Gary V uh kept saying, Oh, you gotta document everything, you gotta document, you gotta document, you gotta document. And then I uh built a growth hacking campaign that I watched other creators do, but not in the building in public space, but more sort of on the on the core course selling uh area. And I thought you can actually do that for brands and also for personal brands outside of this course thing. So I built that in theory and I shared it with some friends, and I found it super cool. And then back in the days, I founded the company with Daniel Dallon, probably uh also well probably the biggest name in the building is Publix Space, and I've been in contact with him uh since then. We're good friends, and he started doing that in a very aesthetic way. And uh, to be honest, he was also a huge inspiration to me because although I was thinking about it and I had all the theory in my head, I never pulled the trigger and was like, okay, I'm gonna do that now. I was also unsure whether you could do that in an aesthetic way, and also whether people wanted to see what it actually takes, the boring stuff, or they just want to see the highlights, you know, the fancy stuff, the trips, the cars, the watches. And then I realized people actually like that. People resonate with that, and they want to see you working, and I want to see the behind the scenes and the truth behind building a brand. And that gave me the the last um you know uh kick in the butt to actually start doing that. I got on a call with Votek, he told me uh all the camera gear that I needed. Uh thanks for that, and uh shout out to Votek. And uh I I just started, um, but I also knew it's gonna take some time until that gets traction. Uh I had an unfair advantage in that way because I already had um a built-in reach on Instagram. Uh that definitely helped probably the algorithm to do that. And I was still very early two years ago in the process. Uh, so there were very few uh people like me and Daniel doing that. That probably helped too. But you can you see nowadays a lot of people start now at a crazy high level. I've got some friends that started building in public, and it it looks like a movie, and they immediately get get get traction and views and stuff. So it's never too late. You can actually start whenever once you have a cool story to tell, you know. And that's and sort of the reason why that's why I did that, because I knew of all the benefits that come with it, and how I did that, I sort of explained too. I you know, I asked people that have already done that, and um it I I got all the camera gear, and then it's uh it's a lot of trying and error and testing what works and how you feel comfortable with. Uh that said, it is a lot more work that people uh think. You know, you gotta film yourself, you gotta think of concepts, you gotta always think you and me like actual founders, not the the people that you know are not actual founders or they run you know other sort of uh say business models that don't take that much boots on the ground uh type of business where you have to be on calls and uh actually executing. Uh for them it's uh probably a little bit easier, but actual build founders building a startup and like working 15 hours a day, it's hard man to think about the camera. Oh shit, I should have uh put on the camera, I have to do this, I have to do that. And although you're documenting and not actively doing content, it's still a lot of um headspace that it takes. So uh you should never underestimate that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

For sure. No, it's a ton of work. And um, you know, I know I know Daniel super well as well. And I I used to always be fascinated with the amount of like raw time he put into recording. And so I guess my follow-up question to you is like, okay, I know why you do it. What has it given you? You talk about access. What has it given you for day one specifically? Like, you know, maybe even if you think about something as broad as your channel mix, I'm sure you spend cash in a lot of places for media dollars. Have you ever like backed out and tried to figure out what percent of your overall channel mix is actually coming just from your organic personal brand?

SPEAKER_01 15:53

What it brought for the one a lot, a lot in the sense in in many ways, in many areas. Um I'll I'll try to to cover them and not make a two-hour talk about it because I could talk a lot about it. But it definitely helps. It helps um getting people that want to work with you because they're they're really fascinated about the vision and the mission that you're you're pursuing. And it's super easy to to find people. If I post a story with the tally link, like uh sort of a form, uh type form uh thing, uh looking for whatever a cutter or uh a marketing manager or whatever, I really get 500 to 2,000 applications within a few hours.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah, insane.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

That's unheard of. It's it's crazy. And a lot of a lot of people are just you know weird at just getting started and maybe not as qualified as you you you would wish, but they will get there eventually. So you you're still you know educating the people that at some point they're gonna be very valuable for the company or for you or interesting to hang out with. But there's also a lot of qualified leads that actually ended up being uh team members, and I work with a lot of them. That's number one. The second thing is, of course, the the network that you create. I got people reaching out to me that are billionaires, that I looked up to, and you know, heirs of multi-multi-billion dollar companies that that are well known, founders that that are so much further than me and in the entrepreneurial world that I look up to, and they think it's cool what I do. I was like, wait a minute, you you bro, you're like 20 years before me, like ahead of me, and and that's super cool. Then you connect with them because you've got people following you that want to be like you, or they resonate with what you're doing because they they went through that, they find it interesting to see what they went through and they're already a lot further, or they're in the middle of the process, and from so many areas from people that have large companies that they you know in in sort of boring businesses to sell windows, um, but that is sitting on huge amounts of cash and a lot of expertise in terms of hiring or whatever, and you have a lot to learn from them, and also people that are exactly in the niche that I am at, and also people that are you know more on the on the fancier side with AI, and you you learn a lot from them. So the network uh thing is also crazy. Like you you get so many people um that want to talk with you and that you can learn from. It's uh it's super insane. I mean, probably like if you think about your other guests that you've had on the pod, that the Dutch Mafia, um, they're very good friends of mine, and we hanged out in Cape Town uh last year in November when I was preparing for uh for the Black Week. Hanging out with them, like we're on the same mission. We all you know, we're all in e-com and we exchange ideas of how we run our ad strategies, what is the email strategy? We exchange contacts, I give them suppliers, they give me um whatever e-com um strategists uh for for ad campaigns, so I don't know, a lot of things, and we're sitting on the same boat doing the same thing. And although if we if we cross path on a cafe or through common friends, we probably would have gotten friends either way, but I guess it accelerates these processes and enables to do that on a worldwide scale. Well, you don't have to be physically in the in the same room in order to meet these people, but you you actually through the personal brand get to know them. So that's uh that's a super valuable thing too. And the sort of egoistic thought of it behind it that you actually can share what it takes because we all want to get this confirmation that we're half workers and uh you know that what we got we deserve, because people think everything is luck, and it you got it from your family, you got it here, you you got lucky, you got this, you got that, and you actually are now capable of showing what it actually took in order to get it, and it it gives a lot of satisfaction that people don't think you drive the Ferrari because you got lucky, but rather because you were actually super hardworking. And I I felt that a lot also in the family because they have now access to actually seeing what I'm actually doing, because it's sort of complex for people to understand, especially if you have multiple brands and you know, investment portfolio and brands. It's a relatively new business concept that a lot of older people can't comprehend, especially in the in the e-commer world, because they they think well you've you've got something digital going on, it's a little thing working, and it it's easier for them to understand. But also in in your friend space, you know, they respect a lot more what you're doing because they actually see down this guy is really working. Because as a founder, if you're successful, you are still a unicorn, right? If you're successful in the you in the young age, you're even more of a unicorn. And if you and then you've you've got access to some money, then you do crazy trips every now and then, and that's all the people remember. Oh, you've been on this crazy trip, that's your life. It's a fuck no, it's not. It's uh once every every now and then, and and and I work five times what with what people do, and now I'm able of transmitting that, and that's although it's an egoistic thing, it gives a lot of satisfaction. And I guess last but not least, that's something that comes throughout the time and through the process, is that you got a lot of positivity coming your way of people that got impacted by what you do, and they like, hey, you inspired me to do that, you inspired me to build a company. Now I have retired my parents. I'm getting goosebumps just for telling it because it is so beautiful, and probably the most satisfying out of all these things that I said is that you actually help people, at least they did that's what they say, right? Uh, you never know uh how much of the impact it really was. But um just hearing that and and you know, getting the idea of that you're actually capable of helping. A lot of people say that Tony Robbins mentions it in in its books and it's a lot more satisfying than buy yourself stuff as gifting things. And I have to to admit that uh it truly does, like being capable of hearing like hearing that you've helped someone like um in a very deep way and you hear like crazy stories, it really is super satisfying, gives you motivation to stick to it, and you know, even though you're completely destroyed by work and overloaded with a million things and fires to to burn, you still grab the camera because it gives it fuels the mission. And that's probably the the last the last reason, but probably the the biggest. I I was just in a in a in a restaurant and a guy came up to me and gave me a huge letter that he wrote while he was having dinner and how I impacted his life, and uh it's just beautiful, man. And the more people you can inspire to do that, not because I think I'm super cool or what I do is crazy, it's just showing that we're on the same journey. I work too, you know. I'm it's normal, man. It's normal to be tired, it's normal to work 15 hours. It's it's not it doesn't come out of in a magical way the success, you know. So it makes it more relatable to people that it's achievable because they don't see just the Ferraris saying that's impossible. They see, oh, he's 15, he's working 15 hours a day, too. It took him that process. I can follow step by step what he did, and he did that too. He started there too. He didn't start with uh Bugatti's.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Hey, I'm Anish, and I just want to quickly give you more context on the world of elevator. Elevator goods is where we build our brands from the ground up, owning the product, operations, and growth. Elevator Capital is where we invest in brands worth betting on, backing founders of capital, mentorship, and connections. Elevator Talks is where we document it all, sitting down with operators who've actually done it, going deep on their frameworks, their numbers, and the decisions they made to move the needle. Elevator Creators is where we help creators build brands, leveraging their audience and turning them into a real business. The studio is our private members club with its first location in Hong Kong. Built for founders and operators who want to be around people building at the same level. If you're building a brand and you want the systems and the playbooks to do so, you're in the right place. Check the link in bio to learn more. So, last but not least, thank you so much. Please subscribe because that will help us a ton in getting you better guess and more wisdom and more value. We really appreciate it. And back to the show. Everything you're saying is um is amazing. And and honestly, you've teed me up perfectly for the my next question, which is like, you know, I I think well, let me just say this really quickly to respond to the building public. I couldn't agree more on the fact that people in today's day and age who watch content, they just kind of assume that you got lucky and that you were instant success overnight. You know, as a founder myself, I I work I've been working you know 8, 9 a.m. till one, two in the morning every single day over 10 years. Literally. And people don't see that. Like, you know, they they just don't see that. And how could they? It's and that's really where the magic happens. It happens in the in the early morning or in the middle of the night when you get in a ha moment or you get a breakthrough or you have a good conversation with someone on your team. And so I think the way you do it is awesome. It's not just look how sick my life is, but it's also like, hey, like this is this is it, this is the grind, this is the sauce. And I think this like new generation of building in public features that, whereas maybe the previous one was mostly just about the flexing. And clearly you're showing a side of like vulnerability and privacy that is like resonating with people.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Um, and I think that's really what what was your reason to start the podcast after being a founder for 10 years?

SPEAKER_00 25:52

My story is funny because it's actually similar to yours. His name is Voitech. He literally was we we wanted to, you know, we were talking about a show, and I wanted to feature founders without my face. I've actually never told this story, but I I didn't want to be involved. I'm a pretty private person by nature. And he was like, no, dude, you have to be involved. And I pushed back. And finally, him and another guy on our team, Brian, forced me to do the first episode, literally forced me. Um, it was just going to be like if we were interviewing you, it would just be you, like you talking and us asking questions behind the scenes. I really wanted to feature founders. I I love talking to founders, but I didn't want myself to be involved. And then, anyways, we did the first episode. It was with a guy named Roman in Hong Kong, and it was super well received. And I actually had a lot of fun, genuinely like loved the conversation, loved it.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

I watched that episode, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Yeah, I mean, that was a perfect one for me because Roman's also a friend, and so we had like a nice natural rapport, but that's how it started. Voy tech literally forced me to do it, and here we are. I mean, it's it's it's it's new and it's it's growing, but that's that's really how it started.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

That's amazing. You're doing you're doing so good. Uh like you're doing a nice job for humanity, I think, to empower people and give uh these people a platform. And uh I I'm I'm just waiting for your podcast to come out about your story.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

So, you know, and the other thing I wanted to say is really about this podcast, is it's really about what you said, which is like the details. I think all too often, and so that's why I want to transition to day one now, which is like the details. I think all too often people they tell their founding story, they talk about their success, how epic their business is. And this podcast is more about let's get into the details of like what it really means to operate. Like, what are you doing? What's the sauce? What are the tactics? Like, and so now to pivot to day one, like where are you guys at? I'd love to hear sort of in whatever you can share, details on the business, the scale you're at, maybe like what you feel like you've accomplished versus where you think you're going.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Uh we we share everything really transparently. So I can you can really ask uh very uh in detail questions. We we share the not the exact numbers, but uh very good idea of where we're we are at revenue-wise. And I mean right now we're doing uh well this month month multiple seven figures this month, but we also had a huge campaign going on. Another day one campaign it was the the Ardas uh Cyborg season, and around that we obviously market uh day one a lot, um, which is that the the brand strategy essentially what I found out is I I built my my first company, I built and scaled through ads, right? So no personal brand, no organic marketing, sort of a little bit, but but not much. And what I realized is that through organic marketing campaigns and creating personal brands, the recognizable the ads get a lot cheaper. To give you an idea, when we ran ads uh during that campaign, we had ROAS of 30. We we were just scaling, we were just keep scaling, keep scaling, keep scaling. I saw the metrics all the time. I told the the the um the performance our performance market to keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing, and we're gonna sell out. That's what that's where it is. I mean, I guess there's probably a bit more uh complex a strategy behind whether you want to be sold out or not, and what does it mean for your business in the next couple of months and stuff? But we got a lot of new products coming, so I evaluated that and it was a taking decision that we want to sell out, but that's probably a different topic. Um, so we are now we have uh yeah, six-figure amount of customers. Uh we probably gonna do yeah, I mean eight-figure revenue. Um, that's what we do. Uh, this year um we we grow 400 to 500 percent year over year every month. That's so crazy. Like the the the growth is absolutely bananas, and now we we're uh we're growing uh a lot by paid media, like running ads, and we also experiment a lot with uh ads where you see the faces of the founders and where you don't, and some of the ads that where you don't are running even better because now uh sort of the the the brand has created a good brand awareness by itself that they uh the products perform by themselves, which is which is amazing, and uh you know that has been the our both uh for my episode partner Arda and for me the plan. So so this is great. And now what we want to do next is rolling out the other strategies from our business case, which is an athlete program. We can basically run campaigns for other athletes, and we have the track record that now over the last two and a half years. So we've got a lot of um crazy athletes reaching out to us that want to change from wherever they are to us, and also I've got a lot of fans that are sponsored by legacy brands that we all know, and they actually were day one and they're uh in their free time all the time. They were like, uh, can I just can I come to you? Can I come to you? Can I come to you? And we're growing so fast just by the way we're doing it, that you know how cash flow intensive e-commerce is. Uh, we have a large seven-figure amount cash sitting in the bank right now because uh it is we look so profitable that now we can and we will just launch a new products, new products, new products, and and pushing everything and we have taken nothing out of the company, not a single salary to us, not a uh we haven't paid ourselves anything. I just paid the money back that I initially invested. That's it, everything else is in the company, and now we've got enough um own capital to roll out the athlete program, the international rollout, obviously. So uh when I my idea is that when I come into a new country, I want to get into the company with an impact, not only running ads in Spain or whatever, but rather looking for Spanish athlete that we can run a crazy campaign with. He does something extraordinary and we put our growth marketing expertise into his campaign, and not only he grows in audience and reach, which is you know the primary goal of uh of athletes. So not only are we uh getting him a lot of attention and reach and new followers, but also we are implementing the brand in a very authentic way because they won't stay stay stands for brutal performance. It's you versus you, it's very rough, it's a very it's it's it's a David Gorgian style of communicating, let's say. We don't we don't uh post like uh flowery uh pictures and it's very very rough uh language that we use without getting disrespectful. Very, very raw, yeah. That that that's probably the the right terminology. And therefore, we want to do crazy campaigns with crazy athletes that do something extraordinary, and that's how we want to enter these markets running a huge marketing campaign around them, placing day one, and then that's when you enter the the country, and that's when you start running ads escape because the ads all of a sudden get a lot cheaper, and that's where you uh you can run these ads. And these athletes usually don't cost us anything because what I figured with creators that there's one thing that they want more than collecting money is gathering more reach in order to have a larger impact, uh, which makes total sense because essentially that's a business model, right? Having uh a large audience. And if you can enable them to have a larger audience and you have a proven track record that you have done that successfully at a large scale, for us we've done it, you know, in the largest possible way. In Europe, we totally say in a legitimate way, hey, we're gonna do that with that with you too. And then they jump on the board and we're on the same mission, and then we create something super cool for them, providing them with infrastructure ideas, concepts, and um you know, financing all of that, and then getting it out to the world. So that's sort of the idea of the international rollout. And now we're exploring also. I mean, obviously, we're growing in team members because you know, as a founder, at first you do uh almost everything by yourself, it seems like. And uh, now we've hired a super super good CEO that we work with, that he was previously at a high eight-figure company, very well known in the e-com space, and um, he's he's amazing, and we're getting a lot of new team members in that you know help us to um uh approach more tactics and more you know marketing uh areas. We are launching new products, we're launching shoes after next to me. Um super pro excited for them, and new product categories, and um yeah, probably the international rollout is what I'm most excited about, um, which hopefully will start uh very soon. And we are now being approached by a lot of a lot a lot a lot of brands, uh legacy brands that want to work with us or acquire us actually, or acquire a minority or majority state. We've got venture capital uh reaching out to us to us, we've got PEs reaching out to us, private equity funds uh that would like to acquire us, uh strategists, and we're we're we're in talks with a lot of them and evaluating our possibilities. And a lot of things seem very promising. And we've got enough cash and expertise, I would say, in order to do that by ourselves. But if there is a way of accelerating that by a lot and getting from A to B faster, um it's definitely something we we're exploring. And that's that's super fun too and rewarding to see what we've created and only a timestamp of two years. That's also something we're exploring.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Is the mode community, would you say? Like if you really had to you know define it in a super overly simple way, is is it the community you built?

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Yes, our community mean means a lot to us, and um we've got a high re uh retention rate, the CLV is great, and they're very loyal and stand behind the brand because also they've seen everything from the very beginning, from when when Arda started his first run and being also capable of seeing everything that stands behind the brand and how we built it. It seems very approachable and they seem sort of a part of it. We've got 43,000 people in the WhatsApp group that we that we share everything with, and we let them decide stuff. Hey, should we bring out the the new yellow colorway for the windbreakers? What do you think about these caps? I should we launch this and that, and they feel part of the process. So that's definitely uh a huge thing for us, and that we put a lot of work in is uh to create this uh community. And also, if you followed, I I'm gonna share my next YouTube video the um the marketing strategy we had uh during Artist Run, but we've been doing uh in the background with the email marketing campaigns. It's a lot of community building and gives them the idea that they're part of it because they are. It wouldn't be possible without them, and we let them feel that and we show how grateful we are. And it's um uh yeah, 100% community is for us a very important way of doing that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

One thing I love about the way you approach it too, which is actually almost you're like speaking of the Dutch mafia, our our friends, you know, it's it's it's different. It's you you really and I'd love to hear more about it, but you really focus more on brand and community versus growth marketing. And my my question for you is like, how are you investing into the infrastructure behind that? Like maybe you could talk me through like what does your org chart look like in terms of like the key roles of how to support these big stunts, these big campaigns, like someone you know, finding a new athlete in a new country. That's very complex work. Like, what's what have you invested into to support that organization?

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Honestly, it's pure chaos. It seems a lot more organized than it actually is. We will we go a lot with the flow too. So I wish I had this with marketing campaigns. I'm very strategic about, and uh, I have huge. If you look at my videos and also live streams, I I built huge charts with SOPs and well, what is the flow, flow charts for different things? How do we post, how do we uh do this and that? On all other areas, it's very chaotic, as it should be on a startup, I guess. But it's not that I'm not focused on growth marketing, it's just that I'm so focused on the brand building that the the what the Dutch uh mafia is uh great at solos falls behind. So I would love that I would love to do that at scale and have as many ads running as they they have, and so many iterations during the ads. I know in theory what would how it works, and I've done it with my previous brands, but um this current brand is so much about the brand building, and it's growing so rapidly in all areas that I can't focus enough on that, and I'm not good enough in hiring and fast enough in order to um to get there. You know, as a founder, I'm good in certain certain areas, and I'm not as good in in other areas, or I I prioritize other areas more than than the others. In an ideal scenario, uh, we would have the manpower to to do everything really good, and also the the marketing as good as um, you know, Doran Rose and the other uh the old brands of for instance uh or X, etc. uh do it, just to mention brands uh of friends. And um it's not that I I don't think it's important, it's just uh that I have the capacity in order to do that. I wish I had. And we're working, we're working on that. On on the how do we what do we do in order to find athletes? We are in the process, so I can't talk from really experienced that we have closed an athlete. We are in talks with athletes, and the reach out is actually relatively easy. One, because we have the track record already. Secondly, they've probably seen Arda running around the world already getting billions of it's insane how much reach he has gotten. He and his team have done also an amazing job, and also with Rebull, but they really nailed it, and um that also enables us if we reach out, uh, that that you know it lands right on the spot. And also we've got a lot of athletes reaching out us out to us, so that that certainly helps. Uh, for instance, I some I love to do marketing campaigns. I really love it. And I and I've done something for a huge um uh chess creator with our infrastructure, with designers and the eye that we use and things and the way we think. And I've done it in in one and a half hours. And you know, I just I just did it for fun and I sent it to them. And um then they're they're like, oh shit, that that's actually super nice. And uh it's as easy as as that. Once you you've done the blueprint, it's quite easy to to to replicate. Yeah, and if you have the track record, it certainly helps too. And that's just uh the way the way we do it. The the amount of athletes and creators worldwide that reach out to uh do concepts and creative thinking with them and just around their campaigns is like the names we're talking peak, peak, peak world champions in their their stuff is uh insane. I wish I had the time to fulfill all of that uh or the infrastructure. If I if I if I could uh quadruple me, I would do a brand with each of them. And luckily, if they're athletes themselves, we can impact them into the day one infrastructure, which we're working on, but uh theoretically I could launch multiple brands uh for them. But I I I just don't have the time.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

It's funny, you keep teeing me up for like you keep teeing me up perfectly for the question I want to ask. Um you had mentioned earlier like that you're a startup. It's funny because when I see your brand, both your personal brand and day one, it's not really giving startup to me, it's giving actually quite established. And so I guess, but but of course, and trust me, I know the feeling, it it kind of always feels like a startup. But I guess my question is if you could make a couple key hires right now, you know, maybe put aside budget regardless of budget, just like what what are like in your head, what are like the three roles that you wish you could fill like this?

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Well, the CO was certainly uh it was like an extension of mine, which is so we tackle things that I would tackle, we just tackled them both and we split it because I know he does it um great or even better than me. Um I think a CFO would be amazing to to do the accounting stuff and you know bringing uh infrastructure uh on that. Um someone really, really good in content. I'm very picky with the content that we put out there and the way everything looks. And that is often delaying things. Let's say we run email marketing. Now I have an email market that is uh that has a really good taste and negates it most of the times, but until we send anything out, I have to look into it and I have to make sure that looks sick and looks and transmits their corporate identity that we have created for they want. And I I I I wish I was less picking that, we probably accelerate faster. And probably a key hire would be someone that is on top of that, and we we can post more regularly on Instagram and reels and stuff because he's overwatching that and he has exactly the taste that. that it takes and we're working we're working uh here and there with with some people that are very promising and but someone at a C level chief of content let's let's I don't know if that will exist but that that would probably be a huge help and other than that I really enjoy doing the other things yeah I'm I'm very involved in the product development I did design and uh develop most of the products for shoes for instance the process it's I hired one of the best designers in Europe because I knew his designs were top notch but until we finally launch a shoe the process is very long because I have a very good idea of what fits the static and which runs so many loops and but he helped a lot for instance like as someone that has already taste I hired him he's relatively expensive but amazing and we're now launching a shoe that fits perfectly into the brand that I really like too but I'm also flying to Portugal now next week so that takes three days and a lot of iteration stuff so I really if I if it the one superpower that I that I needed to learn is probably how to hire better.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

How to hire how to delegate yeah it's funny because I I see you you like want to reach for the shoes but I'm assuming you can't show it just yet and I I can see that like urge you just want to grab it and show me.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

And I guess like just as a follow-up to that you know how how would you describe your leadership style? Because it the the way I see it again just based on watching you through your content is you're you you're sort of like a lead by example kind of guy you kind of you show the hard work you show the work ethic you just said it yourself you're sort of like a micromanager like you need to you need a final sign off on that email. Yeah how would you describe your leadership sort of sort of like in the past maybe and where you want to go as well like how what kind of leader do you want to be in the future?

SPEAKER_01 45:52

I guess I I lead by example people know that I love that I work a lot and most people that that work within our team um you know came through that process um and they they sort of know what they're getting into. But my expectations are very very high and because I have a very I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I want that from my team as as well. And they're they're doing an amazing job but sometimes we don't end up working with that person because I don't have the feeling they're putting the work behind that that they should and also they don't have the attention to detail. But I guess the leadership style would be a lead by example and it's a very familiar thing. So we are we we you know we hang out in the office and we also talk like person stuff but it's and we call each other bros and stuff like whilst getting you know keeping that sort of uh relationship that uh they're working uh for the company and I'm still the boss and I can tell them stuff we're still very you know in a friendly uh base and we have a lot of fun together the the leader that I want to become that's a great question uh people think when they watch your content and they see the the the success and the brands that people are perfect entrepreneurs they're the perfect leaders they're perfect dad and they do everything right we don't neither of the friends that I have and most certainly not me I have a lot of friends that I that it also appear to me like they're doing everything fantastic and they're great but for me it's uh not the case so it's very chaotic we have a lot of fires to burn I don't I'm not great in a lot of things I I think I'm great in in a lot of stuff that we do but I'm also I have a lot of area to to grow a lot of space to grow that's why I like you know hanging out with people like you and other founders because we we feel fill each other's gaps you know we we learned that uh yeah I just wanted to to to to say it out loud because people sometimes when they whether not because we have also viewers they're just getting started and they think they're like gods and they they do everything perfect. We don't let me tell you that we don't we can God no yeah it's fuck so so with that said I want to improve a lot I feel my I feel that I'm in the very beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. I think there's a lot to share in the next 10 15 20 years and it's going to evolve a lot um I hope towards the future that I'm I'm less operational like less involved in the operations although I really love it I really enjoy it building campaigns in 2 a.m with the team that's it's my hobby like I don't I don't was serious yesterday I built a campaign for chess creator because I uh I watched this content and I and I thought it was super cool and I put my time I was like okay I'm gonna invest one hour 45 minutes that's what I have and I told Claude hey this is this is what we have on time let's build a campaign because that's what I'm passionate about and so I I want to become less operational whilst occasionally you know doing the stuff I love but being a a better leader in larger organizations and you know learning that how it is to to manage uh more people that's that's what I what I hope to become in the future.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

Amazing so I want to get into advice for new entrepreneurs something we've noticed with our show and our following is there's a lot of people just getting started and um that's why they they watch they want they want to watch guys like you and and hear what you've been up to. And so my question is if someone has an idea but hasn't started strip it back what what are the few things they should do as they think about getting started in 2026.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

That's a that's a great idea. I did a video uh I think half a year ago but I think since the last video things have evolved so quickly because of AI that probably it's a little a little more different. I think well I think I I think you at first I think you have to get the expectations right and probably like going to the gym you're gonna you're not gonna go one week to the gym and look like I don't know a bodybuilder you know uh that's not how it works. You you know you're gonna get there and you're gonna get better step by step every time you get there and you're gonna have to do a lot of work and it's gonna take time. And I I would see entrepreneurship the same way. It's like okay I'm gonna find something I'm gonna learn the skills towards the process that might be the business that leads like gets me to a million dollars or whatever the your your uh amount is and that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna wake up I'm gonna develop my skills and I'm gonna build something um that said I also think you shouldn't overthink too much on what you want to build and learn constantly new skills and watch 15000 youtubers and um and podcasts and books and stuff and and you know getting comfortable with I'm being productive because I read stuff and I yes it's great but at the end of the day you gotta sit behind your desk and you gotta find found something and just start with something you're gonna pivot 50 million times. Paypal pivoted multiple times until they got their business model right but we all pivoted million times it's fine just start something learn how to uh um what company setup uh do do I need do uh I get get involved with that but also don't overthink and I need to move to Dubai to save taxes you know do it someone but you know get get started first and then uh found your friends company if you want to move out of the country because you want to save taxes sell the company but that's not the first step yeah get get involved with things but don't overthink them and make AI your best friend and your best mentor I would say because you can literally go on cloud and be like hey I want to launch an e-comm product oh probably my advice would be start with e-com because it's a great start ground starting ground there's a lot of infrastructure to work on a lot of people that have done it and a lot of things that you can see and adapt. So that's probably the a great first step to to learn entrepreneurship and learn what it takes and then if you want to then evolve towards another thing uh great but I think it's a great starting ground for the first company and then ask Claw hey I want to launch a dog supplement company uh what do I need to do? What are the key pillars and then getting get really good in asking questions normally towards mentors today I would say I say in asking questions uh to the LLMs like Claude ChatTPT uh whatever your um your um your LLM of of of uh is that you want to work with and then once you've got that also don't know what thing about the product just okay it's gonna be top supplements done how do you find suppliers boom list okay I'm gonna write 100 suppliers clot write me an email that is high convertive what do I need to say also uh write me five different types of emails uh split them in clusters so I can see what what is the email approach that works best one where I say I am a total beginner and I need someone to help me out with or once what I said I have already built a company it's gonna be super scalable and um I sound like I'm already very experienced with what are the lead times what are the MOQs you know questions that an experienced e-commercer would ask if you send out that so you have multiple approach you got your product then you look what are the best websites out there for e-commerce door and rows amazing they they look the door and rows is best in practice okay they look amazing from your your guest uh Vince uh bob was also here already right yep yeah so these guys nail it yeah it's bro nowadays you can literally put the the their or other brands that you find cool within your niche into Figma design uh figma to design and you got everything there and then you put it on cloud and be like hey think design something on that base and you put the you use codecs and then you you get this the the the code you put in Shopify and you essentially have the shop already so it was never easier than today to create something out of the ground you have three pls that do essentially everything you just sent them the goods they fulfill everything do you have manufacturing has is easier than never because of also brands of Vince and Daniel that help you fulfill from from China without having to reach out to to a company that doesn't seem approachable from an European standpoint because the UPR from China is nothing new but they have made it so approachable that's amazing for someone that's studying new yeah it gives you the comfort to work with them because they speak your language they speak that you have all the CI looks more like you used to and you work faster with them. So it was never easier than today and then have the product have the website look what works organically within that niche go on TikTok talk supplements look 15 creators that had a lot of views on certain videos great you now have to hook for your next UGC then you either hire someone that does it you do it as a founder which is great also to create your own personal brand or you you say I know this because you won't be able to to uh distinct it maybe if you're not really good at prompting you do but three months down the road you're not gonna notice any difference so you copy the changes slightly because you don't want to copy cat but and then adapt it towards your product if that if it works organically there's a high chance it's gonna work on on the ads manager as well put on your ads manager run ads at a very small scale at first because you may not have capital enough to do that and then go from there. And once you have that create a nice pitch deck with you have the product you have the website everything looks sleek and nice and clean because it's very easy nowadays to do so reach out to a few investors and be like hey I'm already doing that I need a little bit of uh capital to finance uh the growth but I have everything already and that's a lot better pitch for someone like you and me and all the other guys that we know and be like yeah this guy is driven I'm gonna put give him 50k in order to or even just make credibility towards the bank so if he gets money so you don't even need to put cash in. And then he because that's what people want to walk at people that are okay but we are doers I'm I already I'm doing everything you just give me money I'm gonna scale that because we invest in people you've heard that a million times in all the shows but it's really how it is and then you go out there you find your first product you do it for one or two years man you're gonna be a businessman entrepreneur for the next 50 so who cares what you're gonna do the the first two three years. Do whatever works learn a lot and then you do an accident you don't but even if you fuck it up after three years you reach out to people like you guess and be like hey I've done it I I know what it takes to become a founder I know your struggle let me work for you so I can learn how to do it better. I know he's not gonna be here forever he wants to find found a company eventually he knows that but we can agree okay the next two years you're gonna you're gonna kill it and then I'm gonna let you go and I might even invest in your company you're gonna build in two years because you're gonna be amazing and that that's that's a roadmap it's actually it sounds so so easy and it uh it takes obviously a lot of work but the the steps how to get there are very transparent and and easy to comprehend for the work behind obviously it's a lot of work what you just delivered is a quite literally masterclass in like e-commerce in 2026 and also an unbelievable series of advice for anyone frankly speaking so that was amazing and just to sort of tie it in I guess this question's very subjective and I'm I'm I'm actually super curious to hear what you would say but look you're obviously you know I wouldn't say the later stage of your career but you're certainly midway somewhere along the way you're not just getting started out you still have a long way to go someone's 22 21 years old whatever just getting started out let's say e-commerce what's the like capital requirement these days would you say you know where it's like hey unless you've got 50 grand don't even bother like what is that number in your head yeah I have can I give two or three answers to that the different different approaches so obviously when we found it day one I had already an infrastructure the knowledge I've been in textile for five years already when I started and I brought a half a million and so we could sell that much later down the road the further you are the easier or the faster you can grow so that's an amazing thing to know that it's gonna get better. That said if you just start there's also different approaches to it it has never been easier to start with almost nothing where man when I first started I don't even know if it's possible nowadays with a with a meta ads uh manager but I ran ads on products that were not existing okay I looked at the CPCs and the CPAs I like it great then I start generating the by the way I still do that I'm I'm doing that still works well that's that's amazing and then you have proof of contact okay the CPAs are the the cost per acquisition let's say I don't know let's make up some numbers 10 euros uh your product costs 10 euros you sell it for 100 that sounds like a very uh reasonable um uh your business model um I do it you obviously the more ads you run the larger the scale the the more ad budget the smarter the the meta becomes the better the uh it it sends out the the ads the cheaper they they become this obviously if you only run 50 euros of ads you're not gonna have a large enough database in order to to get that but you get an idea of what is the feedback of the customers do they like it or not and it certainly helps to identify whether that's gonna work or not so that's if you have a already a little bit of money in order to invest in the in the ads but you can sell products that are not existing and then you you communicate with the customer hey listen uh it's gonna take a little longer for whatever reason or you cancel the order or whatever. It's not the best practice but if you're not really starting from the from from zero there's literally no excuse to that and then if someone I I usually don't go with so rough punchlines uh out there uh because you know it's always uh you you always get some some traction but there's no excuse okay you have a nine to five job okay do you want to build a work on the weekends on the bar I've done it I was washing uh plates I was a barkeeper I was a bartender uh I worked at the construction site there's always ways of making money um even if it's you can do it with AI helping a lot of stuff obviously but you can also if it's 2,000 euros that you need bro do you're watching look on your screen time on iF on the iPhone look on Netflix uh how much time you spent there or even with friends or going out or soccer and then tell me that you didn't have the five hours per week in order to to make some extra money in order to finance uh your dream you didn't want it enough most of the there's exceptions obviously before the people start you know saying it there are 100% exceptions I agree and uh some people have it harder some people have some sort of uh disability or they you know they're parents and they have kids and they obviously have to put more time towards the kids and it's not an ex it's not a Netflix excuse but this most of the times I'm talking about most of the times there is ways of financing your dream and if you didn't do that it's because you were not honest enough to you and you didn't want it enough I've seen people that had a very heart in the past and with disabilities and a lot of stuff that people would definitely use as a good excuse to not do it and they did it because they wanted it enough. Now I'm not saying the whole life is about working and you should not go and play with your your buddies soccer that's not what I'm saying. But there is phases in life where you have to put in a little bit of extra work if you want that little extra life. If you don't want it it's okay we have all different values and if your values are differently I encourage you to follow them and be good and what you like if it's you know becoming a good chess player that doesn't make you much money but then go all in on that you know be passionate about it and work on it. And if it's not about money not what we're not what what we are doing it doesn't mean it's right for everybody. It's right for us because we love it. But someone other people have different values but what I'm saying what I'm to this you didn't want it enough if you want to do what we're doing and what other people are doing in a larger scale then that's the way to go and then if you don't want it it's fine. But if you want it don't find excuses because money in this in 2026 a shortage of money is not an excuse you can literally build almost everything in front of your laptop or even with your phone with an uh free LL.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:18

It's yeah I mean it's perfectly said and honestly what's blowing my mind right now and you gotta come check it out next time you're in Hong Kong or China but we've got this studio where there's you know 15 20 founders working out of there all e com it's absolutely blowing my mind how quickly people are building businesses right now and standing it up from zero going from zero to seven figures in like a month and then going to eight figures within the year. And it's not even I'm not even talking about one person that just was an anomaly. I'm talking about it's just like happening in front of my eyes over and over again. Um and I don't want to say it in this way but it's not that hard right like we're not Elon Musk. We're not putting rockets in space and then bringing him back to Earth and landing him with like a fork clip. Like you know it's I I don't I don't want to demean the work because it like we spoke about earlier it's so much hard work and you know I can tell just from talking to you and even my own personal experience it's an unbelievable amount of hard work and grind and you will fail and you will eat shit and you will have really really difficult periods. But compared to what it could have been it's so much easier than you know if you were starting a business 10 years ago or honestly two years ago. And so to me it's like the most exciting time ever to be an entrepreneur and that's why we have this podcast is to talk to other entrepreneurs. So I want to get into a rapid segment just to close the close the episode first and foremost favorite brand that's not yours favorite brand that is not mine.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:08

Great question like consumer brand or like in general consumer brand consumer brand I'm so focused on mine right now okay let's say drill drill is um electrolyte brand from two of my friends and I've seen them launching it from the scratch and they're doing so so good and I have a bunch of it in my fridge but I would have to but check it out it's it's amazing um great execution everything just done from the scratch because they founded a lot of brands in the in the in the past and like you can see how everything falls into place and they know exactly from the very beginning okay that's what you gotta do bum bum bum bum bum and they've done an an amazing job and uh that's a brand that I I'm always head to toe in day one or and drinking drill. So if I had probably the most honest answer would be them drill.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:00

Amazing. One book, podcast, or person that sort of like changed how you build and and how you operate as an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

One book. Well, I'm looking at a lot of them. I love to read, and that's one thing that I did before this whole e-com AI bubble uh started and took off. Uh my main advice uh was just read more. There's a lot of all these mentors that seem not reachable, have put the all the knowledge together in one book, and you can simply buy it for 10 bucks or even rent it in a library. And there's amazing mentors out there. And I would say one book that is an amazing foundation for everything in life, not only entrepreneurship, uh would be from Tony Robbins. The I think in English it's the power method or something like that. Power principle, power from Tony Robbins. That's an amazing book, and that really changed the way I uh approach things in life. Uh so it helps not only for entrepreneurship but in your entire life. And podcasts, they're there, there are many. I would say all-in podcasts is amazing. You've got four founders, uh not you know, they they're just saying whatever they think uh without uh it's it's uh really funny to see, and they they they give you a good idea, over the idea of how the world on a on a macro scale is operating right now, and that puts everything in perspective when you're dealing with uh smaller issues within your company. Then they talk about something that Elon Musk is doing, you're like, okay, yeah, I gotta relax. I'm gonna get over this. And uh you also get a good knowledge. Not only that, you should also listen to other podcasts because they talk also political stuff, and you should, you know, cover the the whole spectrum, but there's amazing elevator talks, um, of course, is amazing. And the um diary of the CEO is is great. I got the uh honor to see him live on the on the stage that I was also at after me, and he's that was very impressive how well articulated he is and how strategic he is in everything he does, and that was uh truly inspiring. So I I like uh him a lot and also the the podcast he's doing. So that these would be the podcast and my main book recommendation.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:20

Amazing, and it's funny because I Alin is probably my favorite non-ecom podcast too, and I have the exact same reaction to you. It's just like I'm so in this world of like Claude Shopify when it's like and I listen to you know Chamop or whoever, like David Sachs talk about like what's actually happening in the world. I'm just like, oh my god. Yeah, it's like a joke compared to like these guys, the way they talk about a macro. Okay, last few.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:51

So impressive.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:53

Biggest mistake first-time founders make.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:56

It's gotta be a controversial take because we also talked a lot about building in public. I think a lot of founders, again, they fall in love with the results, and also in the the building in public trap, where everybody says, Hey, you should document everything from the beginning, it's amazing, and it gives you personal brand. And everything that I was talking now about for one hour, 15 minutes, and what Gary Vee and all these other people say. And I see that almost every founder wants to build a personal brand because everybody says it's so important, and they fall into the trap that they spend more time creating their personal brand on building public than in actually building. And I think it's so easy to fall into that trap because then you you start without actually having to put the years of work, they already get the recognition and the reward is so faster there of hey, I'm actually super cool that I'm working hard and stuff, because everybody's telling me that because I'm posting a lot about stuff, that they lose the drive and also the attention towards what's really important, that building part of building in public. And I think that's a very large mistake that I see. It's probably not the biggest mistake that I've seen, but right now it's very present, and also especially after talking one hour about it. I want to emphasize that the building part is the important part of the building public. Document everything, and it's great to put it out there two years later. Or if you have found an infrastructure where you can put it out there without spending so much time, and what other reels can I create? Try reels here, and how do I cut and how does everything look aesthetic? Fuck it. Build on your brand, become an important, uh an interesting person, build an interesting product, an interesting journey that people will enjoy watching it, and then you go out there. And um, that's one thing that I've been seeing lately a lot, especially in the young, younger, uh, with the with the younger generation that wants to build a company. They they want to build a company to become famous, uh, rather than to become a good entrepreneur. And that's something very important.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:01

Yeah, you're just dropping gems. I mean, that's so true. Like building is the important part. There has to be layers, there has to be substance. It's not just about the floof. So good. Okay, last last two favorite software, you just literally cannot live without.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:15

I work a lot with Figma. I love I love Figma with everything. I'm a very ritual person, and even the brainstorming and everything is on Figma. And then if you want to call LLMs into software, but I mean I'm using it.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:29

I was gonna say I was I was gonna be like favorite software, but you cannot say Claude.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:36

Okay, then Figma.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

Okay. Um best last one, best investment you've ever made in your company.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:46

In my company, the best investment I've ever done in my company. Well, I mean uh hires, um for sure. I mean, what else could you uh invest in? Yes, obviously ads and stuff, that's an immediate um return of uh of uh invest. But like a MacBook is not the best invest, an Apple Studio, an office, an office helps, obviously. Now now because I've been building a lot of from the new apartment, but now we have the office that helps a lot. But 100% the best investment is a hire, and I would say I had I have to give credit to two hires that we did. One was my right hand, um, Malta. Huge shout out. Um, I would have not been able to build at the pace we were building if he wasn't an extension of me, grinding insane amount of hours, especially towards the launch of day one. Um, we're talking not sleeping for two days um prior to the launch. I wasn't sleeping either, but we were doing this together, and that was amazing. Finding someone that is on the same mission as you, especially if you're uh alone, as a founder alone, operator founder, then having someone that feels like you're on the same mission, that's an incredible hire uh and incredible investment. You can't pay that enough. And the second best investor would be an amazing graphic designer that brings everything into life that I had in my mind. And he's also been working, Benji. He's been working with me for four or five years across multiple companies and also grinding in insane amount of hours, putting his his things behind and also always uh thinking towards the mission. And uh a lot of the things you see, and the way it where it looks like you said it doesn't look like a startup anymore, it looks more of a of an established brand. It's um due to the work that we have both put together and he bringing everything to life that I had in my in my mind was an amazing investor. So these uh these two people were outstanding.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:53

Alvaro, I just want to say thank you. Um, you are I I I don't even know if you know it yourself, but just talking to you for you know 90 minutes or so, you are such a wise person and and such a gem of a human. Learned a lot. Uh it was really fascinating to hear your story, and also like the way you articulate your thoughts is really unique. Um, and it's it's been so so awesome talking to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:16

Thank you, brother. You were amazing, you're an amazing host. It's uh super nice to be on the pub with you. It's uh uh a very rewarding uh conversation, amazing questions, and honestly, I I would love to to connect and hang out sometimes because I want to hear your story. Um, and I was you know, it was very nice to be able to uh you know get get my words out there, but I would love to to hear more from you because uh I've I've heard amazing things and I'm gonna uh love to hear the extended version of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:45

Next time you're in China, bro, either you come to Hong Kong or I'll just come find you wherever you are in China. We'll we'll kick it.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:52

Done. Deal.