Rolling in the Code | Multithreaded Income Episode 45 with Kiah Imani

So that's why I did that work.

at Auth0. So I like my, my job is to work conference booths and speak at conferences and create content for developers, um, to help them use Auth0 and help them, um, to help decrease, this is my skill that I like to say, to help decrease the friction and the time to get from. discovery to like the first light bulb moment.

I've used it once or twice, but definitely a good suite of products out there.

the, the secret sauce, I think. Um, especially if chef, like there are quite a few. You know, DevOps seed type CIC, you know, flavor of products out there. But, uh, chef has a really great community and that's what I really think. Um, and probably did a great job of keeping that, you know. focus going. So, um, kudos to them for that.

Like, there were none and so they had to, like, um, like, kind of. Bubble gum and, you know, like sticky tape, something together to make it work for their business. And so that was a mental note. And in that trip, we went to a couple of others dispensaries. And then we, so we

went to a couple of other dispensaries in Vegas. And then we ended up going to L. A. in that same timeframe and went to a couple of dispensaries in L. A. because now we're doing market research, right? That's what I'm going to call it. And found that everybody was having that same problem. And that is where the idea was born.

Um, the way that they had to, uh, track their customer's purchases was something that a normal point of sale system did not have the capability to do.

So they would have to, um, pull up a, uh, something separate, maybe like a CRM system, possibly, and then, um, you know, get my information and then, you know, Track how much they sold to me and then go back in at the end of the day and then, um, upload all of that information or not even upload, excuse me, manually enter all of that information into what is called what I now know to be called a seat to sale tracking, um, system and that they have to do it for every customer, right?

And then not to mention the fact that, um, From a financial perspective, like you can't use at that time. You could not use your debit card, for instance, or your credit card. You still can't use credit cards, but you couldn't even use a debit card to purchase because it's federally illegal. So, like, you can't there's like regulatory things around moving the money, right?

And one of the things that, um, normal point of sale systems do is they come with like stripe or like a square or something like that, that, they're Built in merchant services. So when we built C tracks, one of the things that we did. Was we made it a payment processor or merchant service processor agnostic. So, um, one of the things that we saw there was at the time, you would have a merchant services provider that would accept payments from dispensaries.

And then maybe like a couple of weeks later, the regulations would change and then they wouldn't. And then you would have to find another merchant service processor, you know? And. So that will be a game that could go on and on and on for, you know, months. And then that could put somebody out of business if they had to continue to, you know, change out their point of sale and inventory management every single time they wanted to, they needed to change out their merchant services provider.

And so that was a huge part of the problem that we solved, um, with C Tracks. And like I said, there are quite a few other players in the game right now. So I'm sure the, I know for a fact that the experience is a lot more seamless now, thanks to a lot of the innovative folks in the industry. But it was a huge headache for dispensary owners back in the day.

And that was one of the primary reasons I didn't get involved in it was, oh, that just seems like a lot of effort. And I don't know if I want to do it. Uh, so kudos to you all for, for going down that route.

on top of that, like, these regulations are ever evolving. So it's, it's, it's, it's a huge, um, undertaking to, to be a software provider in that industry. And it's not for the faint of heart because there's also like not a lot of people that are putting a lot of money into it currently.

So since, you know, um, the west coast and some, you know, select states over on the east coast had, you know, marijuana, we had CBD. Same problems, right? Except for, um, CBD was federally legal. Still, we encounter the similar issues with merchant service processing. And so that we figured that that was like, this was it. This is our, this is our moment. Okay, cool. Let's go off to the races.

My husband was good friends with, um, A person who started the first dispensary, this first CBD dispensary in Uh, Charlotte, North Carolina, and they ran it just like they ran on one, uh, on the West Coast. So it was exact same experience, but you know, it was just different product, similar product, but just different. Um, so that was our first customer. We had our MVP going. It was, it was terrible.

And you know, it's funny because I want my first investor said, if you release a product and you're not embarrassed by it, you released too late. So we were embarrassed. We actually ended up having to, like, it was, it was great at first, but then we realized how many holes we had to plug. And that was what, April of 2018. That we got our first customer. It was actually April 1st and it was the craziest April fool's day ever because we went in there, we did their entire inventory.

They didn't, they have been open for maybe, they probably have been open for, let's say about four or so months, but they never really managed their inventory. They just like, they had it, they sold it. They didn't, they, they couldn't sell it, you know, but they didn't really have projections. They didn't really know, okay. I'm going to have to buy, um, you know, pre rolls in a week in order to kind of keep with my current flow.

So we ended up going in there and doing their entire inventory from scratch. This was like thousands of products, right? And so, well, hundreds of products, but then also tens of variants of those products. And those are all individual SKUs. So we ended up going in and doing that manually in, um, for our first onboarding. And then we ran into, like, the first problem that we ran into was, uh, the fact that we were using a web app, right?

And We had to, our customers needed to use peripherals, like they needed a Bluetooth printer and they needed, um, to be able to, it was really the Bluetooth printer, the Bluetooth printer was the biggest thing, but I think also like the barcode scanner was something, another thing that they needed to use, but it didn't really work well with a web app. Um, so we immediately realized that we needed to do something native and then we're like, okay, well, can we use iPads?

And I was like, I mean, you could, but we don't have an iOS app. So, so that was the next step we, we, and no, but everybody wanted to use iPads. Um, everybody in the store at that time, we still only had that one customer. Um, we probably only had that one customer for about a couple of months while we try to figure it out. Cause we were really like, Oh, it was really bad. Okay. So it eventually. Um, we've launched our second version of our product, right? Um, our, like, we went GA.

If that, you know, um, so, we had our iOS app, we had our, um, our admin, which was still a web app, and we were off to the races. We started acquiring customers. So, wait, this was not April 2018, this was April 2019. So, wait, this was not April 2019, this was April 2019. By September, 2019, we had launched our, uh, second version and we all know what happened in 2020. Um, so we had, by the time COVID hit, we maybe had like 11 customers.

So, you know, we, we were like, okay, we're doing great up until COVID and everybody had to close. Well, everyone, except for maybe a handful of our customers closed because, um, cannabis dispensaries were, um, they were considered, uh, what is it a vital, is it like

Okay. But now we had other requirements because now we needed to do, um, curbside pickup and. You know, we needed to do, um, deliveries. Some folks were doing deliveries and things like that. So we had to pivot like our roadmap and, and, you know, uh, accommodate those needs because we needed to be able to keep the people that we had going. Right. That was essential. Um, and that was the time.

Okay. At that point, we were both, I'll we'll end up talking about how that ended up happening, but we were both full time. Um, it was COVID and we were just trying to make this thing work. We're putting one foot in front of the other making this thing work. And eventually we would start getting, you know, people will start opening up again and we would start getting new customers.

And then we started, uh, targeting franchises as, as things started opening up more and people started the, the, the life started coming back into the industry, if you will. Um,

And then we had, like, once we entered into franchise, we had a different pricing model for that because, um, you know, that's stuff in a different territory because you would need to be able to. Um, look at all of the stores that you have in your franchise. So that was a different, a different, uh, product if you will. Um, so we had like more enterprise level, um, pricing model for that.

Um, and so my husband at the time was working for, um, he was in car sales, No, excuse me. He was in software sales for car dealerships, but, and it was like a very conservative company. And so I don't know who advised us. One of our business advisors, like, you know, there's a whole

industry in like telling startups, the things that they need to do and get it, you know, get in, start getting startups to pay them for terrible advice. All right.

Um, but my husband's company, I told him I was going to do it, you know, before I did it, but my husband's company was very conservative company. So we found out. And as soon as he put it, um, that he was on doing cannabis. They, they called in a meeting with a couple, a few other people that were not on the meeting invite and told him that they no longer needed his services.

And so I just took a leap of faith and I was like, all right, well, the thing was, my husband was full time on it, but he, like his job was to interact with customers, I was building a thing. Right. So like, if anyone needed to be full time, like if we had done this strategically.

He wouldn't have put anything on his LinkedIn and I would have gone full time on it. Right. He would have kept his job. Uh, but we did not, we were just, we were just living on a prayer, you know? And, um, so I wasn't happy with, like I said, the way things were going at work. And I was like, you know what? I am going to go full time on this. I took a leap of faith.

We had, um, we have made it to the last round of, um, the last round of consideration for, uh, a, an accelerator and I was like, okay, well, we're going to get in this accelerator and when we get this accelerator, we're going to need to go to Colorado anyway. So, I mean, why not? And we ended up not getting into the, uh, to the accelerator, like for whatever reason, they gave us some, you know, BS. That's what they do. They're like, Oh,

So I'm just saying, um, and I'm not saying that Dan Martell is one of those people, but I am saying like, there's a lot of nuance that needed to be talked about in those videos.

not giving away the good stuff. He gives the good stuff away to the person that pays him 100, 000 for consulting services or for coaching services. And even then, It's probably not even good advice. It's probably here's access to my network. And that's what you're ultimately paying for. I don't think you're paying for advice. I think you're paying for the network and

And, um, it was a situation where, you know, when you, when you do, when you go into business with your significant other, right. And you go into business and you have these like real serious challenges. It really takes a toll on everything. It takes a toll on your household. It takes a toll on everything.

So like that ended up happening and in order to kind of save my household, I took a step back and he, you know, continued down the road of, um, of, you know, leading the charge for C Tracks, which I support it, you know, it was, it was a necessary thing to do because we kind of didn't see eye to eye on the way things were supposed to go. But, you know, I'm like, this is your show run with it. I'll be in the background and you know, now we're here.

It, it follows you home, literally.

And that's, so it's for the best that we don't, we don't work together.

And, um, a couple of the learnings that I got from that, because it was, it was a real, like I said, it was a steep uphill journey for C Tracks to, you know, um, To become what it is and to become like self sustaining. Right. Um, like even down to the fact that when we were trying to raise capital, um, we were trying to raise it from a place where, you know, we weren't known in the industry, the industry was, first of all, there's medical and adult use cannabis and then there's CBD.

And then CBD is like the step, the step cousin, not even the steps sister. It's a step cousin. And so there's not really a lot of, um, people who are super excited about the CBD industry. Cause I feel like it's going to go away as soon as, um, medical and adult use is federally legal. So they're not putting a lot of money into it. Um, but.

In the medical and adult use cannabis side, you know, the location really plays a lot of, um, it has a huge factor in the network of people that you're going to be exposed to, like, in the places that you're going to be able to go. To the rooms that you're going to be able to be in on a regular basis and become like a, a face that people know. Right. But also, um, like we didn't have any kind of personal brand.

If people could look you up and find something, they, it gives them a little bit more, um, It gives them a little bit more, you know, trust and a little more faith that you are who you say you are, right? And that's one of the biggest things that I did learn in this whole process was, okay, so I didn't, I didn't go to Harvard. I didn't, you know, um, like I'm not, I didn't even, I guess as a software engineer, I wasn't even at like Google or anything. That's a different thing.

Like if you're ex Googler, people want to throw money at you. But, um, I needed to make, I needed to have a personal brand. Like we both realized that that was imperative for like any type of, um, you know, capital raise moving forward. And in addition to that, since we ended up going full time and falling flat on our face from a financial perspective.

We both realized that we needed some type of, uh, passive income that was not necessarily attached to the business that we were running. So that way we could like have a little bit of breathing room. So those are the things that I ventured off and focused on. I ventured off and focused on, uh, personal brand building. And then I got into real estate.

So I'm like, I'm not going to just try this and like buy a house and be, you know, pay all this high interest and X, Y, Z. Let me, let me try rental arbitrage. Those who don't know what rental arbitrage is, it's when you rent a property from a landlord and you, um, then go and sublease that property for a profit. So that's what I've been doing for the last year. And it has been very profitable. I'll say that has been profitable.

Um, in the year that I've had my rental, I had a group stay there for seven months and I was making 2, 500 and profit every single month. So that, that was awesome. They moved out and they left bed bugs. And so I was out for like a whole month. That was just, that was last month from April 1st, April fool's day again. Obviously. So I had to go and handle that.

um, there's a per diem for, for lodging. So they're able to. You know, pay above market rate for, um, the, you know, shorter term leases. And that's where I make my

Um, what I, the next step for that, for the real estate game is going to be multi family, uh, housing. And I'm going to do some house hacking and then I'm going to kind of build from there. Um, so those two things. personal branding, passive revenue. And then I do want to, once I have those things down, Pat, I do want to do another startup. And, but it will not be in a nascent, um, highly regulated industry. It will be

I don't know if that's passive, but things that you can do without, like, without it being super, um, like time heavy, you know, it doesn't require a lot of your time so that way you can focus on what you actually want to do and you don't drown while you're, um, while you're building your business up. And I would. Also say to those who do have full time jobs and are working to, you know, we're going to side hustle and saying, you know what? Maybe I should go and do this full time.

Um, I would definitely say when you think it's time to go full time. Wait and see like your check ins and saves. You actually should do the math. You shouldn't go on a hunch, do the math. And once the numbers add up, if the dollars make sense, then take the leap because. You know, when you live on a prayer, it could work, but it could also take a lot longer to work. It can work right away, but it can also take a lot longer to work.

And it's a lot about, it's a lot about luck and it's not necessarily all about, you know, the work that you do. So I would, I would definitely say those two things. Go for passive first and wait to quit your full time job. Right.

And we would regularly as part of this little mastermind group that we have, we would say, why do you still have the full time job? And here we go. I just, it doesn't still doesn't feel right. I'm not having to do a lot of work. They're producing good income is just extra income. And a couple of months later, we would ask him again, why do you still have the full time job? And, and we would ask him this and eventually he got to the point, went, you know what? I'm done.

Um, I'm going to quit the job and just go all in on My personal projects and he easily, but he went easily years being stable enough in these side projects where he could have gone full time and just chose not to, because sometimes it's just nice having the flexibility and the security of the full time job.

Um, and you don't know what your utmost is until you're there and you're like, okay, I cannot work another day without getting paid. So yeah, you'll definitely find a lot, you'll find out a lot about yourself when you, when you take that leap. So do it wisely. Like it. I think your friend did it the right way.