Coach, the energy out there felt different. What changed for the team today?
It was a new game day scratches from the California Lottery players everything.
Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.
Are you saying it was the off field play that made the difference on the field.
Hey, little play makes your day, and today it made the game. That's all for now, coach, one more question.
Played the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco forty nine Ers and Los Angeles Ram Scratchers from the California Lottery. A little play can make your day. Peace made responsibily. Must be eighteen years or older to purchase late or claim.
All right, So now we're going to talk about apps, right, this is this is a conversation that is near and dead to our heart because so we you we entrepreneurs man, So we try everything more money.
In every Yeah, and that's cut too. Like we tried and we failed a bunch of times.
Got to so we had we had an idea, tell you a social media pay We started, We did a lot of different stuff and but one idea that we had was to have an app.
And it was an app. Idea was pretty good in.
I guess It was good in context, but it was about music for DJs.
Yeah, it was.
It was kind of like getting rid of like the traditional way of people DJ when people bought creates to their sets and had to find records. We had like an idea to create a cloud service for DJs where they could create their sets and all they needed was Wi Fi at the venue, right and they could pull up their sets wherever they went. It was right exactly and like, now that's happening offers that but like a few years ago, nobody was doing it. So we were like, oh,
we got an idea that can work. And it was my selfish god Jamal Mike again and Pull shout out to Pull and it uh. It started off as a great idea and we wanted to develop an app. It's still in an app, so I believe drop drive is a name. And we learned some some very valuable lessons during that process.
So the problem the problem was, all right, i'll give you a quick version. The problem with us trying to develop the app is that we had no idea what we're doing.
Oh yeah, no, that's a very welcome to the club, that's yeah.
So we had an idea, we had no idea about how to develop the technology, how to development app. So long story, I'll give you a quicker because you're going you're going to tell my aps. But we we we put like thirty thousand dollars into an app, right, be all right, let me back up a little bit.
So we got quotes for the app. We we we grew up the idea.
We got quotes for the app in America and it was like eighty thousand dollars to the dolls were like, no, that's too much. So one of the members in the group had a connection with a developer in India.
I don't know how we found shout out to India before.
I told percent, so we are too. So yeah, one hundred percent, I got.
I got stories. Okay, okay, nothing against India, but at all man, all right, so we all right, so wet so we.
Okay, So we pick develop as an India because they're cheaper and they're very good with technology and they do a good.
Job, we thought.
So they have the app for about two weeks and they completely botch it.
It's terrible. It comes back to us and it's like misspellings.
It's like website, it's ridiculous.
It doesn't work.
So now me and Mike have to do conference calls skype conference calls with the guys in India. The problem is that India is like fourteen hours ahead, right, So we're like going conference calls at like four o'clock in the morning. It's like three in the afternoon there, right, and we're on the phone and I could barely understand what they're actually saying, and they're saying that they're going to do it better at this time, right.
So there's like different stages that we.
Have to pay in like five thousand for the right first part, then five thousand for the second part. Yeah, it gave them like two different payments of like ten thousand, and they botched it both times, and we were like fifteen thousand in with no prototype nothing. It was like so then what I didn't know either. It's been so about learning experience.
In India.
They have the holidays, like the holidays last for like the volley three weeks.
Yeah, no, it's just no.
So the guy told me he's like I'm going on holiday. So I'm like, okay, I think you know, he he'll be back on Thursday. It's like a Wednesday, and they didn't come back for a month, like a holiday, like last three weeks. So we're just waiting for three weeks in there on holiday, right, So then we and then we play another Indian.
Developer to correct it to fly out there.
So they're in like one part of India, right, So we have a relationship with another Indian developer.
He's like, Okay, I know that I could fix it. Could I go to these guys?
We have to play for his flight. Yeah, we had to pay for the flass. I just I'm I'm just happy, like I've learned so much because I'm hearing all this.
And I'm like, because this guy was running another one of our friends sights, so he's supposed to be credible. So he's like, Okay, look I know these guys. I can go there. I talked the lingo. I can straighten this out. So we pay his flight. If we pay his flight, did we pay his hotel?
No?
No, because it was a one day trip one day.
We pay his flight, We pay him.
He goes out there, he says, he speaks to them, nothing happens, nothing happens at all. So now we're getting frustrated because that was like two months in, we paid like fifteen thousand dollars and we have nothing to show for it.
Pretty much.
We can download the app, but it does nothing.
No, it does nothing.
So then after that part, we go back and forth with them and they just like stop working. It stopped working completely stop. So now it's like, okay, we need somebody to do this. They're in India. They took our money, we have no product.
That all right.
And then he said he the second developer, said oh I can.
Do it in India. Yeah, there is another Indian.
Not the same guy we used to flew out.
He was like, I can do it, all right.
It's going to cost us.
This everyone's always going to say.
So the guy, the guy that flew out to talk to the guys, he's like, okay, look I can do it for you. It'll cost like five thousand.
I think.
Yeah.
He doesn't do it either. He does it, but it's like not done properly. So then comes back and he's like, look, actually this is gonna cost way more because it's way more involved. Then you gotta do more tech and all kinds of stuff. So the long story short of it is that we wasted thirty thousand dollars and we had nothing to show for it.
Full transparency. Yeah, we got an app that you can probably search that does nothing.
I was gonna say, yeah, like this that just lets me know how much I've grown, because like hearing all this, like there was forty seven things that I was like, oh did you do this? Like oh my god. But that's just part of the thing, because I mean when I first went on started on this journey, I really was just like oh boom. So I get a developer and we're like we're rocking. I tell you how to
make the app, and I get it. It is so much more than that, and you start realizing why Silicon Valley is what it is.
It goes back to what we said last episode though, right, Sometimes when you try to take shortcuts and pay for cheaper labor, it's going to be a more extensive thing at the end.
It's very, very true, undred percent. I Mean I always say this is not just in getting cheap, but I always say, like free is more expensive than paying for anything, because it's just like what you're investing to somebody else to do something for you for free. It's sometimes it's a heavier burden down the road than just paying to get quality things done by by someone who's quality at
their job. And so yeah, I mean, like my whole you know, my whole tech team, our whole tech team is in India, but it is it is such a different story. But yeah, it's interesting. I mean, let's get into it.
Alright.
So my man Cole has has a dope app. We're gonna talk about the details of the app, quick track what it's called. Yes, but before we go into the details of the app. All right, let's back up. So we failed miserably in the app world, right, but you're actually succeeding in the app world, right. So okay, so first off, how did you come up with the idea.
To start an app?
So my background in anything before all this, I'm way more of a creative guy. I made clothes, I wrote songs like that was that was just my life. That's just what I did. It was farthest thing from tech savvy, all of those things. And so one day a buddy of mine, Adam, he's a great illustrator, and so he was working at a design agency. He's getting freelanced out and we pulled up to go get his check. This was about two years ago, and you know, I'm just
sitting in his car. I'm chilling, you know, just waiting for him to come back in. He comes back in. He's hot, he's absolutely, He's like punching the steering wheel. I'm like, bro, like, what's up? Like are you okay? And he tells me that they just said that they weren't going to pay him and they showed him like eight hundred and fifty dollars like out of his check. And I'm sitting there and I go, hey, well, like I mean, do you have like a contract with him
or anything? And he's like, nah, man, I don't. And I was like, he's like looking through his text messages, like he's like sifting through to see like where the deal was and whatnot. And I was like, well, you know, why didn't you have a contract? And I swear to you it was like getting hit by like a like a lightning bolt in that moment, because I was like,
I've done business like this one hundred times. I've done so many things where you know, it was just whatever handshake and you know it's all good until it's not. It's worked. It's worked. You know so many times where you know, it kind of reinforces the bad habit because you don't even care because you're like, whatever, rest my man's we're good, we'll figure it out. And I was like, well, there has to be like a fast way to just
create a contract on the fly. Like I know there's a DOCU sign, but you know you got to upload something or you know, that's if you're buying a house or something like that. It's a little bit of a
you know, thicker process. And so I just start looking on like on the car ride back home from that place, I'm looking in my phone, looking through the app store because I'm like, I'm typing a contract, I'm talking in agreement, I'm doing all these things because I'm like, there has to be something that does this, and everything is like
upload a PDF to sign. My whole point was, you know, there has to be a way to streamline this process because the thing about contract is in general is you know, you're you're signing, you know, a contract to be on a sports team. Yeah, it's going to be about this thick but all that really matters is the terms on there. Yeah, but you know, if I'm asking someone to make a logo for me, for five hundred dollars. It doesn't need to be the same twenty page packet. You know what
I'm saying. All that matters is you know what is going to get paid, scope of work, deadline, Is there a deposit? As long as those things get straightened out realistically, that's the terms of any binding agreement. And so I'm sitting there and I'm looking through it. I can't see anything that is the vision. In that moment, I tell Adam, I'm like, bro, like, what if there was an after this called quick tracked swear? Like it's the first thought
in my head. I saw the color purple, like all of it, and I just I just kind of like I forget what we just let kind of let it be. Go home. I go home, and I remember, like a like a day later, I call my mom and I'm talking to her and I just tell her the idea, not really thinking about it or anything like that, just you know, hey, this is what I was thinking about. She was like, you should you should see if that domain name is available. So that's like the first thing
I did is I looked it was completely available. So I was like, oh, okay, Like so I bought the domain name off go Daddy for like ninety nine cents because I was just like, whatever, every never going to do anything with this, but it's fine. And then like about forty eight hours after that happens, I swear, it just feels like a movie. Like I just get up out of bed and I immediately see like the process, like I see how it's supposed to look. I'm like, yo,
it has to be done in like sixty seconds. Like you have to be able to create an agreement super fast and streamline at all, because what we're at war with is not contract. Because you could always get a contract if you want to. You'll print something now, it's no big deal. The problem is the psychology behind a contract. You know, if you ask your friend to sign a contract for something, could be for anything, it feels heavy handed. There's almost like an element of distrust attached to that.
If you're just like, hey, man, can you watch my dog for the weekend? Here, sign this contract? You're like, oh, bro, like what do you mean? You know what I'm saying. So that was always the first step. I I learned how to animate and photoshop off the University of YouTube.
And.
Yeah, sumakum lad and then and so I do that, stay up all night figuring out like how it looks, and it was. Believe me, if I could redo it again, I'd be like, dude, use Adobe x D, like it's gonna be so much faster. But that comes with the learning process. And then over months and months of time later, it was one of those things where I just couldn't put down. I have absolutely no resources. I am not in any way, shape or form qualified to do any of this. I just have an idea that can't leave
my head. So then from there, I get up with a buddy of mine, Shane, who then has a friend named Nick. Nick went to school with him out at UCLA. He was originally from India. I meet up with them and Nick, essentially he starts understanding the vision and we actually start putting some wire frames and stuff together.
Yeah.
Yeah, he starts getting the vision and we start putting some wire frames together, and I'm just paying him out of pocket at this point. He's not even a part of the team or anything like that. I just remember, you want to talk about American prices. I remember he flips one thing to me. He was like, yeah, that's three grand, and I was just like, like this Like I was like I could click three things like what
are you talking about? And then as and eventually, you know, we started becoming friends and I was like, bro, like let's just do this, like let's just really go in on this and fast forward from there. I actually, you know, I'm starting to get a little more momentum just with the idea. We have no real infrastructure, no real business understanding.
How many people on the team at this point.
So at this point, at this point, there was three individuals.
This is before you have the app, this is before, and this is the idea. Yeah about the idea, this.
Is this is like I said, it's it's there's no resources at this point. It's a guy who knows how to make a wireframe essentially. And so then from there, so I have so I have an uncle Lee. I haven't talked to him in a couple of years. He was a very very very smart guy. And originally I just I call him just for some guidance. I'm like, hey, man,
like I I have this idea. I'm kind of like over my head, do you have like a couple hours to just talk to me through this and see how we could kind of you know, see tell me if I have anything here. He's one of those guys who, you know, if essentially he's gonna tell you if the idea sucks, and you know, if it's good, he might just say like, oh that's yeah, that's good. So that's what I was kind of like leaning into, and so I end up talking to him about it and just
going from there. All while this is going on, Nick goes back to India for a little while. Nick goes back to India, comes back for like Christmas break. He gets stopped at the border. They asked to look at his phone. They look at his phone, they see our conversations about quick tracked, and they're like, oh you don't. You don't have an entrepreneur visa. You have a student visa. So they don't let him into the country. They send
him back to India. So he's in India still, like I said, Yeah, So that's why I said, like, our tech team is in India.
Oh he's still there.
Yeah, he's still there right now. Oh wow, from India. He's from India.
All right, Okay, okay, so you all right, so you have one of your guys get stopped at the border. Yeah, and then the other so is now it's you and in your guys.
So so it's so it's myself Nick and it's Lee at this time. Okay, So one in India, Yeah, no, one's ones and know we're all spread at one Ohio. I'm in La Nick is in India.
Right now, all right? So okay, so you have you have the idea. First, you reach out to your friends. You explained to them the idea. They like the idea, right, y'all gonna start working on it. Nick can't come back to America. Yeah, he's stuck in India, right, Okay, So from that that point, how do you going towards developing app?
So what happens is is so and I got to give a huge shout out here to Lee and the eventual party that we brought on Russ as well. So, so Lee's in his forties, Russ I think is in his sixties now. And the thing about and they both have, you know, over twenty thirty years of real business experience.
How do you know these people?
So Lee is my uncle. So, like I said, he's my uncle. But it was one of those things where it wasn't like we were we were always like super close. I initially was just like, hey, man, like I have this idea. I would love to run it by you.
Do you call your uncle league?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, and so and so. Uh So we just talk and see what happens. We kind of start realizing that his background is more more in line than we would even originally had planned. I mean he had he had this one company called CIM, which essentially was they served like as like the bankruptcy uh like data information for like over seventeen thousand law firms, you know, like percent. Like he's yeah, he's made his money, you know.
And so that was one of those things where I was like, hey, you know, let's just talk this out. It starts feeling way bigger than me at this point because at this point he's like, no, like I want to let's let's do this like I want a rock. Let's let's actually get this going. And then we start from there. And a huge component of this, which was a very big struggle for me, like I'll be flat out honest and transparent about it as I fly up to Ohio to essentially like walk through it all and
see if we could make a partnership work. And I sit there and look at this whiteboard that's just full of them, you know, so many of the technological hurdles that we have to jump, and you know, this is way more his space at this time. So yeah, this is his board, and I'm looking at it because it's it's the same schematics that I've put out, but now it's like, actually, this is the actualization process of it all.
And I sit there and I go, oh my god, this is so much bigger than me, you know, And in that moment, I realized something that was like really painful, which I was like, in order for this vision to go somewhere, I might have to curb some of my ego in order to make this happen. So what I do is I say, you know what, I'm gonna make you the CEO. I'm gonna make you the CEO of this Like I said, I founded this company. I'm gonna make you the CEO of this company. I'm gonna be
the cheap brand officer. I'm gonna stick with what I know how to do.
All right, So you start the company, rightc you start a sea court. You tell your uncle about the idea. Your uncle has a lot more business experience than you do. So you just have the idea in your head. Your uncle he thinks about it. He's like, nah, this this can actually do something crazy. He puts it on a vision border like this is when you see it execution steps, you realize that his vision for your idea is more advanced than your vision.
It more so it was it was the here's how of my idea, you know what I'm saying, which it builds I mean, like I said, it builds out to such a more collaborative place after the fact, But in that moment, it was so like, oh, I just thought, we hire developers and the app come. You know what I'm saying.
So that that process of saying, you know what this is, You're gonna be the CEO of this? How long did you wrestle with that?
Truth be told? It was so I fly home, I fly home from being out there, and I remember I was talking about mom and I wrestled with it for a little bit. But it was one of those things where you know, you can't deny it, like it's it's such it's such an obvious thing where I'm like, okay, Well, as a role player, if you got you know, if you got Lebron essentially been like, yeah, I'll play on your team, but like you can't be point guard. I
want to be point guard. You kind of gotta go, okay, well do I want to win a championship?
You know what I'm saying that that that takes it. That's it takes a lot of humility, right, it takes a lot of humility to do, because that's like even going on Shark Tank right where it's like your yo, your baby that you you gave birth to and you pretty much let somebody else take it from me.
I'll take it from well.
No.
So, so what happens is is so like I said, I very much in that moment, in that moment, like I'm not gonna lie, like I'm scared. I'm trying to figure everything out.
Did he ask to be CEO or you just offered that?
No? No, no, no. So what happened was was it kind of was like a meet in the middle where it was like it was a conclusion that had to get reached on both ends because it was one of those things where it's like one I couldn't have been because and this is one thing that I want anyone to take away from this, this is probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned in my life because of this is you don't know what you don't know. That is point blank period. There are so many phases of life
where you don't know what you don't know. You don't even know the question to ask to get the answer for something down the road. Experience is the biggest thing in the world. Like you guys said, you know, you didn't know what you didn't know about making an app until you, you know, made one unsuccessfully. Now you know.
Something, well, you know what the thing about it got to cut you off.
But sure, if honestly, if we would have had mentors, right, if we would have had somebody in the field, we might have been successful. And that's the problem a lot of times is that we don't have mentorship, right, So don't we just winging it as we go? We didn't have Uncle Leaf, you know, yeah, if we had somebody like that. But that's great that you utilize your resource you have. Yeah, a wise man utilizes all tools that's available to him.
It's one hundred percent. It's it's a huge component of this is is And that was one of the things that was the conversation that we that we really have, and we were like, all right, boom, let's lock in, let's really do this. It was me understanding, I don't
know what. I don't know. You can see further than just me right here, but I know that this idea is so strong and I feel this so strongly, and I know that my skills will be best served in this area that you know, it's like I said, we could say humility, but at the end of the day, like I just I just truly believe that when you are fortunate enough to be in that mode of creativity where like things are just clicking, you know, it's just
almost like a lob. At that point, you're just playing ball and you're like, okay, like go ahead at this, all right, all right?
So now all right, So you have the business structure of Rice.
You establish that your uncle with the CEO, you're good at chief marketing officer.
I'm chief marketing and chief brand Yes.
What's the other guy's role?
So we got so that we got Russ Russell, who was another of the older guys who he'd been in business with my uncle for Russell Russ Russell, we got we got names on this team and so so he's been in so he's been in business, you know, over forty years at this point, he's been you know, he'd been working around with my uncle I think for a little over twenty. But so these are individuals who know
the game very well. And he was the first person to say is like, look, you know a lot of the times when you go into a VC situation or you know down the road, you need some gray hair in the room, you know, someone with no experience venture capitalist.
Yah.
Yeah, but just in like put this in anything. I think that a great point, you know, to piggyback way on the on your social media stuff that you were saying about how you know, start with what you have. Huge part of making an app is an MVP minimum viable product. So it's like it's the same thing with making videos where it's like it you have to make content some way because no one's gonna give you all the equipment if they don't have something to go off.
And so that's how like a app making works is I have to show you the slide show that then turns into the wireframes. I have to show you the wireframes that then turn into the you know, the first like version and then build on so on and so forth.
So you all right, so you build your team out first, right, right, you build your teams, You start the legal structure.
You have the LLC. I'm assuming you copyright the name and all of that. You build your team. This is before the tech. This is before tech.
This is this is it's kind of running congruently at this point. Actually no, no, no, so we haven't. We haven't started building the full full product yet.
No, so all right, let's talk about that. How do you build that? How do you build that?
Okay, how much time we got? No? No, So, So the thing about it is is, you know, there's coding languages, there's things like, I mean, these were words I never even knew before I got here. Where it's like are you building REAC native? Is it swift? You know? Or what are you using symphony on the back end? Like there's so many things there. You know, APIs there's so many nuances that once again you don't know what you don't know, So you're kind of trial by fire at
this point in time. So you go from there and you establish you know, your product manager, which is something that when you guys were talking about yours, I was like oh, they didn't have a product manager, which is that's the guy who Yeah, maybe if you had someone here who who had built an app before, who was running point for you, guys who knew like, okay, these are the tranches, these are the check marks they have to get to you guys are coding and react native.
Let me see you know the gi hub like there was there was certain components like that where you need to building an app. The reason like a Zuckerberg can create an app in his dorm room is because there's only one of him. There's only one zucker but there's only one of these people. You know, Steve Jobs needed you needed his partner, all these people. It's so much bigger than just your entity. Apps are, in my opinion, it you know, every business is a team game, but
in my experience, the app one is the most. Like everyone has to lean on each other at all times because the minute it doesn't happen is the minute you're like yo, you're so you're on vacation, Like I like I can't get a hold of you. I don't know what's going on. The whole products project stalls.
So you have all right, so the project manager, right, where do you find a project manager.
So I mean for for what we did is we were kind of we were kind of lucky. So we start building the team out. We got Lee who's on top of tech, as well as this other another guy, Scott. Those two individuals ton of experiences within that, so now they're so they're manning the tech side as long as well as Nick. So those are like our three you know, those are the three people on the tech part of this. Because we contract this out to a bunch of what's
called a bunch of developers, originally in Eastern Europe. So that's where we start from there.
But why do you use Europe your developers?
So we we went through a whole process of of getting you know, of getting quotes, quotes and everything like that. We thought at that time that was gonna be the best.
Way to gor so so Americans because that happened to us too, So we were American app developers are extremely They're way more expensive than right, like I said us, it was ninety what was the quote that you've.
Got, I mean six figures everywhere? Yeah, everywhere?
And what was the quotes in Eastern Europe?
There were still six figures, it was but this way it was. There was conversations where where it was looking like you know, hey, it's gonna cost like you know, like north of like four hundred thousand dollars.
To do this in America. So four hundred thousand of America.
Yeah, and we were just like, oh, like like you know, those those those are the those are the beginning things. And like I said, the thing about tech is in general, is it's so expensive. It is it is. It doesn't matter where you do it at. It's also this is
not a cautionary tale because it's a great thing. But the thing about quick Track is is it's such a it's such a deep app like it's like it's essentially like you're recreating, like not recreating, but it's you know, it has it has to have the same level of complexities as you know, like an uber Lyft or things like that.
It's complicated as So all right, so did you use the developers in Eastern Europe?
Yes, so we use So we use them and then eventually we transitioned fully after release to Nick in the whole team in India. So what what's the cost analysis at this point?
Right, Like you've got the developers, you got the team that's saying six figures, is it lower six figures obviously build a.
Little over three total total. Well, the thing about the thing about building an app is is the the cost never like, it doesn't stop. So it's not like, oh, this is how much you paid and then you know, cool, the app is done. It's you're there's always there's there's you're paying a w S, you're paying for the database, You're paying all these things consistently, so across the board.
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Be protected sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security. Ever like, oh, you paid for this way, you guys. You know you guys put thirty thousand into the app or it goes out. That's great, But that thirty thousand is is just to MV as the MVP's minimum viable product. You have to then from there, you know, for the eternity of its existence, you know, you have to pay upkeep, you have to pay to continue that. You know, Server costs all of those things.
So from the three hundred thousand, like, how do we get funded for that?
So what we So, what we did is we decided to we thought about this and we said, hey, who would be the most you know, in general, who would be the most anti quick track?
Right?
Attorneys?
Right?
Right?
Like attorneys would probably be the most anti quick track simply because you know it it may be seen as like taking from their practice. So what we did is we leaned on, you know, the past relationships that my partners had built with these really really like awesome these awesome guys who saw the vision, who were like, hey, this is you know, this is what we want to do. And so we built, like I said, we built from there.
We ended up we ended up making them shareholders, brought them in and that's what kicked everything.
Off for these people. Lawyers.
Yes, okay, so you all right, so you had investors, yes, relationships from your partners, right, they came in and they invested money in xact, they got equity. Right, Okay, Well, how can so what are you do you know any ideas for people that are looking to raise money that may not have.
Hundred percent I mean, I think it's before anything else, like the use what you've got mentality you know will take you further than anything, because if you think that the only way you're going to raise money is by leaning on a relationship or something like that, then you might miss your moment. You might miss the opportunity. There's you know, there's a there's a I wish I wish there was a rubric that said, hey, this is exactly
how you go raise money. One thing that you want to do that I urge over anything else is focus on the idea before you focus on the raise. So focus on creating the best version of your idea, the most realized you possibly can. You know, if that MVP is a literal beta that you could have someone test, or if it's a slide show, it doesn't matter what
it is. You have to take it to the absolute limit of what you know how to do and then from there, Like I said, I know this sounds cheesy and corny, and I know there's like a here's how to all of this, But at least in my experience in my story is it was just if you act in a way that has a level of sincerity with this and you are not afraid to ask questions and it could be dumb. All right, well cool, So who do I know in my life that you know may
do something? Talk to them build it out from there, because what I did is all I had was passion attached to this. I just said, how do like once again, I can't reiterate this enough. I had no experience in this up to this point. All I did was say, this thing won't leave my head. I don't know what to do. And I kept building it into a relationships, you know, stack themselves up to say, okay, well you
know what, it's bigger than you. Because when it has to be no one, no one's investing in me, that's not the point. They're investing in an overall idea. And then on top of that, people aren't going to invest their time in something that you want to do if you're not willing to go to the limit. And so that's a huge component of this. So it's like the like you said, use what you have.
So even if I had five thousand dollars, right, I got to build out to that five thousand. But I have to have something tangible one hundred percent.
I mean, it's just the way it is in general. Is like I said, I'm sure there's like romantic stories of people going to someone with a bunch of money like boom, I got this idea. And there's like the speech, you know, the famous the Carnegie speech where he ended up kind of bringing together like the Steel Trust. I don't know if you guys have heard about that. He essentially was a speech that ended up being worth a
hundred million dollars. But but the thing is is sure those moments I would kill for one of those if you and Farberteene, I would absolutely love that. But you have to have something tangible. You know, I've gotten it beaten to my head by my partners and everything through a whole bunch of time. But you know, talking is wonderful, but it's all about execution.
All right.
So okay, so now you raised the three hundred thousand, you developed the app, right, you have like six partners.
At this point.
So at this point, yeah, right, six partners.
Okay, so now you have the app built, right, So now what's the next steps as far as how do you get the app into Apple or how do you get the app into to sell it? How do you market the app? How do you monetize the app? How do you like?
Right, So, in general, the first thing that happens is is, you know, it's a ton of testing. And I can't stress this is enough. It really is like a true labor of love.
How long is this process at this point?
Shoot, August till March. So it was from August to March. Yeah, so, and it was supposed to be shorter, but like I said, it's if you if you want certainty and making an app, they don't go together, like you know, it's just part of the deal. But so that happens, they all get that, all gets put together, tons of testing, tons of work, all of those things at the time. Keep in mind, I'm my I'm I'm marketing like I'm building out the whole, the whole idea behind how we translate this to everybody.
You know, we have we have uh Nick flying from from India to Belarus and back and things like that, you know, negative degree temperatures and things.
Yeah.
No, you know, we got Lee and Ohio being up at all hours. You know, the time change get everything going. And so eventually after a bunch of tests and whatnot, it's ready to go. It's ready to go, it's ready to get put out into the App Store, Google Play, everything like that. From that point, you then go ahead and you know, once it's initial release, you gotta wait for things with Apple because that's just the way Apple works.
They charge you for having it in the store. So I mean what they do is Apple takes I believe it's I believe it's thirty percent of of everything. So that's so that's why you know a lot of a lot of apps, their their payment processing will be outside of the app store. So like have you noticed you can't pay for Spotify in the app store, Like you have to go onto the desktop version in order to pay for premium. So it's things like that because they're
they're kind of like circumventing the process. Well that's what That's what I'm saying. The same thing with like a Netflix and things like that. They're trying to, you know,
get outside of the payment Well that's what I'm saying. Yeah, And like I said, I might be wrong that Apple doesn't touch it at some point in time, but I mean it's A. It's a. That's what people try to do, is they try to you know, they wanted to think of every possible way to you know, have you know, Apple, there's a reason they're the biggest company in world, his three. You know, they know how to, they know how to you know, accumulate from everything.
And Apple takes thirty percent. How much does it Android take?
I don't think they take anything. I'm trying to. I'm trying to think. I don't think. I don't think they I don't think they touch it the same way Apple does.
Yeah, okay, so and then they approve it, they have to what what what's the criteria to approve an app?
You know, there's I mean there's so there. It's pages and pages on pages.
Of oh no, no, no, no, no.
Not at all.
It's like I said, there's absolute pages on on that.
Uh.
And and it happens like you you know, you'll get the little the little hit up that says like, uh, you know, it wasn't cleared or it was cleared, and then you got to figure out the exact reasons why and everything like that, and then you make whatever changes that need to get changed, whether it be something in the wording of how it's put out on the app store or whatnot, and you know, you just go from there.
So all right, so now it's in the app store, it gets approved, but now it's like a ten million apps in the app store for sure, how do you get your app noticed? How do you market you at? What's the profits for that?
So you know, one of the hugest things that that I had spoken earlier before you even started the podcast is when you're when you're just getting into the app store, what I would not necessarily advise because I'm still learning like everyone else is. But a huge part of this is, you know, it's essentially a proof of concept. At this point, you're trying to prove that there's some validity to your idea.
Here.
You're not going to be able to outmarket companies who are dumping thousands or millions of dollars into making sure that they're you know, they're in everybody's eyeline. But at this point in time, it's like taking a smaller bite and going, Okay, cool, how do I exactly? You know, we can't go from A to Z at this point. We still got to get to B before we get to that level where it's like, all right, sick, we
got a million users. Now, So what we did is we said, all right, we want to focus on growing a community very much to earn your like, earn your leisure. We want a quality number of users who are going to galvanize for us. Right. It's because the thing about a quick tract is is that you need two people to make one. So at the end of the day, one user turns into two users. So essentially the most important thing here is, Okay, let's continue to grow a community.
Let's really champion our users. Let's really care about this, not just lip service. Let's really care about the community we're serving. And you know, then from there we'll we'll leverage certain platforms and we'll just build. But the most important thing is is we're going to keep it as organic as humanly possible.
So in the first let's say the first three months of launching an app, was there a goal target for how many users you will sell?
So what we do is, I mean we have like a growth rate. We essentially are like trying.
We are.
Essentially twelve percent each week. Is you know you want it. It's all about metrics. The game is all metric based. And it's all about keeping it healthy, and it's all about growing that that entity at a at a marginal rate, where like I said, you don't want to you don't want to be in a situation where you're looking around and it's bad if you don't have anybody, and it's bad if you have too much because you're not you know,
you're you're not prepared. The database isn't necessarily built for that.
So how how did you?
All? Right?
So the first like, how did you get your initial first group of people to sign up?
So so what we did is first and foremost just out of the mud, like from nothing. We beat our phones up. Okay. So so another member of the team in in the story that that gets brought in a couple of months back is my guy Blake. Now Blake, he comes from a sports agent background, uh, former athlete. He gets brought into the fold as well. He kind of sees the vision and he's just like, yeah, absolutely it's run and you know, can't do it without him.
So me and him first we go like, we gotta we gotta you know, we gotta get this out of the mud. We gotta, we gotta beat up the phones. We gotta go to it. So we hit up every single person we know, we you know what I'm saying, like, that's that's just what it is, Like five six hundred people like initial downloads or whatever, just off that and then from there we we you know, we had a strategy that said, okay, well, let's not lie to ourselves.
Instagram is the world, you know, that's that's where everyone is, that's where everything is at. Let's attack that as strong as we can. Let's get individuals who believe in this to champion this. And you know, that's just what's what we started to do. We started building that up. We started to get individuals who, you know, whether they are athletes or entertainers, that believed in what we were doing.
Influencers yeah, well influencers too, yeah, and so we just we we built that out and the key is to keep it as organic as humanly possible. What's the budget for that? That was free ninety nine do all that, like the influence is promoted for freetion. So so what we did, so literally what we did was we went ahead and said like, hey, look we're building this out. We have like at this point in time, there's no budgets for these things where it's it's just all muscle.
It's trying to get to it. I have people who I'm very blessed and grateful to call my friends. You know that. Ye we first met.
I was like, when you were telling us the idea believe We're in an elevator and I'm like, yo, I've heard this idea before.
Man.
I'm like, yo, I heard it on the radio or I know I heard this idea and that's what I was saying. Like it took me like until I got back to New York and I was on the shade room and I'm like, yo, that's cold right there, Like that's when I heard this. You were with Jill Scott.
Yeah, no, I was, that's gonna say so. So I have a very good friend in Jill Scott. I used to be her assistant way back in the day. Uh. Shoot, it's even before that. It was weirdly enough like that. You know those friends where you look and you're just like, how did how did we become friends? It's one of those where it's like, literally, you know, that's that's my ace. But I couldn't put two and two together how we
got here? But so you know, she she I remember talking to her about it when it was on pieces of paper, Like I remember coming to her and just being excited, you know, not for anything, just say like this is what I'm doing. I'm gonna see if this goes anywhere. And so she's always been down for the cause. She you know, she she she believes in it, and she believes in me. And I remember, you know, I flew out, I flew out to go see her and just kind of was just proud to show her like,
you know, boom, this is the actual product. Least believe me. The craziest thing is about all this is as much as you want to say that, like as much as look what I did, this is crazy. It's two things. One, you start appreciating the progown WE so much more. You start appreciating like, nah, this is a we. Like there is there's no I in any of this, because I is I is an idea that you get to you know, sit there and make on your computer at home and doesn't get to see the light of day. I is
an idea that you can put some time into. You can get traction. And there's a bunch of eyes that have done amazing, wonderful things. But in just my short time in the app world, you're like, this is a wee thing by far. Just when we went ahead and we knew someone over there and they saw the jail thing and they were like, oh, a feature on you, it was just it was just Instagram posts.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was like, wait, so Jill Scott was one of the influences that help.
Yeah, so.
You just told him about it. They believed in it. They did post for you story.
So it was post. It was a couple of things. So it was like they did post. Kevin Love did a story. Yeah, that was called that my buddy Blake he knows, he knows him really really well. And so yeah, and so just you know, coming up from coming up from there like that. It's one of those things where it's like you said, scrambling. It's just like it's the ingenuity part of it where you're like, hey, look you you gotta get it however you can do. Yeah, no, we we got. It's been so much going on, I'm
trying to think. Yeah, no, I mean, it was it was, it was it was a host of other athletes. We have a good friend, she's an actress named Paige Herd who's been super, super supportive and just built off from there like like it was. It was one of those things where you know, truth be told. Money was not evan. It wasn't even a thought like, it wasn't even about that. It was just like, hey, when can I post this for you kind of thing. I mean, it could be they believed in it could be that they like us,
you know, whatever it is. I I was grateful either way.
O R oh, yeah, absolutely, it's it that is.
I mean the growth model is is very much, you know, understanding the platform or people have and if someone believes in something, like I said, my model thing is is I can you know, you can't make anybody do anything, and I never would try to. So I want to make sure that you know, if people believe in it. Oh, I'm yeah, I'm you know, I'm a champion you just like you champion me. What lot? So the way we work is quick Track is a subscription based service where
it's free to always receive no matter what. It's free first two months, regardless of the fact it's free to do anything on the app after the next two months, it's just it's just three ninety nine a month if you want to use all of the features attached to it. And the thing about quick Tract is is, like I said, it's not just about creating a contract. It's because when you create an agreement, like that's just the beginning, Like saying you're gonna do the job is just the beginning
of the job. What happens is the duration of the job to the completion of the job. So quick Tract is the first app that's a live agreement. So if anything changes, if you know, deadlines have to be moved, scope of work changes, anything like that, you could actually request that amendment in real time and then a person if they agree to it, then it gets logged into the PDF document that's attached to everything and essentially just you know, keeps everybody on the same page. Documents.
Yeah, us, how do people know, like as far as the app right, how do you know how to price your app?
It's I mean it's interesting because there's a there's a ton of literature on that that you can go through. I mean a lot of it. I also less sexy
answer some of its trial and error. You know, some something's worth what people will pay for, And I think that you know, we we we feel comfortable at three ninety nine for the time being, just because it's you know, you could run your whole business for the price of a cup of coffee essentially, and you know, so like I said, it's I wish, I wish I had a sexier answer than that, but it's just very much where it's at.
All, right, So, okay, can we talk about vcs? All right?
So that the goal a lot of times in tech is to either a sell your company or be if you really want to, you know, go to the next level. You need massive amounts of funding and most people don't have that. They can't read that. So this is where dented capital firms come into. Blaye mentioned capital firms invest in tech companies, right, So, yeah, you have some knowledge on vcs. Can you explain the process of vcs and funding rounds ABC?
So so, I mean, yeah, my knowledge is growing by the day, but I'll explain the best I know. How So you know, in general, vcs they invest in tech companies very much like you said, and the way that they invest for each firm is different. They may have a certain focus in something where someone's like we invest in green tech, we want things that are you know,
environmentally and ego conscious. Right now, so going into you know, looking at a VC firm, you know, which is once again it's so far down the road from when you first create your app. What you're gonna want to what you're gonna want to do is you want to focus
on what they focus on. Because if if you're you know, if the VC firm in your neck of the woods focuses on green you know, tech and that's not your entity, they might not want to put that in portfolio as they may not be something that they care about, you know. So that's that's a very abridged idea of what you want to start looking into with VCS, and then from there, I mean, look, the what we're in the process of right now is like like we said, it's we're in
proof of concept phase. We are we are building out something that you hope to show. Hey, this is where we are, this is what we do. It's a consistent formula that's working. Now we want to scale it, you know, VCS and everything that's all about scaling. You know, some people could could be early stage, and that's wonderful if
you could pull that off. But for the most part, it's you know, they they're the battery in your back that takes you from you know, fifty thousand to you know, five hundred thousand users.
I mean, we've seen people, especially in hip hop culture, with their own VC firms.
Like a god like nads. Oh we're killing it, yeah, killing it.
Yeah sure, And most of our you know, our community are not even where what what venture capitalists are.
Like were the different rounds?
So, I mean you got look, you got your seed round, which that's the initial investment of anything. Then you got your your A, which is you know that's where we're in the process of going to right now. Then you got your B C, and then eventually you get to a place where you know, the companies if you look on crunch base and they're like so and so invested one hundred and ninety million dollars, and it's yeah, you know that's that's that's where that's the C and up kind of thing.
Yeah, okay, how do you find how do you how would you find vcs?
The steps to get to a VC, like, to get to that level they have the boxes have to be checked before you could even go to the door. You know what I'm saying. And that's a huge component of all this is like the the sexy awesome answer is hey, boom, So you want to go to Sequoia Capital, you know, out in California, and you want to get them to invest ten million dollars into your app idea, Like that's beautiful,
Like absolutely, I truly hope you do that. But you're not going in there with just an app freshly made with nothing attached to it, or no show of traction or even in an earlier round of investment attached to that. You know, like a lot of these places are they're going to piggyback off of you. There's multiple firms can
come in on on a single round. Like that's the thing where you don't essentially just go to like boom, this is the idea, Yeah, this is this is the idea is the one people are gonna do it eventually, you know, it gets big enough, like people want to put in forty fifty million dollars into something, Chances are there gonna be a couple hands in that pile. So you've got you said we're going to a right now?
Ok yeah, yeah, okay, all right, all right, so quick track. What's the what's the future for that.
So so what we're doing right now is what we're very excited about, is, you know, all of us is a team. We kind of started realizing that a lot of these marketplace apps right now, you know, they are they're starting to get a cut out of what everyone does. So whether that be making a logo or you know, putting up a you know, putting up someone's dresser or whatnot, they're starting to take cuts out of that. And they're
not just normal cuts. They're taking like thirty to forty percent out of that transaction just for kind of being the intermediary. And so what quick Track wants to do and what we're doing with our next release is we
want to make freelancing free again. So a lot of it comes down to, you know, creating that marketplace directory that says, hey, you know, if I'm looking for a if I'm looking for someone to you know, watch my dog, or I'm looking for a yoga instructor or something like that, you could look in there see who's on quick Tracked in your area, who might do that thing. And if you guys link up through there there, we don't touch it.
We don't take any money. Out of that because at the end of the day, it's description based service, so we're building it into like the community element. It's yeah, it's it's a huge it's a huge thing to me because look, I mean, something we talked about off air.
The reason I don't necessarily think it's fair for these you know, behemoth companies to essentially still take forty percent out of you know, someone's transaction is because let's just say, for whatever reason, that customer didn't have like the most stellar experience doesn't have to be bad. They could be triven, but or like or something actually bad happens. You know, that's that's gonna come down on the provider's head, not on the company. The company all right under the next
we'll grab someone else. Yeah, but you know that that is a huge component of this to me because at the end of the day, you know, let's say you you got a dog walker, use one of the dog walking apps and you're like boom, like I like this person to take my dog out. This is great if you want to keep using that same person. You know, those apps they are automated, so they don't let you
do that. Like it's whoever, you know, you just kind of it's like uber, right, but let's say you you like the guy you have or this is the way I do something like you can sideswipe the transaction feed, you can come together. You could have something legally binding with quick Track that you know, for the duration of the agreement. You could also pay and get paid through the app.
So how can the people contact you? How can they?
So?
Quick Track is on Instagram, on everything's just quick Tracked app. That's q U I K T R A c T app. We're on everything there, quick track dot com, find us in the app store and Google Play. Yeah. Those I mean, unless I forgot some of those, those are all the methods Facebook, Twitter, Yeah, what every other one?
All right? Cool? Cool? Well, first of all, we weren't thank you for coming, of course.
Man, appreciate it. Your alumni, I appreciate you. I appreciate it. Appreciate it.
Yeah for coming, man, we appreciate it.
You know, checking something that a lot of times we don't know anything about. Andy's something that even object out. He's doing a great job as far as introducing into athletes. But it's still like, I feel like people have no idea about any of this stuff, Like it's like a foreign language. And like I said, that's one of the reasons why we.
Wasn't successful is that we just didn't know.
We didn't We was just trying to figure it out as we go as we went, and we failed. So, you know, more information, knowledge is power, hopefully, you know, even if somebody can just get a little bit of information from it now that you can actually learn and research, but you'll have some background on it, because you can't really learn about this stuff anywhere and like school and
stuff like that. For the most part, especially on the entrepreneurial side, they might teach you like technology, but as far as how to get it up and running, you don't know.
You just kind of like got to watch YouTube or Google.
And the putting two and two together is the thing that's lacking right now is they could, like I said, I can teach you how to code. I could. I can't, but someone could teach you how to code. And that's great. But you know, the but from taking this and make that that transition from what I'm saying, that's that's where people you know, that's where that's a lot of trial and error.
Yeah, that's a fact. That's a fact. So all right, Troy Housekeeping.
Yeah, man.
Patreon dot com backslash Ernialsia.
You know.
Patreon, we're growing every week we get new members and like I said, it's just a way to support the podcast so that we can, you know, push certain initiatives in your area. We got a lot of people reaching out to us asking how can they help. Patreon is one of those ways, and it's good because we get to talk to our patrons directly. So we've had Sanna who's been a great patron, and Vicki we've scheduled a call with her. Charles Tony we spoke about last week.
We had an amazing conversation with Uh and we got some new ones this week. So Mercy shout out to her and Dijon Uh and Brenda who literally joined right before we came.
On to film this episode.
And she said her sons listen and I think one of them plays football and one wants to be a sports agent.
So shout out to her.
She asked a small request that that we're actually going to fulfill in next companie. I want to give it away, but Branda, we got exactly what you you sent. The message about the episode is coming probably in the next two weeks. So shout out to her for joining and everybody that's been supporting the podcast, whether through Patreon, through any leisure dot com, wearing the merch, thank you for your support. It's growing, man, So thank you for growing with us.
Yeah, yeah, the merchan. You know, I got my emoji shirt on.
I got mine over there.
For sure. So yeah, we want to you know, thank you for coming on.
Man. The bookship of the week is going to be since we talked about tech, Steve jobs biography. That was a great book I read. I forget the name of it. I think it was called Jobs. That's the name of it. It's called Jobs, And I highly recommend the book because it talked, it outlined his journey and it's interesting.
And he's a pretty complicated guy.
But the tech, you know, since we're talking about tech, I think that's an appropriate book for entrepreneurs with people interested in business too.
He's the Goat's Michael Jordan.
I think he did something.
Yeah, you're going to learn from anybody that's the guy.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely So.
All right, man, thank you for rocking with us. We will see you now.
Yeah.
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