What Investors Are Really Looking For with Kim Perell

She was denied a business loan again, and again, and again.

Until she got her grandma to loan her some cash and she started her digital advertising business right at her kitchen table.

Long story short: Kim Perell is now a best-selling author, CEO, and a VERY prominent angel investor. Y’all she sold her last company for $235 million And she does it all with… no, not one… but TWO sets of twins.

In this episode, you’ll learn what criteria investors are looking for in companies and founders, the three signs it’s time to pivot your business, and how paying attention to the market can help you make better decisions.

Click play to hear all of this and…

(00:02:08) The importance of embracing uniqueness and self-belief.

(00:09:41) Kim’s pivot with her own digital advertising company.

(00:16:03) Three signs (and commonalities) that show when a business needs to pivot or a strategy isn’t working.

(00:22:28) The traits Kim looks for in founders who are seeking investment.

(00:26:01) Practical advice on how to pitch your ideas (and yourself) to potential investors.

(00:31:06) The concept of “earning out” in business sales.

(00:33:27) How market conditions led to making big big decisions.

(00:35:04) The importance of relationships in business and the power of networking.

(00:39:33) Seeking help: Should investees feel nervous or fearful when asking for help from investors?

(00:47:50) The financial aspects investors look for when being pitched.

(00:49:03) The need for vulnerability in acknowledging the challenges of entrepreneurship and supporting each other through the difficulties.

(00:49:35) The unseen hard work behind entrepreneurship.

(00:50:29) How to reach success in difficult economic situations.

(00:53:43) The role investors play in providing support beyond just financial backing.

For full show notes, visit: https://jasminestar.com/podcast/episode412

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Transcript

Jasmine Star (00:00:01) - It's a. Welcome back to The Jasmine Star Show. If you've been listening to recent podcast, I am joined by the one the only luminary brilliant, kind. Power spit in words, the Queen herself, Jen Gottlieb. Welcome back to The Jasmine Star Show. And as another reminder, Jen has been picking and curating the most powerhouse entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders, speakers to radically change your life and improve your peak performance. I have to tell you though, and I know I shouldn't show partiality. I am the eldest of five children, and my mom insists to this day that she doesn't have a favorite child. I have one child and I'm like, I would be hand to heaven shirt. I'm going to be picking a favorite. I am so excited for this episode. I'm just going to literally just anticipating these amazing conversations with nobody else. Then CEO, best selling author and prominent investor and AKA I'm going to spill the tea. She sold one of many businesses for $235 million. Welcome to the show, Kim.

Jasmine Star (00:01:13) - I am so happy you're here. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you, thank you. I want to turn it over to Jen, because I wanted her to put a little bit of a context around why she specifically chose you. Okay, so I know that when I physically react just in the beginning, nothing has been said yet and I have goosebumps. I know that it's going to be a really good episode, and when I was thinking about people that I wanted to invite, you were the very first person that I thought of. And it's it's funny because you've done all these amazing things in your career, like probably the most successful woman I've ever met in real life,, financially and with all of the things that you've done. But here's what I want to showcase to the world right now. Really, when I bring you on, it's the energy that you have and the enthusiasm behind everything and just the ease and the zest for life. And like the love that you have for what you do and the fun that you have when you do it, I wanted to showcase you to people that don't know who you are, because it can be, and it can be both.

Jasmine Star (00:02:08) - You can have fun and be a mom and travel and make a lot of money and have a lot of amazing friends and do all the content in the media. Yeah, you can do it. And this is an example, y'all. So I really want you to pay attention to this episode. It's going to be juicy. She's going to give you all the goods. But really I want you to just bask in the energy of Kimberly. Wow. Oh, that's so sweet. I love you dearly. So dear. So glad to be with both of you. It's like great women do great things. Yes. Yeah. So, Jen, one of the things, well, I don't want to get ahead of it. Talk to us about your origin story. Like I think that what happens is that we look at somebody and then we immediately put distance between who you are, what you might have, the energy you might embody. And I know that you are a mother of twins. And you said two sets of twins.

Jasmine Star (00:02:53) - No. Yeah, I oh my gosh. Wow. And are they fraternal? Identical. One set fraternal and one set identical. What I am I am a twin, I'm a fraternal twin and I just I've always loved this experience, but now I feel envious that I didn't have siblings that were also twins. Okay, so what are you, a boy or girl? Twin a girl twin. Me two fraternal. You're your your girl twin. Yeah. No girl I let it skipped I thought I skipped generation in. My sister has identical twin girls, so I don't know what a is a DNA thing, so. Wow. Look, that that is incredible. Okay, so talk to us because oftentimes we put distance between the things that we admire want like encourage. How did you get to where you are today. Oh my gosh. Well it's interesting that we talk about twins because I think it had a lot to do with my upbringing. So I grew up in Portland, Oregon to entrepreneurial parents.

Jasmine Star (00:03:49) - And my sister, my twin sister was like really? To yes, she was always a smart one. She was great at everything. She was great at sports. She was great at school. I mean, she what got, you know, she went to the Talented and Gifted program. Did you guys ever go to that? I was always cold. I was I was always weird. Yeah, yeah, I was not gifted. And I went home and I was like, am I not the smart one? I don't like by the dummy. I'm not really sure what it was. Not. So I mean, young age, I was always and I'm sure you could relate. I was paired to somebody else, right. And that was my twin sister. And I think that set the stage for number one, trying not to compare myself to anyone else because my mom was like, you'll never be happy if you do that, but also just embracing my uniqueness. So I didn't, you know, I wrote a unicycle, I walked on stilts.

Jasmine Star (00:04:34) - I was always kind of different, right? And I think if you can embrace what makes you different and learning that at such a young age, because having to compete with my twin sister, who is amazing and like one of my best friends, but she was just always so great. Yeah. And so you kind of have to learn to just be great at what your own talents and gifts are. And I think it was a really great lesson at such a young age. And I'm sure you can relate that. You just have to, you know, be your own unique person. At what point did you realize that you were really, really good at like finding money? Oh, I will actually wait. Right? So sorry. I don't want to jump. I don't want to. Yeah. Jen, can you set the,, the intention. Yeah. So. Whenever I bring on a guest host, I'm like, I want the listener and the viewer to say, oh, this is the red ribbon that tied everything through.

Jasmine Star (00:05:21) - And so Jen's and intention around these conversations. And I think it partly that perfect. Yes. Because it can parlay into your answer perfectly. Okay. So when I thought about all the guests that I was bringing in today, what's the through line? What's the theme that they all have in common? And it actually really started with like you and your book, your last book, jump. All of the guests that we had had to start before they were ready. Start with fear. Start not knowing. Start by trying and not really understanding what was going to happen, and then maybe getting an outcome that they didn't even realize it was going to happen, but taught them what they needed to know until they got to where they are. So when did you discover that you had this talent and you had this skill and talent? Because I know the story, but I want you to tell everybody kind of like where how you got to where you are right now by trying, starting before you're already oh my gosh.

Jasmine Star (00:06:04) - Yes. Well, we didn't have any money growing up, so I was hustling from a very young age. Right. Just trying to figure out how to make everything I wanted to do. I had my parents were like, we have no fun, so good luck. I thought you said your parents are entrepreneurs. They were an entrepreneur is like a roller coaster ride of unpredictability. Ooh, girls. Yeah. Midnight is a roller coaster ride of unpredictability. So I never knew what was going to happen. And my dad honestly faced bankruptcy more times than I can count. And honestly, I just wanted a stable job. I'm like, okay. Like when I graduated from college, I was like, I just want a stable job. I want nothing to do with entrepreneurship. Like, it was so unstable, right? It just growing up, it was so, you know, one week we couldn't pay the the heat. It just wasn't something I wanted to be part of. I was like, can we just go get a job at a, like a GE or something? I don't know what's a stable company.

Jasmine Star (00:06:55) - It's an old school company, but I don't know even what would be craft. But now anyway, so they were entrepreneurs. And I think for me growing up taking the leap in entrepreneurship because now I've started so many companies, I'm an investor in so many companies, but I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. And so I got a stable job out of college, and the company raised $120 million in funding. It was during the internet dotcom. I just happened to be right place, right time. Timing does matter a lot. Timing, a little luck. Where are you in the world at this time? And I'm in LA. I'm in L.A. it's a height of the dotcom gone. You know, there's money everywhere. I'm like, oh, this sounds great. We got a lot of money, you know, in funding. It's like, great, this is secure. There's no way we could burn through $120 million a year anyway. We know that won't turn out so well. So you put through $120 million, and the company, you know, they fired me.

Jasmine Star (00:07:51) - The company went bankrupt. And I learned that there is no job security like my father. You know, watching him and my mom and thinking, I need somebody to secure entrepreneurship or a real job, there is no job security. So the only thing you can be certain of is yourself. And that's when I made the jump and I thought, okay, I want to do something different. I decided to do something stable that didn't work out for me. I was broke, I was unemployed, I didn't know what I was going to do. And at that moment, a lot of people find themselves, and I'm sure people listening right now find themselves in a position where they're just at rock bottom, right, like you hit rock bottom. You don't know what you're going to do. No one believes in you, because my track record was not good at the time. And you have to make that bet on yourself. And so I jumped into entrepreneurship and because I'd seen it, and at that point, I knew, given the unpredictability, at least I knew I could count on myself.

Jasmine Star (00:08:45) - Okay, I want to pause here the job that you got after college with the startup, and who can burn $120 million in surprise price? A lot of people can. What would the nature of that business? And then you're for broke living in California, in one of the richest cities and most expensive cities in the world. And then you say, I'm going to start a business. So what was the business you left, what was what you started, and then what how did you come up with that idea? So the first business, the first internet company was a precursor to Dropbox. Oh, wow. And I love a great vision because the idea was right. Yeah, but it was before cloud computing, so it was a lot of expensive storage. Yeah, it was so old school, just the technology hadn't evolved to where it is today, so it just couldn't maintain the cost for all the servers. Yeah. And the market wasn't ready to adopt it because they weren't sure about putting their files on the cloud, you know, like up into the server somewhere.

Jasmine Star (00:09:41) - They want to keep it on the hard drives on our laptops. And so it just didn't pick up adoption fast enough. And so we burned through a lot of cash. It was a lot of fun though. So I have to say, I mean, because no one cared about where the money was going, we're just spending a lot. So he's like such a good time. But you know, it didn't work out and I think I had enough stock. And I think it's interesting you think, oh, I'm going to be at I was like, I'm going to be a millionaire. I'm going to be an internet millionaire. I called everyone I knew, I'm like, you could be a millionaire to just come work with me. So my friends, I call them all. I'm like, so then it was all everyone I knew. It was so much fun, but an amazing time. Until we didn't. What was your role? So it started as just like a marketing coordinator, probably a 26 grand.

Jasmine Star (00:10:20) - Okay. Like, you know, I started at the bottom. There's only seven of us. And eventually I worked my way up to, like, director of sales. I was good at selling. I love people, I love sell. And eventually, then I hired everyone I knew, like my best friends. And then, unfortunately, time went on. And the company, you know, my my boss was like, oh, you need to fire your team. I'm like, these are my best friends. I can't fire them. And I mean, I'm young, you know, I'm 22 years old. And then I had to fire all my team and then they fired me. And I mean, honestly, many of them wouldn't talk to me for years. When you're young, you don't understand the specifics of business and how it works. And so it was such a huge blow to obviously my ego, but also just my relationships. And I was like, I never want to be in that position again.

Jasmine Star (00:11:04) - Yeah. And I tried to get a loan to start a company. What did you want to do? Well, I loved internet marketing. I mean, this is this is the beginning of the internet. And people said the internet is a fad. That's never going to happen. Everyone go back to using the Yellow Pages and the billboards. And I was like, I don't think so. The internet is here. And I mean, it's probably how not to go down a different way. Yeah, I and Web3 and crypto and the blockchain, it's like there is a definite utility for the like the internet's not a fad, obviously. Now we know 20 years later, but at the time, you know, we were like, listen, every company around you is going under like, you should get a real job. You know, a real one. I'm like, I just had a real job. And that job didn't work out. So I have not been getting another real job. I'm gonna start my own job.

Jasmine Star (00:11:46) - So I needed money. No one would give me a loan. My parents told me to get a real job. Everyone laughed at me. I wanted to start in digital advertising company. Got it. And the only person that would give me a loan is my grandma. So I called her and I said, you know, nanny, I want to start this internet company. And she's like, what's the internet? Because that is so early. It didn't matter. And she gave me a $10,000 loan. And with that, I started my first company from my kitchen table. And yeah, to your point, I couldn't live in LA. So I went and moved in with my boyfriend because I could live rent free. I didn't have any, you know, so I was really at that. I made it work. Yeah. And you believed in this when nobody else did? Yeah. This is what's so fascinating to me. At this point in the journey, everyone was saying the internet's a fad.

Jasmine Star (00:12:29) - The internet's a fad like. And you just experienced something crashing and burning that had was related to the internet, but you still believed that this was gonna work. Like you stayed true to your gut and you went for it. You went as far as to, like, go move in with a boyfriend and ask your grandma for money. Like that's far. What? Do you know where that belief came from? Or you were just like, I've got a hunch I could see from the company that the dollars were moving. I could see the shift in advertising dollars, and I could see, you know, I'm big companies. Not everyone. But I could see that the shift was happening and the noise of all the internet companies going under, I think just, you know, made a dark cloud. But the fundamental opportunity was still there. And I believed and I was young and ambitious and yes, I was afraid, but the worst that could happen is I hit rock bottom. I was already at rock.

Jasmine Star (00:13:16) - You're wrong. And so I got the words work out and get a real job again. I don't know. Right. So I think just that belief in yourself and the belief in the opportunity, regardless of what anyone else tells you. And I mean, I'm sure you've seen it and heard it before, like, oh, it's all fad and it's not. It's your belief has to be greater than everyone else's doubt. Oh, everyone's going to doubt you until they don't. And they're like, oh, I knew it was going to be successful. I know you did. So let's go back to that first company. And they say, oh, I knew it was going to be successful. What year was that? 2003. So 2003. And you're at like the kitchen table of your boyfriend's house. Yep. And you're living rent free. Yeah. And you have $10,000. Nanny. Yes. What are you doing? How fast is the business grow. What do you do? Like when do you look back and say, this is a business? Oh my gosh.

Jasmine Star (00:14:03) - Well, I was committed okay. So I maxed out all my credit cards okay. And I was in it for like, I'm, I mean, because on the other side of things I had to go back and try to figure it, you know, tell everyone they were right, which I'm definitely don't like doing. So I'm like, I'm gonna make this happen regardless. And I started I mean, an internet advertising company was at that time was basically putting sponsorships on yahoo.com. Right. And then right. Right. Google wasn't even the biggest search engine at that time. So it's like a different game. But there was big sponsorships and just connecting advertisers with media on the internet. I mean, now it seems so simple, but at the time you're convincing people to take their spend offline and move it online. Yeah. And we had great. I think the the key for me is I had built great relationships at the company I was at, and relationships are the cornerstone for success. So I was able to call the advertisers and the publishers, and they trusted me, regardless of my history, that I was going to be able to perform.

Jasmine Star (00:15:01) - So I think that was a great lesson for me, is the relationships are really the lifeblood. And like the red thread throughout your life and throughout my life for sure. And. So we hear this and we, I assume, and wrongly I hope, because it wouldn't make me feel so bad. But I was reading on one of your blogs where you talked about pivoting, and you said that you've invested over in over 100 companies, and 90% of those companies pivoted at least once. Now, in your blog, you mentioned three signs it's time to pivot your business. And I think that prior to, like getting your teeth knocked out and losing a rib and breaking your arm and having an iron lung because you're an entrepreneur, pivoting felt like it was a loss or a morning or something. And so your three signs and if I if you can build on them, number one is your sales are slow plateaued or declining. Number two, customers aren't responding to your products like you thought they would. Number three, one product line or service significantly outperforms anything else you offer.

Jasmine Star (00:16:03) - So I wish I read your blog post, I don't know seven years ago for the multiple pivots I've made, but there's somebody who's listening and one or all three of them are resonating from your experience. Talk to us about the pivot. You're the first time you pivoted and now your perspective is I was ground level when I had to pivot. And now you've invested so many times and you've seen these other companies pivot. What are the commonalities? We're at threads. What can we avoid? What we can embrace. I want to talk about that. Yeah. I think even today most of the companies I'm talking to are pivoting. So if you're not pivoting, you're probably not in the right place. You should be growing. And so I think I would challenge anyone listening to think, should I be pivoting unless your sales are skyrocketing, which is amazing. And Gratulations should be really proud, which is probably like the 5%, the other 95%. What should you be doing differently? Or what could you be doing differently? Is there an opportunity if you're one product does way better, and it's maybe not the idea or what you thought was going to do well that you should lean into.

Jasmine Star (00:17:06) - And so I think giving yourself the blessing to pivot, because it never turns out like you should. And I'm an early stage investor, as you said, I know whatever you pitch me and I get pitched all the time likely is not going to end up the business that you create. Wow. So you're not investing the business. You're investing in the founder I'm investing in because you know that pivots are like pivots are the game. Yeah. And you want to look at that person and say, I believe you're going to pivot because I don't know if this right here is the exact idea. Yeah, I hope it is. I hope what you're pitching me is there's a huge market opportunity and you're going to make, you know, this great company out of it. But if the market opportunity does not come to realization, do you have the self-awareness to pivot? Ooh, ooh. When did you first pivot? Like if you can look back at your career and be like, this was a significant pivot in my career.

Jasmine Star (00:17:55) - Oh my gosh. Well, my first company, we were selling internet advertising and then the market bottomed out. Then we actually started creating or buying products. We didn't have any advertisers, and so we bought them ourselves and then sold them online. So pivot. Yes. If there is no advertisers, you have to become the advertiser, right? Oh, so that was very early in my career. And I think that just shows that you have to be open to new opportunities. And thinking how you're going to start is how you're going to end up. It's just never it's honest. I've been doing this for 20. It never happens that way. So the faster you can acknowledge this isn't working and look for a different solution, the better off you're going to be. And did you automatically know that that was the pivot that you needed to make, or did you try a couple of things before you went into starting to buy the products? Or you were like, how did you come to that? Or you're like, no, we really need to start buying these products right now.

Jasmine Star (00:18:46) - Or were you like, we need to pivot. What do we do? And let me look for the signs. I'm always trying new things. So test and learn, test and learn, test and learn. So looking at different opportunities all the time and I think even my companies today, if it doesn't work try something else. And you know, don't be too steadfast to say this is my vision I get the vision. But how do you get from A to Z could look completely different in the reality than how you think it's going to look. So the faster you can acknowledge that, yes, it makes a huge difference in your business success.. So I have a tendency, I think part of a weakness of mine as an entrepreneur is I have a tendency to hold on to things longer than I should. And I don't mean this like in the physical way. Like I don't know how to cut things in the business. It's like I hold on to the emotions associated with the decisions that I've made.

Jasmine Star (00:19:29) - And so there was one time where we took a pretty significant pivot, and I held on to that bit for months. Like, I felt like it was like a chink in my armor. I felt like it was like the first kind of brutal blow that I took. Then we had to downsize and we didn't have to. I got to downsize the team. And I am telling you, I sat with that way too long. I sat with it for months and months and it ate at me and I was in the mastermind. It was all men. And at lunch people were talking about his runway and he's like, you know what? I do need to make those cuts. Add a break. He cut a third of his team, and at dinner she was like, it's been a really hard day. Tomorrow we're back at it. And I was like, what? That's what you do. Like, what was the leader? And he's an empathetic, kind human being, but he's like, this is a business.

Jasmine Star (00:20:12) - Yeah. At what point did you realize that holding on to losses, pivots, changes? Like when did it not serve you? What is somebody who was right now was like mourning the loss of three other businesses that didn't work out? Like, what are the toolsets that you've seen from very powerful entrepreneurs being able to move past it? How do we let go? How do we like how do we learn the lessons? How do we minimize the time that we sit in that funk? Yeah, I think it comes now. It just comes from confidence knowing that everything will be okay. Right? It's easy to look backwards and say, it all worked out. Yeah. You know when you're in it, to your point, it's hard. And especially when you're dealing with I mean, teams are really hard because you love them and you're loyal to them and you don't want to make changes. But I also think the more you make change, the more confident you get in making those changes and knowing that.

Jasmine Star (00:20:58) - So I you know, like I talked about resilience and it's a muscle. So you need to build it all the time. So you need to be constantly putting yourself in places that feel uncomfortable in business situations that feel uncomfortable even, you know, having to let go. If you feel uncomfortable. And once you get to the other side, you're building your confidence so that you can do it as a yeah, yeah, yeah. So true. And so it's not that you don't emotionally care and I totally get that. But you're able to move faster, you know, much quicker in the turn. You have proof. Yeah you have proof. And I you have so much experience in this because you have so many businesses, so many companies, so many pivots, I'm assuming so many failures. Yeah. That you just had to move past me to be in that discomfort and go again. So one of the things that I love so much about him, and every time I talk to you, I just feel refreshed.

Jasmine Star (00:21:45) - It's such a reminder to me that you're like, it's okay if it happens, it happens. Let me just figure it out. And she genuinely lives by that. And I'm like, oh, it could be that simple. Just move on and figure it out. And I know Marie Forleo has a book called Everything's Figured Out able. And I actually really do love that phrase, because if you keep on going, you will eventually figure it out. And if you just have look back, I'm sure you do this a lot. Like all the like, even just the story that you just told. You were like at your boyfriend's kitchen table with $10,000. And now look at you. I know it's amazing. Look backwards and you connect the dots. Of course, everything's gonna work out. So if something messes up now, it's like I could do it. I have two questions. Oh, can I pop in? Yes. Two questions. Number one. What happened with the investment with nanny? I want to close.

Jasmine Star (00:22:28) - Oh, if I didn't ask you figure out, like, I would wake up in the middle of the night and be like, what happened there? And then secondly, knowing that that role that your nanny played in your first business, you are not anything you do not look like nobody's nanny. That is not anytime soon. However, you play that role in somebody's life. How do you determine who you're investing in? Because I think that people are listening and they're not sure if their business is investable yet, but what skills could they start building to kind of optimize the possibility for an investor? Okay, I love that. So my nanny, I sold the company in 2008 to a company out of Munich, Germany, okay. Which is amazing., for close to $40 million. So we ended up paying for our nanny, got care paid back. We got a trip to Europe. We have such great memories. So, yeah. Incredible. Nanny. Yeah, she got paid back and then some, which was amazing.

Jasmine Star (00:23:17) - Amazing. And you know what? It just goes back to investors. Like you're making a bet on people. And when that happens, it's just incredible their belief in you you know and that's why and again why I invest in is interesting to look back and think. So after I sold I started investing. So I started investing in 2008 very early and investing in other people because I had someone make a $10,000 bet on me and it paid off huge. What if I can make the same bets on other individuals moving forward, and that have such an impact in their life? Right. That was a game changer. That's like the point that my life like actually went in a different direction. And I want to give that opportunity to other people, and I want to give that mentorship now, because I've been there to others to help them achieve success. And when you think about the investments that I've made and the people that I bet on and you ask like, what is it I'm looking for? So I wrote a book called The Execution Factor because I get pitched the same idea all the time, like ideas are a dime a dozen and someone's like, hey Kim, sign an NDA.

Jasmine Star (00:24:15) - I'm like, I'm not gonna sign it. Like literally ten people just pitched me the same idea. And there is no I mean, yeah, it's all about execution. And I think there's five key traits that I look for. If I look in all the entrepreneurs that I've invested in that had successful outcomes. And so I've had about 40 different exits, were already a lot of good vintages still to come. But one, they have a vision. They have that crystal clear vision of what they want to achieve. Like they know what it is. To their passionate right. And passion isn't just about what you love, it's about what you would suffer for. Right? So, you know, passion, Latin, a root word of pain or suffering. And so what would you stay up late, work the weekend, get up in the morning? Like what would you actually sacrifice for? You have to have action, which is taking that first step. Even though you're scared, even though you don't want to do it, you have to be able to take this first step every single day.

Jasmine Star (00:25:09) - And it doesn't have to be a lot, just one step every single day. You have the resilience because everything's going to go wrong. Like, I already know that. And then you have to have great relationships. And relationships, as I mentioned originally, just are the cornerstone of success. And if without them you will not be successful like I guarantee it. So I think if you can get these five traits and that's why I wrote about it, is if you can really lean into how to improve on these specific traits, you will be a successful entrepreneur. Okay, light painted it out for your ass and hell yes and amen. Okay, but I'm going to get super granular because if I'm standing in front of you, how do I display? I have maybe, maybe seven undiluted minutes to capture your attention. Sell the vision show. I'm passionate talking about my results. Like how do you do that? Like in a very practical way. Yeah, I love that. So. I want to hear a story.

Jasmine Star (00:26:01) - I'm investing in people I want to hear. Why are you doing this? What makes you the one person that can pull it off? And how am I? Is investor going to make a lot of money? I'm like, what's the big market opportunity? And I think you can do that. I mean, I do a lot of elevator pitches. I see it all the time. I think if you show up and you just start, I want to actually know about you. Why are you here? Why are you going to be able to do it when every everything is stacked against you, how will you actually pivot and make sure my investment pays off? Candidly speaking, how much time does somebody have? Like we know that somebody can be like, oh, your page is going to be 22 minutes or 30 minutes. But like Wendy, like candidly, when do investors know? Oh pretty early. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty early I would say that. Do you say that like you can get a sense even before you walk in the room with somebody if you have like a sense of their energy and what the product is, or do you need to actually see them and meet them and talk to them? I don't need to see them and love.

Jasmine Star (00:26:57) - I'd rather see them meet them, talk to because you can feel their energy. But. Listen, if you have a great business, it has to be a good business that I'm going to invest in. But then you could be a great business and not the right person leading it. So it's really comes down to the person I think I know pretty quickly if it's a good business and then be if you are the person that can actually pull it off. Okay. So we know the good things, like I'm pressing on this because people listening and Jen was like, Jasmine, you really kind of just start excavating. And I'm like, I know. Because what happens is people will DM me and be like, yeah, but what did Kim mean by this? And I'm like, I don't know why I'm not Kim. So I'm asking. I'm putting myself in their shoes because it is enough to know that we must display our personal story, what we're passionate about, what we stay up at. Like, this is the hill that we're going to die on.

Jasmine Star (00:27:38) - Yeah, but, you know, early. Yeah. So then what are key factors when somebody is pitching you that, you know, great idea. Good business I like you, but it's not you. I want you first to show me there's a proof of concept ideas. Again, there's a lot of ideas. Tell me that one person has purchased whatever it is you're going to try to create. Because an idea is really hard, right? When I went to mine and I'm like, I'm going to make an internet company, she's like, I have no idea what you're doing. Like, that's really hard, right? But I'd like to understand, hopefully you've created the company of something, a need you have. Right, right, right. Something that you, you personally got it or connected to. And that would show me like. And I love when people start small. So it's like, oh, I'm making something in my kitchen. I went down to the farmers market, started selling it there.

Jasmine Star (00:28:26) - Okay. You got proof of concept to me. It's like you have to actually have it taken that first step and gotten out there and tried like go start selling door to door. I don't really care. But if you're just talking and sitting in your kitchen doing nothing like, I need to see execution. Yes. Okay, so if they don't show proof of concept or execution, what is another thing that it just shows it's not a good fit? Well, I don't like when you show me it's got a hockey stick in year five. So usually people come in, there's my financials and it's it is very low, very low. And then then the fifth year it goes really high. You're good okay guys. Yes. Let's be realistic or my profitability is going to be 40 million in year five. Like it's not going to be like I already know that. So maybe be more realistic on the financials. And I'd like to see profitability like business basics. Right. Don't tell me you're going to lose a ton of money if you don't have a line of sight of how you're going to raise the money to cover, how much you're going to lose.

Jasmine Star (00:29:19) - Like, I like profitable companies that are actually good companies. I mean, a great company can always have a successful exit. So when I started my first company, I was really focused on profitability, and we made a lot of EBITDA and profit because I was focused on it. First company to work for. It didn't really care. They were just like, let's just spend as much as possible on why it works out. It just doesn't work like that, especially in today's environment. Investors want to see companies that actually can maintain their own cash flow. Yeah. Okay. So if I heard the story correctly, got $10,000 and you were proving that you had the chops and the husband to be an entrepreneur, and then you sold that, if I heard it correctly, for 40 million. Yeah. Great. And then you built a different business and you sold that business for 238 because you were hard nosed about profitability. So actually then it's interesting. So I sold my first. So yeah, I had like an earnout and the whole thing on the first company.

Jasmine Star (00:30:15) - So I stayed. And then we decided when you explain what an earnout is. Oh yeah, sure, an earnout. So usually you get like a lump sum of money for the first tranche. So you're like, hey Kim, I'm going to give you 20 million bucks cash on day one. And so I went to my ATM and like, yeah, now I guess that's a good idea. So I went I got the little thing. It actually had 20 zeros for even, like to get out of the ATM machine. I was like, yeah, okay. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. And then for the next couple of years you get another 20 based on achieving milestones. I actually love a good earnout because it's really again, based on if I can achieve when I say, yeah, there's a company buying you, I want you to be successful. So it's a I think it's a win win if you give realistic targets. Right. Like financial strength buyer. Yeah that's a great I'm actually a big believer.

Jasmine Star (00:31:06) - If you don't then as a buyer I'm thinking you're never going to hit what you're selling me. But that traditionally three years. Yeah it's usually I. Yeah usually 2 or 3 years okay. Cool. And so I stayed and I hit my earn I mean I heard my whole earnout within the first year. So I just nailed it like, oh God, oh my God, you're one of them. I know in a cycle that would be like, you're sandbagging at number six. I'm like, don't sandbag. Yes. So everyone's saying, I'm sure your twin was very impressed by you as that which was like, whoa, yeah. Hey. Yeah, yeah. She was so excited. So then after that, so after that, then I actually went on to take over some of the company I was running. We had a great big company, and then we actually resold the company in 2014 for 235 million to Singapore Telecom. So it's actually like a two byte of an Apple is what they would say.

Jasmine Star (00:31:54) - Well, it's only owning it. So we consolidated. We bought a bunch of companies that were resold it. And then so we sold half to Singapore. Whoa, whoa. Yeah! Whoa! This is the first time I've ever even heard the concept of two bites of one apple. So you hit your goals within that first year, and then you stayed with the company. What was your rule? Because oftentimes that people call it golden handcuffs. They're like, yeah, I can hit those right when I act. And then I can just like do my dang thing or cash out. Yep. And but you didn't. You said, I'm gonna do it and then I'm gonna do it better. What are you doing? What is your role? How are you getting. Yeah. So I took on as we had offices all over the world. So from Australia to Europe. And so I took on as president of the whole company. Okay. And then what is the time you hit your goals within a year? And what is your title? At that time I was still CEO of my division.

Jasmine Star (00:32:44) - Oh okay. My company. Okay. And then I took over president of the hold. There's like a holding company. And is there anybody else in the organization who's like, what the hell? Like you were like, she's killing it. I don't know, like, literally whatever she wants. Let her run the company. Okay. So you go from CEO of your division to president of the company. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Do you move? What is life look like for you here? Like life. Looks like I'm on a plane a lot. So we have offices in Munich. We had offices in Madrid. I mean, it was fun. Like I was having a great time. I was flying all over the world. I was having, you know, I was. Were you married to John at this time? Yes, I was already married. Yeah. I wouldn't have any kids at that time. So it was amazing. It was like a great life, actually. We were, you know, we were growing.

Jasmine Star (00:33:27) - It was such a great time. We were profitable. Everything was in a great space. Then the market took another dive and we decided we would not be able to IPO at the time because our intention, originalist IPO couldn't IPO because the market's closed and no one. So it happens all the time. And so we had to pivot okay. So then we ended up you know we were running out of cash okay. Hold on I'm like another pivot through and through born storyteller because it sounds like okay we couldn't IPO. That was the thing that we were gunning for. So now we pivot. But where are you at mentally emotionally like does it what does it feel like in this space? Feels like we're in one of the most exciting times in the internet. I would say we had partnerships every time, like Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, we had partnership, Facebook, you start naming it. We were forming partnerships with these companies. Okay. So it was it was a growth period. It was fun.

Jasmine Star (00:34:21) - Okay. It's like we were at the cutting edge, even if it didn't turn out the way that you were expecting with the IPO, it still felt like, okay, well that's not it. But like we're in a blast. We're going, yeah, we got to figure out yeah. At that point you're going, I got to figure out how to, you know, get us to a safe place, right? I mean, we have a, you know, 500 employees. We're doing half $1 billion in revenue. It was a big company. We're like, we got to figure out at home because we're gonna run a cat. I mean, we knew we were gonna run out of cash if you don't have an exit. If something were me. And so then we. Yeah, we end up. We end up splitting off the company into different pieces. I went and took over as CEO of the digital division of Singapore Telecom. Oh, yeah. And then we sold the other to a European company.

Jasmine Star (00:35:04) - So we did two deals. I want to have the question about, well, look, you know what this was like when she says these things like so yeah, like I did this, but I have a feeling and this goes back to your main concept of like relationships or everything. Yes. So as I listen to all of these things that you've done, I'm visualizing you making all of these relationships with all these people because these moves couldn't have been made without relationship. You're like Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, like, are you going into these places and building relationships with humans to make these things happen? Yeah, I mean, our team was you had a great team, and you're only as good as the team that you surround yourselves. And I think for us, we had an A plus team. Everyone we hired was incredible. And that's relationships too. That's relationships. Some of the people I started with 20 years ago, I still work with today. So I mean, so I want to hear from Kim Perel, who's clearly a master at relationships and.

Jasmine Star (00:36:00) - What would you say to the person listening? Is there like, oh, I'm not I'm not connected. I don't know how to network. I don't know how to build these relationships. What would you say your, I guess, tips that you could give to people for creating that kind of a network would be if they don't feel like they're great at it. Yeah, I usually tell people, three of the most powerful words you could ever say are, let's have coffee, let's have coffee. It's the easiest way to form a relationship. I don't even drink coffee. So hi, I'm a tea lover. I don't even drink coffee. But if I'm ever trying to forge a new business relationship, a partnership and anything, I usually reach out and say, let's have coffee. It's so easy. It's less than 30 minutes. We have it virtually. I'd rather be in person if you can do it in person, always better.,. Like if I'm looking for a mentor, if I'm looking for a book agent, if I'm, you name it, I'm having coffee, I'm having a lot of coffee you know.

Jasmine Star (00:36:52) - And again I even drink the coffee I'm just having I think it's so easy. It's like less than $4 maybe five with inflation. I have no idea. At Starbucks. But but it's such an easy way to reach out and say, hey, Jen, ton of coffee. Yeah. And you're like, okay, sure. Why not? It's easy. We did that one time. Yeah. Straight coffee. We drink tea. I see you, I'm like, well, drink some tea. Yeah. But I feel that that's an easy way for anyone listening to start building their relationships and not looking at as, what am I going to get? Yes, you should look at it as, what am I going to give? I'm going to give my time. I'm going to give my you always have something you could give. And really thinking of it from that way, I never have coffee. I think I'm wondering and get from someone. I'm looking at it like, how do I build a long term relationships? My whole life is built on this.

Jasmine Star (00:37:39) - And so looking at it as, what can I give to this person, whether my support or my advice or a connection, a love network and putting people together? Yeah., so I think thinking about that as a really easy hack. Yeah, that could set you up for success. So when you think about building those relationships as an investor, somebody hearing this and what is the level of expectation from an investor, like do some people want you to be there with it, like talk to me about I know everybody's different. In your dream case scenario, are you collaborating? Are you saying I trust you go with that. Like, what is that level of connection? And especially because you've invested in so many different companies? I'm really good on the early stage. Really good. Or if there's a problem, can you buy early phases? Yeah. Early stages. If you're just getting up and started. I'm really good in helping. Here's the strategy. Here's how to get going here. Because who to call.

Jasmine Star (00:38:32) - Here's what to do. Here's the people you need. So just the early stage setting the business up. Or if you're I'm in trouble, you know, like I need to pivot my business. How do I do it? What should I do? Who should I call I need I'm really good on the like. I tell people I'm the call. Like that one call and you get one call, call me, I'll help you get out. Yeah, well, if you get in jail, call me. I'm gonna help you. Yeah. Or whatever it is. You get in a bind. Company start doing well. Call me on the day to day. Not my expertise. And I don't thrive there. I thrive in problem solving and trying to go to relationships or networking or connecting or raising capital. But I think as an investor, you're not in the day to day. You're there to provide mentorship, guidance, strategic support, connections. And so for people who have investors, do investors want to think their business that they invested in, like the founders, to reaching out to them? Yeah, they need help.

Jasmine Star (00:39:33) - , so here's something that I want to lead into, because I know that there's a lot of like, do not like asking for help. I'm even feeling that right now. Like, I don't even somebody that's like, let me help you. People don't want to ask because you don't. I think a lot of people are very afraid to ask for help. They don't want to seem weak. They don't want to seem like they don't know, especially somebody that they pitched. Please give me money for this amazing idea that I have. I'm amazing. And they just sold themselves to you, and they spent so much time and energy selling themselves to you and you're like, yes, okay, I'll give you money. I could imagine that. And anyone that's listening to this that maybe is pitching investors or has investors, it might be a little scary. Ask your investor, okay. Because it almost makes you feel like maybe you're failing and that even though the investor knows that of course you're going to fail, but the entrepreneur might be uncomfortable asking for help.

Jasmine Star (00:40:17) - So from the investor's standpoint, how does it feel when the companies that you support come and ask for, oh my gosh, I want them to. You have to have enough self-confidence that you ask. I mean, I've been there, I've done it. I know I can help you skip a lot of lines, but if you don't ask, how can I help? So I tell people, if you don't ask, you don't get start asking. Call me if you need help. And I think to your point, it's scary. I get it right now. I have a lot of different companies. I call people and ask for help all the time. Like literally all the time. Even the other day, remember, I was like, oh, Jan, I got an idea. Can you help me? Yes, 100%. You asked me, right? I was like, oh, I do all the time. But here's the cool thing about asking for help, and how I reiterated in my mind is that it feels really good to be able to help someone you care about.

Jasmine Star (00:41:00) - Totally. Like, I was like, I need to help because it's gonna make me feel amazing. And it's fun, it's fun. So like, I know and I know you get joy out of helping people. Yeah, I actually I said I was like, we're gonna look for a restaurant to go out to eat after this. And I was like, Kim LaBelle's so excited. I said, if we ask him where to go, she'll be so excited to be able to help us because that's what lights her up. And so if you don't ask somebody for help, you're almost taking an opportunity away from them to feel amazing because they were able to help you. Because the best way to feel good is to help somebody else. Yes, it is to give. Yeah, people want to help. So I think anyone listening just as soon and if honestly, if they don't wanna help you, it's not the people you want anyway, but all someone else. Yes. Right. Don't get discouraged because someone does.

Jasmine Star (00:41:39) - Sometimes people text me and they're like, hey, I'm still here. I'm like, oh my God, I'm just buried right now. I got four kids. I'm just trying to like, get them, get them on the bus without crying here. You know, I can't help you all. I know, but it doesn't mean I also think persistent pays off. So if you keep text me again, it's not it. Yeah. You know, it just went down the chain of text and I forgot. Yeah, right. I don't take it. I think people take it internalize it to your point. Like, oh, Kim didn't text me back. She doesn't want to help. It's actually not that at all. Kim's just busy and she's got to figure out her own life before she can come help others. You know, it's like the airplane put on your own seatbelt before you can help others. Okay. I'm so I think making sure the persistence that continue to ask. That's so good.

Jasmine Star (00:42:17) - Yeah. That's so good. The follow up is so important for so many people. Give up after one try with everything, right? Fail with the ask, with the reach out with whatever they want. They're like, oh, they didn't answer. I find that even with me, when people are pitching me for something, whatever it is that they want, I oftentimes like don't get back to them the first or the second, but if they keep following up, then I love the hustle behind the follow up. Me too. And oh my gosh, you're following up with me for the fourth time. I am a yes for you. Yeah. Like the I like the energy. That means you really want that. Like my help. I could not agree more I have this guy is so interesting. He just. So I put on a job wreck on LinkedIn. I got 3000 resumes. I'm like, how am I even if I, I can't even go through the resumes. So the guy just keeps emailing me all the time, like, fine, I'll just give you a shot because I can't go through the rest.

Jasmine Star (00:43:06) - And literally like I can't go through 3000 resumes. So he keeps calling me. And so I actually I'm like, okay, there you go. So an estimate that just like the direct contact, the persistence persistence pays. But it literally happened 30 days ago. And now the. For Kieffer Moore. He was so persistent and enthusiastic and enthusiastic. Attitude to enthusiasm. Because here's something that I get from you a lot like that. I learned from you just by watching you and being around you. And I want everybody else to really absorb this is your enthusiasm about everything, and it's contagious and infectious. How important would you say enthusiasm is when it comes to business? Yeah. It's passion. Right, right. Like you can feel it. He has some passion which just goes together, and you really can tell if someone loves what they're doing. I mean, I love what I'm doing and love entrepreneurs. I love helping people. So. And people will. You'll see them light up when they're talking about something they really are passionate about.

Jasmine Star (00:44:00) - Yeah, whatever that is. Yeah. And then if they get if they're enthusiastic, you're like, me too, right? So okay, let's talk about enthusiasm. I get so lit up when I see underrepresented people of color and or women get investment funding. Like it is just like this. Like I just feel like I feel like a piece of me. Got it too. Can we get from your perspective, like just the state of the industry and like, talk about, like what those numbers are, how they've changed, how somebody can prep themselves to be like a formidable competitor when it comes to pitching themselves. First of all, it's terrible. The numbers. Yeah. Like the less than 2% of females get VC funding. Do you know about that? I mean, it's terrible, right? Lesson two. Where's the other 98 going? Yeah. Not helping. So I really tried to your point to help and invest in females and underrepresented founders like because they need help just getting to the table.

Jasmine Star (00:44:59) - Right. And it's the relationships that actually get you to the table. So first you need someone that has relationships that can, like, pull you through and pull you along. And I think that's why asking for help and reaching out and getting mentorship is so important. So I think the statistics are not good or not in our favor, and we need to help other people rise. Yeah, I think I've got a great brand with a woman that is one of 100 black female founders that's raised over $1 million. And like, I feel really proud of that. And she's incredible. And I think the more we can lean in and help again, just help other people get to the table. And and it is it literally comes down to relationships because it still is. Listen, a lot of not the investors are not probably equally it's all men. Mostly they're not a lot of female investors. There's more and more every day. When I started there's like me and some of them you just me, there's not.

Jasmine Star (00:45:54) - But it's great to see more and more VCs, more and more people investing, you know, more and more women stepping up and investing because they're going to help the next generation of women. They're going to help the next generation of underrepresented founders. And that's what's going to make our businesses better. I love seeing more diversity at the table, like we have to do that to be better companies in my opinion. Okay, so, oh, I feel like there's a part of me that's like, don't say it, don't say it. And I'm like, I'm gonna say, yeah, you should say what? So,, as a Latina bootstrap founder, when I hear people say, we need a chance to get at the table, I agree, I agree, but I don't think that the terms at which somebody is assessing my business should be different. Like, how do I build a company that is beyond a shadow of a doubt? You're not giving it to me because I need to be at the table and I need to be part of the change.

Jasmine Star (00:46:53) - It's I am that player and I don't like how how do I build a business that doesn't say we should really diversify our portfolio, and maybe we can create some connections that can change the trajectory of our business instead of being like, you are the trajectory, what do I do to prepare? Is this literally profitability? Proof of concept? Run those numbers like or is there something else that other people have that I don't outside of the connections or is it connections? No, I actually I think it's if you build a great business there will always be opportunity. So it's profitability, it's the numbers, it's the growth story. Be all things equal. I agree with you. At the end of the day, I'm an investor. I'm going to invest. Yes, I first will take and I'll lean into as many founder female led businesses as I can. But it ended the day. I invest in good businesses. Great. Like I'm an investor. I'm looking to get a return. So you hit the very good financials.

Jasmine Star (00:47:50) - . It's a financial decision. So anyone out there looking at you have to make a good financial decision as an investor. That's how I make my money. And that's why I then make money to reinvest. So what are some of the things that you look for financially when you say like you got to know your numbers. You've got to know like what are those key factors. Like when you just take a peek? Yeah, I think you have to know a your current burn on a monthly basis. So how much you're losing? If you're losing, how much are you losing if you're not losing? Great I love to see that. Okay. Well now let's look at how do we always continue to improve our growth story. So I'm looking at what your revenue how much are you growing what your gross margins and then what you're profitability. Amen. Yes. Those would go like I'm like y'all just pause the podcast, write it down like one date 20s and say if you want to get in front of an investor, those four elements are going to be a game changer.

Jasmine Star (00:48:43) - Okay, so Masterclass, I know, I think this is a masterclass I know. So when we I know you've had a you create beautiful content, a lot of content, you give back so much. What do you wish people were asking you or talking about that somewhat is kind of being glossed over in 2024. Oh my gosh.

Kim Perell (00:49:03) - I think.

Jasmine Star (00:49:05) - If we could just be more vulnerable about how hard it is. It's hard to make businesses. I'm in it all day long, and I think it's hard. And I think if we just acknowledge it's hard and we support each other through the hard, you know, it's not always picture perfect. You see it on Instagram, right? You don't see me I people die. I'm like, it looks like you're a whatever you're doing, right? I'm always on vacation, you know? Yeah. That's here. Like, are you here in Paris? You're in Bali. What are you doing? I'm like, you see, one side you don't see.

Jasmine Star (00:49:35) - I'm taking a call at, like, 2 a.m. from Bali. Nobody sees that. Because what? You're making a photo, right? Right. You don't see how hard that I'm hustling all the time for the love of wanting to do it. But I'm like, I'm always on. And that's what makes me successful. But it's hard. And I think just reminding everyone that's watching, whoever they're watching, there's a lot that's going on behind the scenes, and I'll try to do my part of bringing that forefront so you can see, you know. But again, just watching me at a desk is not exciting, right? It's great to watch me at the Eiffel Tower eating lunch. No one wants to watch me just sitting at my desk in my house. So just acknowledging how hard it is for founders right now, you know, fundings down. It was a it's hard. And so but for the founders that can make it right now through the hard times they will come out. I've seen it come and go.

Jasmine Star (00:50:29) - I've seen the bottom. I mean, I've seen so many dips in the like in the macroeconomic climate. And right now, if you can make it through like you got most entrepreneurs right now, you should be cost cutting, you should be cutting, you know, whatever you can and just trying to make it through the current winter, you're come out the other side. So you, you know, great companies are built in hard times. And this is a hard time. And great companies will be built right now because right now, right now, right now. So,, as we bring the conversation to a close, I want to go back to that. It's like it just kind of hit and it keeps on hitting and I'm like,, I wish I didn't hear it. And you had said that the word passion has its root origin in Latin. Yeah. Of pain. Yeah. And I'm like, oh man, I like when he gets so passionate about the thing. You have to understand the other side of that coin.

Jasmine Star (00:51:19) - And I think that us starting the conversation there and then, us ending the conversation around the vulnerability and us understanding that we have to work hard. And while we don't always show what that looks like,, that is the passion. And then that is also the pain., what you've done for so many people is like, demystify what it means. I didn't even know until God, I was, I don't even know, like 35, that there were things called investors like I didn't know it existed. I think the whole world has opened up so differently, and I am creating the content that I wish I had when I started my journey. And I'm just so thankful that you're making time. In closing, I know this is so selfish, and I'm going to put you on the spot. And if you don't want to do it, you don't have to do it. We can cut it out of the podcast and nobody knows it existed. You arrived here in Miami by way of New York. Yeah.

Jasmine Star (00:52:07) - And you said, oh, this morning went great. We started at seven. We were supposed to end at 730, I think you had said. And then it went till 1030 or something like that. Like this really great meeting went long. And then I just were just barely meeting each other in person. And then you had said, oh, I was getting money. That's what I do. I'm getting money. And I'm like, do I ask her now? I'm like, we're not recording. What is? I was getting money mean, what were you doing? You're like, I'm raising money. And I'm like, for a fund for a business for like what? What what does that look like? Oh my goodness. Yes. I mean, I get pitched and I pitch right. So I think I'm an investor, but I'm also a I also own a lot of companies. So I'm all I think if you're a startup and it's interesting that you didn't know the term investor until now, but maybe we should look for investors.

Jasmine Star (00:52:50) - Jasmine. Oh yeah., but I feel that, you know, most startups are raising capital in order to grow. And so I'm always out there. I was in New York in investor meetings, pitching some of my portfolio companies for capital, for money to fuel the businesses. So you are representing the founders. You already invested. Yeah. And so then you go to these other investors and then what do you say? Like I say, I believe in this business and it's going to be a home run. And I want you to come on the journey with me. Are you in. What? That's the crazy thing. I always thought it was on the founder to keep on, like, pursuing and growing. And what you're saying is, I'm hedging my bets because I'm this good, I like you, I see you now. I'm gonna do what I do in a bigger way. That's going to go through and get you more money. I go with the founder, such as me. I'm with the founder.

Jasmine Star (00:53:43) - But yeah, but when you say, okay, so. Okay. Oh, I feel like this is the world's dumbest question, but I don't even care. You are in these investor meetings and you're like, I pitching them on my portfolio. So are you taking like, founders with you? And they're all sitting in the room. Is it like Hunger Games or like, oh, they got they got 76,000. We got 760 is like, what is this look like? It's what it to me I am fascinated. Yes. So usually if you're the founder I'll, I'm an investor and I know you have to raise more capital. And so as an investor because I'm a again I'm really relationship based. I want to help especially young founders that have never raised capital before. Okay. So I go with them. I'm like, hey, I'll help you. You raise money. And so I and there's a lot of that for you because I'm already making business. And don't worry, I mean, it's like one on one, like you're saying you go with one founder to investors and then you go with another founder, or are you saying, hey, crew, all five of us? No, no, no one founder.

Jasmine Star (00:54:35) - So yesterday with one founder and we had multiple investor meetings. Got it. Yes. We went to investors. We pitch, we went to the next investor. We pitched, we went to a dinner, we pitched. And then after these pitches, are you telling the other, like, are you telling your founder like, listen, get it together. You got to do this. You got to come back. Are you coaching them on? And then how much are you? Okay, so then these founders are pitching to these investors percentage wise. How much are you talking during those meetings? I'm there as the founders sharing their vision because I'm not I mean, I'm a. I'm here, but I'm not the founder. The founders sharing their vision. I'm there for. I understand the numbers. So that's why it's really important that every founder knows the numbers. They understand. Just like the logistics on a cap table. Or there's all these other formalities that most people don't know unless you've already done it.

Jasmine Star (00:55:23) - So I'm there just to support, like the financials on the vision, on my involvement and how I'm going to continue to be involved and support the company. But yeah, I think because you've never done it, it's scary. When I did it, no one was going with me anywhere. It was just me hanging out with my nanny, and I don't think she was going to go pitch with me. It's not like I feel like a compelling story. Nanny was not pitching, but maybe I should have brought her. It's just another bonus for that founder to have you as an investor, not just for your money, but for your guidance and your mentorship that's out there, right? Yeah. And like, how fun is that that you get to go and mentor and do what you love and help other people grow their businesses and make money at the same time? Yeah, well, fun. It's all fun. It's all fun. Yeah. You get to see like, the next generation of people, right? Because no one did that for me.

Jasmine Star (00:56:07) - I want to make sure that we're helping other people do that and learn. Because if you can start teaching people again how to raise money, how to raise capital, what it means. So to your point, after every meeting we did a debrief. How to go, what could we should we pivot our pitch? Did something not work? What is the investor like? What they didn't like? How do we change it for the next I mean it's a it's a work in progress literally. And I know you're doing this one on one with your investors, but you do this on like a grand scale, like Kim offers her content and all of this advice on social media, in her books, on TV everywhere. And is that part of your mission? Like, tell me about as we wrap up, like, I want to know the overall mission, like how we can help support your mission and your goals and like and where people can find you and that. Yes, yes. No. For me, I just want to I've been there and I've been at rock bottom and I've seen how hard it is, and I wish I had more people to help me.

Jasmine Star (00:57:02) - So that's why I produce all the content. I write the books because and I do read a lot. I mean, I love to read. When I was growing up, I read so much because I, you know, I had my parents was amazing. But if you can read from someone else's mistakes or successes, that's where you truly will learn quicker as a founder and entrepreneur, because you don't have to learn those mistakes yourself. So I produce content to share what I'm doing, what I'm feeling, how it you know, how I see the world right now and like, what makes a difference in my life and how I've been successful. You can take it, you can leave. It doesn't really matter. Hopefully I'm impacting somewhere where they say, oh my gosh, I use that. I'm just asking someone to coffee. I went and it works. I'm like, of course it worked. It works. I still do it every day. I've got like three coffees. Next week it works.

Jasmine Star (00:57:49) - How do people find you? Because somebody is listening right now and they've gotten so much information like you've opened up this beautiful pathway to see their life and their business different. And that happened in an hour. So where did they go to pursue this relationship with you? Oh my goodness. Well, you can go to my website at Kim Per Elle.com or follow me on LinkedIn. Connect with me on Instagram. I'm yeah, I'm out there and I have, you know, so much to share and I'm going to continue to share because we need people that are really trying to give back. And again, it goes back to giving. Like, I have so much to give and there's so much opportunity to again continue and invest in amazing new founders that are going to change the world. How? For those of you who are listening, please make sure and connect with Kim on social platforms, but specifically LinkedIn. And just in case you ever want to apply to a job, make sure you and follow up via email.

Jasmine Star (00:58:42) - That's what we're here for. Assistance is Nikki, thank you so much for listening to The Jasmine Star Show. Please be sure to share and subscribe to this podcast. There's other people who need to get this information and you could be the conduit for them. Many things. Over to Kim, my beautiful, gracious and amazing co-host Jen Gottlieb, and thank you for listening and watching The Jasmine Star Show.