Welcome to Tectastic, where we navigate the intersection of technology and business, uncovering innovations that redefine our world. Alex, it is wonderful to have you on is fantastic. Thank you for being here. My pleasure here. Thank you for having me. So I do wanna know more about relentless Venture Studio because I think what you are is interesting and necessary, but I also wanna talk about the journey getting there. I've been a tech entrepreneur for 30 years on again off again.
I also jumped off for a period of time and went and worked for very large companies. Trying to show them how to be more like a startup to bring back innovation. And my first chance that was Nike where they brought me as the entrepreneur, and that's actually where I found my cofounder He was, the chief technology officer from Nike at the time. And there's a big difference between starting something new from the ground up inventing it and trying to fix something broken than, of a scale.
And it's actually harder to see these things that are similar than it is to see the things that are different. The things that are similar are a desire, a hunger to to improve, to capture more market, to be impactful in some way. But the things that are different are scarcity of your resources. Like as a startup, you've got basically you and, you know, whatever resources you could put to it. And when you're young and early, that's not much. And as you get older, you've got better relationships.
You've got experience to draw from. Hopefully, you've got a savings account that you can rely on. Right. But that lack of hunger, that lack of necessity is why big companies have trouble actually innovating. You know, I agree with everything you just said. I'm I'm running a little book very brief, but I I deal with a lot of incubators, early stage companies, people coming to me saying, Alex, I mean, the starting a business or considering starting a business.
And how do I know, you know, if I should or what my path should be? And and the first chapter in my book is you probably shouldn't be an entrepreneur. Here's why. So if you do anything else, do that. They do just reach chapter 1 and throw the book away and and just go get a job. And and and it really starts out with, if you have to ask that question, you probably shouldn't be.
Yep. And to your point, with your experience, you either have it in your DNA, some fire in your belly, that fire that hunger that need and you just have to go that path. Or if you don't if you don't feel that burning desire to do it, you probably shouldn't. And oftentimes, people are, I think, misled. And if it's not really the fault to incubators, but people wanna be encouraging. But just because you love to cook food does not mean you should own a restaurant.
And that is a very, very different skill set. And I met somebody actually that I, local college here at Cal Poly And she was a lovely young lady, very smart, very talented, who wanted to make furniture that reflected her interest in culture. And she was talking about building a furniture company. And I said, well, show me your artwork. So she shows me your furniture. I go, this is beautiful. K. So who's gonna sell it? Who is going to inventory it?
Who's gonna make sure you have insurance on this? Who's gonna hire people to help you scale? Which is I don't think about any of that. I said, well, that's the difference between, you know, being a, like, a tradesman and starting a business. Yes. But my suggestion might be you go find an organization has that infrastructure and you create a product line within that company and let them deal with all the stuff that you definitely don't wanna do and 2 don't know how to do.
And so I think that's a huge distinguishing factor. The success of entrepreneurs is you gotta have that fire in your belly, but you've gotta adapt to the 90% of it. That's just business muck and has very little to do with the magic, the thing that you're passionate about trying to Unfortunately, you know, there's a lot of administrative stuff involved in in building and running a business.
Every time I went and worked for another company and something that I didn't found and start myself, I had trouble, a lot of trouble. I I look and go, that was the wrong decision. Like, in my head, I knew it was the wrong decision because partially. I've been there a hundred times already. I already know, you know, there's dragons there. Don't go that way. Or whatever. I I was more comfortable betting on myself than betting on somebody else. And why would I not bet on myself?
That thought process always got me back to the entrepreneurship and always got me going there's a better way of doing this. There's a better solution here go do it myself because I don't trust anybody else to do it. And, I don't know. I I and I found every other entrepreneur I know and respect. They're broken in the same way. Whatever. You're gonna do your thing. I trust myself.
I'm gonna go do it, and I'm gonna build this thing because I can't imagine somebody else doing it right or the way that I want it done or It is a common thread. It is a common characteristic. You can you can pick them out of a crowd, and it's a it's a strength and a weakness. I mean, it it is a quirky to to wanna do it. And it's for a lot of people, it's that anxiety and nervousness in your belly of the uncertainty. And I love the uncertainty.
Yes. I've made it my mission life for no 2 days of my life to look the same. And I I remember sitting down one time years ago, I owned an IT company, and we were in the break room. And one of my lead techs sits down, and he's making his lunch. He got a little brown bag. He's eating his lunch. And I said, hey, buddy. You know, what what do you hope to be 10 years from now? And he says, lord willing, Alex, do the exact same thing I'm doing today.
And and I and I, you know, I started it for a second. I just thought it was terrible. And then I realized that that's great for a lot of people. And what he wants is that stability and that consistency. And, he enjoyed his work. He put himself into his work, but his work didn't define him. And I think as an entrepreneur, you know, the the exercise, they give you in grade school. If you had a a $1,000,000,000, what would you do tomorrow? I do the same thing. And, I love what I do.
I'm in it for the deals. I'm in it for the people. I'm in it for the learning and the experience. My brain hurts every night. When I go to bed, try and learn AI and all these different things, and I'm constantly relearning and reinventing. To me, that makes life exciting. There's no other path for me. And so I think it's interesting when you community of entrepreneurs that share those characteristics that it can be a lot of fun. Sometimes we find each other in the weirdest places too.
I will spend some time Wayfair, which is a great company. Niraj and Steve are wonderful to 2 founders. I love them dearly. And, one of the other executives they brought in into a very similar to mind is now started in his own company. It's an AI also, like, it's really surprising. Frankly, we were so alike, and we were sitting at Wayfair asking ourselves the same Christian. Like, Why are we doing this? Like, we we know the problems that need to be solved.
90% of them in any big company are actually cultural problems, which are not solved by anybody, but the founder, you're not gonna change the culture of a 10,000 person company that's doing 24,000,000,000 a year in revenue by showing up as an executive and being like, hey, change the process, and, we're gonna build this technology instead of that technology. It doesn't do a damn thing. It's gonna come from those founders.
And then we both asked ourselves that at the same time, and then we went off and both founded companies, you know, just a short while after that. I always knew I was going to go back to it. For me, it was a lifestyle problem in that you get to a point where you get paid a lot of money to go fix company's problems when it comes to something like innovation and technology, and they will pay you a lot of money to go solve it for them. And if you're good at it, you realize the playbook.
It's like, oh, Here's the freaking playbook. I they're gonna ask you to do the same damn thing. So I'll bring in this integration partner and I'll subcontract out this work, and, we'll do this to pay down this problem, and then I'll be bored, and I'll go look for the next one. It's hard to get out of that, though. It's a trap. It's a really rough trap to get out of because you get really comfortable with that big paycheck. There was a moment I woke up and went, knocked.
I simply can't do this anymore. I have to go back to who I am. And who I am involves solving enormously hard problems with a team of people that I respect and care about that are passionate about resolving the same damn problem. Love that. Love it. You know, I I've gone through a similar trial where I'll have an exit. I'll sell to a company. You a larger company. You know, you've got a transition services component and get to know some of that team. And usually in there, they go, wow.
You don't see to be good do. Wanted to come and play it a little longer with us. And you're like, oh, this is fun. And and I always refer to it as a kid in a candy store. Like, these larger companies don't realize how good they've got it with these big customer bases, lots of resources, grade reach. And as an entrepreneur, go, wow. What can I do with You know, let me add it? And then you try to mobilize some action and you watch everything move. They're just a a snail pace.
Mhmm. And it's frustrating. And so I I did some of that, and I had to make a decision that I just I won't do work for hire. I will only work projects. I have an an equity stake in. That was part of me forming my venture studio. You said exactly right. Solving big challenges with team of people you trust. That's exactly what my venture studio as a relentless venture studio that pulled my a players from previous products in the last 20 years. And create a centralized team and said, alright.
We're gonna go hunt for stuff. And either company used to buy, companies wanna build, people we wanna partner with that we really like, but we have an equity piece in everything we do. And and then let's go fix things. I know it's been a lot on going down that endeavor by having that centralized team that's jailed. What happened was before, I've Hammer on 6 solid exits from when I was 18 to 40. And about every 3 years. And every time I sold a company, I had to start over.
Yep. And so I gotta check, you know, when I had to move out of my office, with my desk, and, you know, my team, and I come up with a new idea and ideas were fine, but I had to build a new team and find a new office and start everything over. How do I build an organization allows me to exist in perpetuity in my problem solving entrepreneurial ADD mode? And be opportunistic in my projects, but what I Hammer to rebuild my infrastructure every 3 years.
So that that also was a function of building my, my venture studio, which has worked out pretty well. The last company I had during the dotcom phase was a venture studio. I was called, Techno Loft because we thought we were very clever. IFA 65 and come out with. I'm blue and was all over the radio, and we're like, oh, we'll be a loft that is technology and plays techno music. Yeah. And we did fairly well. We ended up having to close that one down when all the investment dried up in the world.
And when you're a venture studio, you tend to rely on your clients having money. Yeah. So we folded that. Yeah. Went off to another one a couple of exits. I think I've had about the same number as you, but not every 3 years. I was never that in systemic. It was usually, like, big one and then a couple fizzles And then big one, and then a couple fizzles almost like clockwork on that front. And it was largely because I didn't want to be the CEO, I very much avoided that role.
And it was the requirement to be out front selling all the time. I wanted to build solve. I wanted to make the thing. I'm gonna make the thing that solves the problem. Right? And every time the fizzle, what happens when I wasn't in charge, and every time we Hammer the pop, I was in a good spot where I had a lot more control over it. And I, I learned my lesson. It just took me, like, 6 tries to figure it out.
Like, oh, man Hammer to be a lot more involved in the day to day in making decisions, have to care about the selling. I mean, your job as an entrepreneur is 90% sales. So Yeah. Suck it up. That is that is a tough lesson learned, man. I've done the same thing, and I learned that with my venture studio where early on in my career, I was gonna obsess the control. So I think I benefited from that. And then with my venture studio model, I was like, alright.
I'm going to shift gears to become an advisor and a mentor. You know, I'm gonna share my strategy and share my resources and help a dozen companies who have their own respective founders or CEOs And, and that was a challenge, because I'm not a great teacher, apparently. And so and, you know, most entrepreneurs I met aren't it's like, you're the mic of George. Right? Give me the ball. Let me take a shot.
I'm still trying to teach the other companies, how to perform a CEO's kinda give them some guidance on planning and you give them some resources and watch out for these pitfalls because I've made these mistakes and make some introductions to help accelerate some the growth. But there's always that challenge of, you're not the one driving the ship directly. And, and there were some challenges with that.
That's, that's definitely one of the hardest parts of the Venture Studio model in scaling that part. One of my friends who started a company recently, they went through a Venture Studio, and it was very, very good for him. He needed that structure, that support around him so that he didn't prematurely hire a bunch of people from his background that, like, hey. I need a marketing guy. Well, you you do eventually. You don't right now. Like, you're a little early on that. Things like that.
It helped him out a lot because he had a lot more indoctrination into the large enterprise. He had been an entrepreneur in his past. Kind of just telling the same trap I did and then stated a lot longer than I did. It it's fun to watch him come out the other side of that. He learned a lot it really set them up for success. They're in a great path right now. And then I've got other friends that they would have been a disaster in a venture studio because that's what they are.
They should be running a venture you know, they are the adviser you want that their repeat serial entrepreneur that can go out and just they know all the right people. They know what they need to do. They're gonna go do their thing. And they would Hammer been struggling in that space because it would have felt stifling to them. At least the ones that I've interacted with Yeah. They could be very stifling.
But I'm really curious about yours because you do come from that repeat entrepreneur success playbook thing. And you have to now take a big step back from control over it, right, like, as you were saying. So how do you manage that within the studio? How do you have the right level of engagement because one of the problems I found with every entrepreneur I know is we have no idea how or when to ask for help. Know, that that is a fundamental problem.
And, you know, it starts with good planning and gain consensus on that plan. Right? So we we've got a structure where we talk about know, the 3 year plan, the 1 year plan, setting quarterly objectives, all pretty academic. Like, they're dialing those things in. And and a lot of these entrepreneurs have inherently to plant. And all that does is it becomes a beacon on the hill to make sure we're all growing in the same direction. Right? So we we set some benchmarks there.
Selling some KPIs, how are we measuring Christian at what intervals in developing a discipline to look at the numbers? That's the other thing that's fundamental. I'm sure your experience there is, like, if people don't look at their numbers, they don't look at their financials, their financials are a mess, what KPIs are telling us we're on track. Tell me about lead generation. How well is it performing? How well are things converting? What's my lifetime value? What's my churn?
All these guys, you know, they're they're focused on the widget, taking widgets to market, destroying whatever money they've got out the wall, they will stick, And we said, no. No. In order to grow systematically, we need to have these disciplines in place. So the first is the educate of them just not knowing that these things either exist or that this is a principle that should be employed, how to put it in place. So that's where we start is Let's create some formality around where we wanna go.
And and what that does too is a great exercise on expectations. I had coffee with somebody the other day just somebody who asked for some guidance. And brilliant young woman, PhD, starting a, an interesting little SAS content site, And she's making $500,000 a month, something like that, just getting started, very early stage. And I said, tell me tell me your goal for your business. And she says, well, probably to go public. And I went.
Okay. Oops. I said, you you understand statistically what it's like to go from where you're at it going public. And public is a means to an ad. Yes. It's not the end. Yes. It sounds exciting, entrepreneurially. Once you do it, the the luster is gone. You realize it's kind of a horrific experience in a lot of ways. So it's just a funding round. It's just a funding round. Right? It's it's simply like a a a different struck in order to do certain things, but it's it's means to an end.
It is not the end. And so it just sounds exciting. And, and, yeah, you can create a lot of what seems like paper wealth, but if you're the principal, you're not gonna be able to spend it or move it or do anything with it. It gets very, very hard. I, you know, aside the fact that we have to get there, so I said, you know, do you have a lot of money in the bank? She said, no. Do you have kids? Yes. So what would $3,000,000 do to your world tomorrow? Just I would change my life.
I said, so why don't we set that as the as the goal? This is your first business. Let's talk about a $3,000,000 exit. Knowing your business you know, what what do, eggs and multiples look like? Because we talked about eggs and multiples. We talked about what you would need to do to get there and said, spill the 3 year plan to get there. And and it took this big, big world of entrepreneurs. I mean, this appetite bigger than your stomach and made it all very real, very tactical.
So that's kind of the first exercise I like to do with my my portfolio companies Let's get on the same page and let's be real. We're very focused on execution. And so let's let's let's get to that model. So when you're there, we can come out with the next 3 years, it's like. But at least we've we've established a milestone that's realistic. And so we started there. We come back to, well, what are our goals? How do we measure it? How do we stay on track? How do we hold ourselves accountable?
It's a lot of entrepreneurs to your point aren't good at being held accountable or holding themselves accountable, very hard. You throw this remote work stuff in there and make it even harder for people to hold themselves accountable. So these were just some of the fundamentals that I think came in and and helped just frame up what being a tech entrepreneur is.
I had a few cases where becoming part of our venture studio and knowing, you know, my background and having done fairly well where they were counting their money on the day they, you know, we got engaged. It was like, I'm gonna beat you, millionaire. Like, no. No. No. Oh. If we got a long run to go, man, eat that ramen and save that money because we're we're gonna need it. It's not gonna Nothing's gonna be easy about this.
Yeah. So, so setting the expectations is absolutely key, and then putting some disciplines in place. To measure the the path and then make sure you're on the path, is really important as well. Anybody who thinks that this is a easy path towards becoming wealthy has never it before. Yeah. I saw awesome kids.
We we have a great entrepreneurial ecosystem here in San Diego, California, and the Center for Innovation Entrepreneurship, which is a collaboration between the college and the city and a handful of local business owners, Blake Irving, former CEO GoDaddy was one of the co founders. Nice. Rick Stolemeyer. Mindbuyer is one of the co founders, myself, and a few others. And so, you know, we're we're we're all great beards done this for a while.
And I see on on Instagram, a handful of kids there at 2 in the afternoon, and they're throwing frisbee's at the beach, hashtag entrepreneur life. Yeah. I mean, oh, no. I actually I I went I went and and and I wrote I wrote a comment. I and, never in my life. Well, did this ever meet entrepreneur life? We're gonna have to talk later. Yeah. So, like, this is this is what you do when, you know, for a week after got the check.
And then you get back to it and and keep plugging along, but that was that's not the entrepreneurial life that us gray beards know, man. It's not romantic. It's not pretty, but it is exciting. And so you have to have it in your belly to endure that pain. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. We're we're getting short of time, and this has been a fascinating conversation.
Alex, I wanna give you a chance to say a last few words, like direct people towards where they can find out studio or your book or any of the myriad things that, you do that are interesting and they'd be excited by. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, our company name is Relentless Venture Studio. The website is relentless.comverelentless.com.
If somebody wanted to go on there and learn a little bit more about what we do, our portfolio companies, and if they submit on the form and ask for me, it'll get me eventually. I'm gonna also hit you on LinkedIn. Pretty active on LinkedIn. So you can find me on there as well. My name is Alex Minneckucci. So you can just search me on there, send this phone, find me there. So, yeah, I'm always happy to help aspiring entrepreneurs, give a little bit advice if I can.
We love to connect people with resource especially where we're at. And as part of the country, it's it's hard to get connection to the right people. So I'm all about trying to connect and create opportunities. So we do a lot of that So if you've got something exciting, something interesting, Hammer to chat so they can connect people with the right people, or maybe we got a project that it ties into, and, we could do some business together.
So I always love to meet interesting people that are that are doing cool stuff. Describe why I do the podcast, Alex, it was lovely having you on. And that's a wrap for this episode of wanna thank you personally for joining us, and we'll see you next time. Until then, keep exploring and stay curious. Thank you for listening. If you are new here and enjoyed the content, please subscribe. It really helps us out. And if you are a regular listener, thanks so much for your continued support.
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