The Bruce Wagner Show - 002 - Matt Wilson, founder of under30ceo.com

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey everybody and welcome to the Bruce Wagner show. Today I have a very special guest. His name is Matt Wilson and he is the co-founder of Under30 CEO. Welcome Matt. Thanks for having me Bruce. So tell us what is Under 30 CEO about? Sure. Uh Under30 CEO is a website for young entrepreneurs. Um, it is place for news, uh, advice, interviews, um, events, anything that has to do with people of our generation that want to go out and start a business, we want to be the go-to place. Cool. So, um, and of course, I'm not, well, I'm not really 29, even though my Facebook says I'm 29. I just say I have 29 years of experience. Yeah, that's it. There you go. So, I don't know what what is the under under 30 generation called now. Gen Y. Gen Y. Okay. For millennials. Millennials. Okay, cool. Like like Windows Millennium. No, but not a failure like Windows Millennium. Uh I hope not. That's yet to be seen. So, it's for young entrepreneurs. Now, this is really timely because um in this country, we have this economic crisis going on and and uh so many people are are looking are unemployed. They're looking for jobs. Um, we actually placed an ad for unpaid interns and in the fir like in 48 hours we got 98 resumes. Wow. Yeah. I mean that tells you something about the current situation of it was very clearly this is unpaid internships and everybody's just looking for work. But this is uh being an entrepreneur is a thing that a lot of people are not considering. If you're if you don't have a job, make your own job, right? Start your own business. That that's exactly right. That's where we want to be at the edge of that paradigm shift where people aren't, you know, we realize that people aren't just handed their highpaying job when they're handed their diploma these days anymore. So, Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, if if you're at home and you can't find your own job, well, you can create, you know, you can create your own job. Um, and so that's we're trying to give people the tools and resources to be able to go out and do that. Okay. So, how well let me first back up a little bit and say how long has under30 CEO.com been around? So, we've been around for three years. Three years. Okay. And um how what inspired you to uh to start this this whole organization around it? Sure. So, when I was co in college, I was president of the collegiate entrepreneurs organization uh at Bryant University. And so, I don't know how much you know about Bryant, but it's a small private business school about 3,500 students. and it's really heavily focused on corporate finance and accounting. And I mean, literally, you you see people walking around campus in suits. And uh today I don't normally I don't normally wear a suit, but you caught me in one today. Um but it just wasn't I I wanted I got there and I said, "Well, wait a second. Where are all the resources for entrepreneurs? This is a great business school. What if I want to go out and my do my own thing?" And everybody said, "Oh, well, you know, you can't do that here." And so we said, well actually you can that's the whole point is you can just go out and make things happen for yourself. So we got together about five students um grew the organization into 150 entrepreneurs. Uh we had Ted Turner and Kenneth Cole come and speak on campus. We had the world's largest elevator pitch competition and we were just surrounded by this amazing environment of smart young innovative people. And then of course I graduated and moved home moved home to the suburbs and I said well wait a second where did it all all go? And I said well if I was able to do this on a campuswide level why can't we do this online on a global level? So that's what we set out to do. and you have um you're on you you're have an organization on meetup.com which is a great tool for organizing inerson meetings and meetups and of course then you you created this website and that's the center uh I guess yes we want right we want people to come and get their news their advice see interviews with with veteran entrepreneurs who have done it before and then the young people who are making millions of dollars out of their dorm room and so we want people to come there for the content and and also come to our events. Um, I know you just interviewed Sharon Lectar and so we just had Sharon come and speak at one of our events in the Empire State Building and uh I mean she sold 27 million books. Yeah. For those who don't know who she is offhand, Sharon is uh co-author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and and I don't know something like 17 books like 15 books in the Rich Dad Poor Dad series and then two more since then that she's just published this year. uh along with uh um uh what's his name? Napoleon Hill. Joining a blank. So tell me, okay, now if I'm uh a young person, I' I've just graduated. I've got, you know, a fantastic degree and no job and I want to become an entrepreneur and start my own business. What's the best way to figure out what what type of business should I get in that that's going to actually be lucrative now? Sure. So, we always try to tell people, okay, look, figure out something that you can do every single day just like you're doing with, you know, with your uh w with your business. You know, it's something that you absolutely love. I could just tell when I walked into the studio. I mean, it's a vibrant place and you guys wake up every day and you say, "This is what we want to do here." Um, but finding that that passion is very difficult for a lot of students. Um, and that's what you know your your time as a student is for is to go and and figure out get a broad range of experiences and figure out what you are passionate about. Meet lots of people from different backgrounds. Go out and travel. Um, have interesting discussions with people who are are doing it and go and study what that is that they're they're doing, how they're making money. Um, but most importantly, it should be something that you love. That's that's we really really drive that point home. Yeah. I think um my opinion is that it's not hard to find what you're passionate about. That's easy. Just just uh take a vacation and do what you love. Or think imagine if you won the lottery and you're independently wealthy suddenly. What would you be doing with your day all day? I mean after you got over the fun of it, you know, what would you really want to do every day for because you just love it. That's easy. But having the courage to actually figure out how to make a business out of it and then actually take the action and make a business out of the execution. That's the tough part. So I just um I just came from the New York Stock Exchange and saw Mark Cuban speak. Um he was a billionaire. He's a billionaire. They're owns the Dallas Mavericks and he said it's not, you know, everybody has ideas. It's not the idea that's the hard part. Everybody thinks they're a genius because they have a good idea. Well, that's certainly not the case. It's the people who execute and that's what uh you know we say go out and do what you're passionate about but you're you're absolutely right. It comes down to is this a a business model that's going to make you money and can you pull it off, right? So you you know you can look at um I mean it's obviously easier if you pick something that someone else has done before. if you if nobody's ever done it before. Uh it's not to say it's impossible, but it's uncharted territory and it's a real uh kind of a crapshoot to determine whether it's going to be profitable. What I did though, like in when we started Only One TV is I looked at other people and I mean from every spectrum, I look at Oprah Winfrey on one end and I look at like Leo Leaport on Twitch TV on the other end and I I study and study and study. I watch the every intricate detail about how they do it technically and and all that. Not to say that I'm comparing myself to them, but I but these are people that are my mentors whether they know it or not. Right. Who who are some other people like Leo that you look at who are independent media people. Um so many uh well revision three um you know Kevin Rose. Exactly. Yeah. I mean uh and there's so many there's uh was it new now that now I think Google bought them and there's there's a lot of them now. But uh I I mean really I I looked a lot at Leo Leaport for how he did it technically because obviously we don't have millions of dollars of uh you know we don't have Harpo Studios here and 200 people on staff to produce shows. So it's like on a shoestring. Um we literally you can start out with we started out with a webcam on a dining room table but um you know it gets a little bit more sophisticated but that's the beauty that's the beauty of it. You know, anybody can I I have friends who started their business with $50 in a Twitter account and people say all the time, is that a business? Well, it is if they're making money. That's right. So, that's what matters. Yeah. No, I like what you guys are doing. So, I want to talk more about that. So, speaking of making money, we got to thank our sponsors. Uh this episode of uh the Bruce Wagner Show is brought to you by Mount Gaus, and we are very grateful to have them as our sponsor. Mount Gaus, if you uh I was just uh giving you Matt an article from Forbes about Bitcoin, introducing you to that. Bitcoin, if you haven't heard of it, is uh is the money of the future, we call it. It's like the most exciting new technology since the invention of the internet itself. It's a completely distributed decentralized electronic currency. It's like electronic cash, but it's not issued by any bank or government or organization or company or anything. So, it's like the internet itself. Remember the dot boom where everybody wanted to buy some internet? That's going to be the next big thing. Well, this is kind of like the internet. It's not controlled by anybody. It's peer-to-peer uh network created on open source software. It's a fascinating thing. So, to learn more about Bitcoin, you can go to bitcoinme.com. It's bi t o i n by the way, me.com. But Mount Gox, so Mount Gaus, where does they come in? They are there are dozens now of online exchanges where you can buy Bitcoin for cash or sell Bitcoin for cash. Are they doing it on Facebook yet? They Well, not on Facebook, but they there are uh like there are pages like there's a page on Facebook called I buy and sell Bitcoin for cash. So, you can just search search fa b uh Facebook for Bitcoin and you can find them. But the uh you can do it with local people. You can find somebody in your neighborhood who wants to exchange, but from the comfort of your home, you can literally go online 24/7 and use an automated exchange site. And that's what Mount Gox is. Mount Gox is u number one. They've got more than 90% market share and they've been around the longest. Very very trustworthy, reliable uh site and company. So they they charge a fee, but it's very very minuscule little fee like about like just less than 1% 65 or something like that percent for the exchanges. But it matches up buyers and sellers all over the world 24 hours a day completely automated and up in 16 currencies. So it doesn't matter if it's US dollars or whatever, you know, Japanese, yen, it doesn't matter what it is. So you can buy and sell Bitcoin for cash. And that's what Mount Ox does. Now, they also have you can use it as a Bitcoin wallet. It's extremely secure. They have this thing u two-factor authentication they call it. It's a little USB key. It's tiny like a little dongle thing that you put on your keychain. Literally, it's tiny. And you stick that into the USB port and you can't log in without it. So, even if you're using a public computer that's full of viruses, it doesn't matter. No, nobody can get in without that USB key cuz it gives it a password that's only good for 2 seconds. Interesting. Really cool. So, it's super super secure online. And they also have apps for your Android phone, too, so that you can send and receive Bitcoin and barcode scanning, all kinds of stuff. It's called Mount Gox Mobile. So, uh, check it out. It's mtggo x.com. And we thank, uh, Mount Gox, um, very much for sponsoring the show. And the Thank You economy, which is a new book by Gary Vaynerchuk. He is, uh, New York Times bestselling author. uh his new book, The Thank You Economy, which you can find out about at thank you economybook.com, is fascinating because actually you would be totally into if you haven't heard, you've already read it. You already you know about Okay, I was going to say if you haven't, you really need to, but it's all about right up right up what we're creek what we're talking about and that is uh social media. You could probably tell me more about it, but it's uh it's about using the latest technology, the internet, social media, social networking, and all that to uh make your business, your uh 21st century business into uh more like the old days where customers get a real personalized handholding experience instead of and oh, that's what I was going to tell you. When we had Sharon Lecter on the last episode, uh, one of the things that she talked about was the difference between a business that's set out to make money versus a business that's set out to create relationships, long-term relationships. Interesting. And, you know, to create relationships with customers. And that's the difference. You You can't You can make money just by selling anything and have it be garbage and have no customer service and no support. But to create relationships means you got to sell quality and give them a personalized experience. I I saw Gary give a keynote at Big Omaha and he actually went up there and said, "Look, I'm not sitting here trying to sell you my book. I'm sitting here trying to create a relationship with you for the next 60 years and pretty much just walked off stage." There you go. That's that's really all you have to say. That's really what it's about. So, it's a fantastic book and I've been a huge fan of Gary's anyway for, you know, way back before this. But uh but I think this is his uh you know his best work yet. So uh yeah, so we thank Gary and uh you got to check it out. If you don't if you haven't already read it, go to thank you economybook.com and check it out. Uh it's just called the Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk. So thanks Gary. Yeah, thanks Gary. All right, where were we? What was I I completely lost track. We we got into the thank you economy and uh I guess well I was going to say which I already did I guess is that uh Sharon was talking about the difference between u selling things just selling things and which there are a lot of businesses that are that have that model we know who they are because you know those are the ones that you drop as soon as you have an opportunity to switch but um and creating a relationship. There are so few businesses that actually do that that go out of their way to to cater to the customer to really have a good experience. And you know, even like Gary Gary's book, you know, explains u in my experience like you can get on Twitter and um tweet something about some random product or company and you'll get a reply a lot of times because they have people monitoring their own brand. Um but then most of the time they drop the ball. You know, they'll say, you know, what about this? did you see our website or whatever? They'll try and direct you somewhere, but then I'll say, "Well, this is the problem I'm having." And then they just drop the ball. They just don't go anywhere from there, you know? So, it's about an actual relationship. I I saw in your lobby you had uh the the Zapos book of company culture, which Tony Zapos is awesome, too. Yeah. They don't uh they don't drop the ball. That's right. That's right. Exactly. That's a perfect example. And like um you know Tony is very active on Twitter and very approachable and so is Gary obviously. I mean you can literally tweet him and you will get a reply from him. I mean maybe not right away but sooner or later you you probably will. And uh I mean I actually had was it last summer like last June or July or something like that. Uh Tony actually sent me a tweet asking for my opinion about something which is just like wow that blew me away. Like that's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Really cool. So, it's not only for uh addressing complaints or problems or whatever, uh but they the really really smart shrewd CEOs actually use it to directly communicate and ask questions. No, that that's exactly right. I mean, we we surf everything that's said. If if someone says something or links to under 30 CEO, I mean, we're on it. We know if I know we know exactly what's been said and we reach out all the time. I mean, that's literally how we grew our site from scratch is we had no idea how to drive traffic or anything about search engine optimization or we just said, "Hey, let's help as many young entrepreneurs as possible." And then if we do that successfully, they'll tell all their friends, right? And it's it's worked so far. Now, like like like I was saying, a lot of companies have that part. I mean, not everybody. Most most don't, but a lot of them do where they're monitoring what's said about them. Sure. and then they respond. But um then the next level is like I was saying is actually responding and then keeping a dialogue going. So the person says, you know, I have a problem with this service, you know, and I I can't get the product was never shipped or it was damaged or whatever, and I and I can't get through to anybody, whatever. It's continuing the dialogue until the situation's resolved and keeping that. It's really an an eternal dialogue. it has to go on pretty much forever. And actually caring and not just being a drone behind a a social media account. I mean, I've literally met some of my best friends through the through the under 30 co Twitter stream and then, you know, I say, "Hey, I'm going here to this event. Would love to talk to you more. I really like what you're doing. Maybe we'll profile you, etc." And then you get you build those relationships. And I mean that's what we're really trying to do with under 30 CEO is we want to own that young entrepreneur space so that we know everybody that is building a business who is from our generation. Great. Yeah. And yeah I think it takes to like you were saying uh really sincerely caring and also it has to be somebody who has the um knowledge and the authority to actually go somewhere make a decision or or give somebody some direct advice and and not just bypass it. That's why outsourcing it to some third party human robot, you know, I call them software, you know, when you when you do when you call some kind of a support line and you get somebody in some other country and they they don't even understand what they're selling much or what they're doing and they have no authority to do anything except direct you to the website and the website directs you back to the phone thing and it just doesn't go anywhere. There I mean is there a lot a lot of companies like that. Well, and everybody wants to have say, "Oh, I'll just hire some college kid to do my social media." Well, you're putting this person as a forward-facing representative of your company. So, just know that you don't have to pay them any any money, but you're walking a fine line. Exactly. Yeah. I think that should be one of the highest paid positions really because yeah that's that's a I mean um at least the skills regardless of what they're paid the the skills and the knowledge and the authority that that person has that that has to be um somebody who really is empowered to give the customer what they need on a case- by case basis and and they have to have the company philosophy just oozing from them. I mean, yeah. They can't ever have a bad day and, you know, and chew out a customer or whatever it is because, yeah, that is the face of your company for sure. Yeah. I mean, uh, Rachel, who's the the chief of digital for all of New York City, I mean, she makes six figures and she is she's literally paid to tweet for I mean, she does a lot more than just be on Twitter, but that's a big organization and a big responsibility and she gets compensated for it. Yeah. And smart companies know that. Some of the biggest companies are they'll advertise that you can, you know, contact us through Twitter and whatever and you can you can actually tweet them and they'll reply, but then they drop the ball. They just they just don't go anywhere. And I mean, I know that uh if you're an enormous, you know, big box retailer or something like that, you you um it's hard. It's really really hard for them to to take care of every single transaction that way, but they really they really need to try and they and sadly very very few do. They think they're they think they're too big to fail. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. But well, maybe they are to a certain extent, but uh not really because wherever there is there's one large there's another you usually you have more than one choice for anything you buy. Yeah. Well, and that's what Gary's book is all about is seeing the shakeddown. if if the big companies aren't aren't seriously performing when it comes to taking care of their customers, little guys will pop up and steal away market share. And if you're a productive person and you have whether you're an entrepreneur or or whatever you do, um time is valuable. Time is money and and you know, if you just say, "Well, I just want to buy a laptop and I want it to work and I want I I want to get this resolved. I don't have time to, you know, monkey around with this thing. So, I'll pay a little bit more to deal with a company that I know is going to follow through and and fix this and make it right. You know, they'll they'll take a return or they exchange it or they'll whatever they they just make it right versus having to go and fight with a low-level clerk that just says, "No, no, no, no." You know, you sound like you're you're speaking from experience. Oh, yes. Yeah. I mean, who hasn't had that experience? you know, um you you save a dollar or two, you know, with these mass retailers, but it definitely cost you if you ever have any problem, you know, you may just have to eat the loss and buy another one or whatever it is. I agree. Okay. So, um we talked about if you're if you're a young person, you and you're thinking of becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business, um how to figure out what to do is to find out what you're passionate about. What do you do when um what you're passionate about, you can't imagine how you could possibly get paid to do it? Well, like me, you know, thinking in my example, you know, uh I love to talk. So, you know, like, okay, how am I going to get paid to talk? It's it's hard. You have to be creative and and think and look for other people that are doing something similar, but like say it's um you know, I love to paint or I love to, you know, some sort of an artistic thing. I'm a musician or a dancer or um whatever. I like to do flower arrangements. How do you figure out um I mean, of course, if you love to do flower arrangements, you could get a job at a florist, but how do you figure out how to um the most profitable business to get into that will use your talent and whether or not entrepreneurialism is for you because it's not for everybody. Absolutely. So, it's it's not for everybody. The first thing I would say is go out and read Michael Gerber's E-Myth because he says, "Hey, there's a huge difference between, you know, the artist or the inventor and Yeah, exactly. And then the person who's actually a a business owner who can build that into a scalable entity." Um, but you know, if you're a dancer or you're an artist or whatever you are, I mean, just like you you said, you love to talk. So, you look at the people who are going out and doing it. And I'm just I'm I don't know your full background, but I'm guessing that you've done something in this industry before. Um maybe you've worked on set. You've never you've never done has anybody on your team? No. Wow. That's I mean, well, I mean, people on our team have, but I haven't. My background is all computers and IT. Okay. And I' I've worked in, you know, uh computers forever and I worked in corporate and uh IT and then I started my own IT consulting firm, which means computer consulting for those who don't know. And I've just been a geek in computers my whole life. And then all of a sudden somebody said you should uh this is really weird story but somebody said you should host a talk show. My little brother actually who has never told me I should anything. And out of the blue and I thought he was joking. I don't I don't get it you know. And uh what's really weird this little weird story is that like three other people in the same week that absolutely have no way of knowing each other. They do not know each other told me the same thing in one week. And I was like whoa. Twilight Zone. That's how it happens. And then you went and you studied everything that you could get your hands on and you said, "Well, what are the relevant business models that I can make work?" And then you had to say, "All right, where are we going to get the equipment?" And, you know, and I'm sure you started literally shaking everyone's hand that, you know, going out and saying, "Hey, I I really like what you're doing. You're in this industry. Let's sit down and have coffee and figure out how this this business model could possibly work out." For me, the way it happened is I said I had no idea how to what to do with that information. So, I told my brother, I said, "Okay, I'll be sure and call Oprah first thing in the morning, you know, see if she takes my call." But actually, then what happened is I was like, "What am I going to do with this?" I had no idea. And it took me a few months and I started I started trying to reach out to people that knew about the television business and I asked and I Googled it, of course, I researched it because I'm into it and how do you how do you get your own talk show? the more I learned. I met a guy um when we lived in Florida who h was like owns the largest television production company in Canada and he taught me all about how to um create a presentation and pitch an idea to networks. And the more I learned about it, the more I was absolutely positive I did not want to do that. I don't want to be in that business. If I have to pitch some idea to a room full of suits who are going to, you know, make a life and death decision about my about me and my career and then maybe just throw me out and take my idea and have somebody else do it. I, you know, it's it's uh I was like, "No, I don't want to do that." You I want to do it. Yeah. I don't want to I don't want to, you know, pitch it. I want to do it. Just do it. And if it if it survives, it survives. If not, it doesn't. But that's the way I you know, I have that entrepreneurial spirit. Spirit, I guess. That's good. That's that's the beauty of it. Yeah. But I How do you do that? And so, but then I finally woke up one day and went, "Wait a minute. There's a reason for all this. There's a reason my background is all technical and computers and it and I've been saying for years, all television will be delivered through the internet within 5 years. I've been saying that for years." And all of a sudden, I realized like, wait a minute, TV is delivered through the internet. I could do this myself. Sure. And then who were So, your brother said, "Hey, yeah, uh, that's a great idea. You have a great personality. You should definitely go on the air." But then who were the people? I bet you called your mom and she said, you know, maybe you should stick to computers. Or somebody said, "This business model is never going to work. It's going to take a ton of sponsorship. Here we are in Midtown Manhattan. You're going to pay rent on a on a television studio. How are you going to pull that off?" Who asked you the tough questions? Yeah, my parents have uh both had their transition. They passed away, so they weren't there. And my brother didn't say I had a great personality, but other than that, and I hadn't even considered, you know, I mean, this this was actually like about a three-year period that it took because it took like for about a year or two, I was think still thinking probably at least a year, year and a half. I was still trying to figure out strategize how to pitch this to a traditional network. It took a long time to figure out that to wake up and have that aha moment that wait a minute, we could do this on the internet. Okay. And then when I started doing that, then I was researching um the idea of doing it on the internet. And I think most of my friends by now that know me, uh my closest friends and family, they know that I'm crazy enough to do anything. And um I don't think anybody actually said uh I don't think you're going to do it. I mean, I know most people every you know, their f especially family like you know, how you going to uh I always take this as the biggest insult. I shouldn't, but I always say one of the biggest insults you can ever say to someone is these two words. Be realistic. When your parents or your friends or your loved ones or whatever, your spouse even, you know, you have this dream and you want to, you know, whatever. I want to have a a uh, you know, whatever, an ice cream truck or something and whatever kind of business you want to do. I want to I want to sell uh, you know, silk plants, whatever. Yeah. And they say, "Look, be realistic. you know, just get a job and all that. Um, it's really to cut you down. It's to say like, I mean, they don't intend it that way, but um, it really has that effect. It's it's just saying, "Look, you're not good enough. Do what, you know, do what everybody else does." And it's really not about you. It's about themselves and their own fear. It It's true. And so, you're the one who's going out and doing it. Everybody else is just saying, "Oh, be realistic." Um but what we always tell our entrepreneurs is we say hey look you know believe in yourself and all that and surround yourself with positive people etc. But have those people in your life that you can go to who know business and can ask you the tough questions and can poke holes in your business model and you know throw yourselves to the throw yourself in your business to the sharks once in a while and hand over that business plan and let someone go crazy on it and point out all the potential flaws so that you can come up with answers to them. And if you can answer all those tough questions then you've got yourself a good business. Exactly. I I say, you know, like if if someone has the right to say be realistic to me, only if they're in the exact same business and they're already super successful, then I'll hear that, you know, then I'll hear what whatever they have to say about being realistic. But even I mean, hardly anybody even if you're in the same business, you can be in a completely different twist, a different take on it. And you know, old media, new media, completely different thing. So um they the rules don't even apply necessarily. you know, for an old media talk show, for example, and a new media talk show, it's very different business, very different business model. Everything's changed. So, that's exactly right. I mean, we've thought about it a whole lot with under 30 CEO and said, "Hey, look, we're not Forbes or Fortune or, you know, CNBC, but we still want a ch piece of the pie." Sure. So, speaking of that, speaking of business models, what is the business model of under 30 CEO? So, our business model is based on sponsorship. Um, so we have people that come to the site and see uh not only just your traditional banner ads, but we want to have integrated campaigns. So someone wants to promote an email marketing uh software. And so we want to say, hey, this is we're going to give you something that's going to be easily found on a search engine. Sure, you're going to have banner ads. Um, maybe, you know, 7% of people who come to the site will click them. Maybe, maybe not. Um, but you're gonna read, you know, maybe this this email marketing company wants to write an article on our site that's clearly sponsored and is transparent that this is written by the email marketing company, but 10 tips to create a great email campaign. Um, and that's that kind of content um is is the stuff that actually is going to sell just like we, you know, just like you did before for the thank you economy and then we got in a whole conversation about it. It's good relevant content and it's it's sponsorship, you know, it's sponsorship. And so then we have in-person events which like I mentioned um we had one on the on uh the 60th floor of the Empire State Building. We're having another one in December. And so we bring in young entrepreneurs and we say, "Hey, let's get together and network and listen to speakers and have discussions with other like-minded people." Um we're planning a conference, etc. Um, and then eventually, I mean, we literally want to own this entrepreneurial ecosystem. We want to say, "Hey, we know everybody who's building businesses right now. How about we help them get to the next level?" Um, and so we want to start investing in startups for sure. Why under 30? Why are the under 30? You know, if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that. And what happens when I turn I think I know the answer, but I want to ask you. Yeah. Honestly, um we honestly it's it was just a catchy brand name at the time. Um it's we we sometimes joke and say it's like 17 magazine that everyone is 17 who reads it who reads it. Everyone is Exactly. Um so there we actually have lots of follow, you know, we have lots of followers and readers who are well over 30. Um we even have a guy who now goes on Twitter by over 60 CEO. He has a talk show in Brazil that we've been on and he liked us so much that he started branding himself like that. Um, so but really it's all about the mindset and if you want to go out and do something that you really love and you're passionate about it and you are willing to make a lot of sacrifices in the beginning that we want that to be our the place. Do you find that there is um a a clear gener generational difference? because I'll say um my from my experience I've noticed and I point out this that um it's become to me it's becoming more and more distinct that every decade and now it's like maybe every 5 years and age is a huge difference because when it comes to um not only worldview but um especially when it comes to technology when you know people over 60 you know some barely can work a mouse you know people over 70 don't know what a mouse is you know if you're um under a certain age, you grew up with Twitter. I mean, everybody, you know, they they grew up with Twitter. Twitter and Facebook are P, you know, and they just really understand um that these tools and how they could be used and they're just their mind is completely born open to these new technologies and new ways of of living. Whereas the older generations are really fixed in the way things are and the way things were. And you know what I mean? We I think it's human nature actually that it's always been this way. You have a brick and mortar store and Oh, absolutely. That's how we look at things, brick and mort. And most of our under 30 CEOs, I mean, we've we published our top uh 30 list. And I mean, a huge huge percent of percentage of them were tech startups because people, you know,% uh I don't know what the exact percent is, but I would be willing to guess and say 80% were tech startups. Um, but it's because these these people are are multi multi-millionaires or billionaires in Mark Zuckerberg's case and they, you know, but they were able to build businesses that could scale that rapidly, you know. So when you're 18 like Zuckerberg and you have this amazing business idea and you execute over the next eight years, well then all of a sudden you know you find yourself at like 25 years old and you have a a multi multi-million billion dollar business in his case. It's it's that scalability that's so attractive um in the tech world and that's why so many young people are taking advantage of that. And when you say tech startup, are you referring to like anything that's online as a tech startup? So like if I started a uh you know a pet toys.com that would uh that might be a real company. I don't know. But anyway, if I start something anything that's online is that do you consider that a tech startup? Yeah, I I I think so. I mean I use the term very vaguely. Um pets pets.com didn't turn out so well in the '9s. But the good news is this time around everybody keeps asking, hey, is there a bubble? Well, there there is a bubble for sure because many of these companies are going to fail. But at least they're all based on solid business models where other in other times in history like the dot bubble, people said, "Hey, we can just come up with a flashy domain name and it's going to work." Um, but these are these are real businesses and people are starting them in their dorm rooms. Yeah, that's what I say about that. The uh that's why actually speaking of of bubbles and the internet and people at that time people didn't understand the difference between the internet and just anything.com. So they're like that internet that's going to be big. I think that internet's going to be the next big thing and everybody knew it's obviously sure and then they raise an IPO and then yeah bunch of people just lose all their money on it. I takeyourmoney.com, you know, let's invest anything.com and they'd invest. And so, you know, but yeah, I mean, obviously it has to be now based on solid accounting principles. And that's the thing about Bitcoin. I was going to say is if you if you haven't checked into Bitcoin, check it out. It's really cool because it's an actual electronic currency that's uh as distributed and peer-to-peer as the internet itself. So, nobody controls it. There's no bank or government or corporation or anything. That's amazing. Yeah, it's really really cool. And uh but it it is something that if people believe in it, they can actually buy a piece of it because you can actually buy bitcoins with currency and uh it's like an investment. People are actually buying it as an investment because actually like um you know la as this is kind of a sidebar topic but uh last year silver went up no wait gold went up 25%. Silver went up 50%. And bitcoin went up 4,900%. Wow. Just saying. So it's an interesting thing. Some people are buying it as an investment and it's almost like you know if you believe it really is the money of the future you can buy into it and uh and really own a piece of it. So it's fascinating. Where is it traded? Is there a current I mean where is it exchanged? Well you can I mean if you have the app and I have the app on my phone or your laptop whatever we can exchange it you know right here anywhere. Um but there are these online exchanges. There's dozens of them. The number one with the 90% market share Mount Cox. That's the one I was telling you about. Yeah. So you can actually go online to mtgx.com. Um, it's like we're doing another sponsorship, but that's okay. We love Mount Gox. You just go to mtgoox.com and create a free account and you can literally just uh, you know, deposit dollars or yen or whatever currency you want and you have two balances on your account like dollars and bitcoin and you can buy it at the whatever the coin rate is. It's just like a matching. It's almost like a dating service for matching up people who want to buy bitcoins for dollars and sell dollars. I mean, sell bitcoins for dollars. So, just like any currency exchange market. Exactly. Just like any any other like almost like a stock market, but it's not a stock. But like for example, if you own a diner in Brooklyn and you accept Bitcoin, which uh there are several restaurants in Manhattan that do and Brooklyn and uh but you need to do your produce order for the week, so you need dollars, right? So you've got Bitcoin in and you want to you need you need dollars. So you need to sell the bitcoins for dollars right away. And uh say he wants to buy bitcoins as an investment. So he's got dollars, he wants to buy bitcoins. So it matches you up basically asks and bids and it's all automated. So the price is determined by the going price, whatever the last um you know the highest bid matches the lowest ask and all that. So it's completely automated. It's really really cool. What are the problems with Bitcoin? Like I mean I'm not entirely familiar with it, but I mean it sounds like something that if it takes hold and reaches that critical mass, I mean it's somebody's literally creating a whole another currency. What are what are some of the things that people are saying about it? There's I mean the benefits are that it's completely distributed, completely decentralized. Nobody can uh you know control it. They uh which is really a good thing. Um the it's the transaction there's zero transaction fees. The transactions are irreversible just like cash. So like if I send you $1,000 worth of Bitcoin, there's only one way I'm getting it back and that's if you send it back to me as a new transaction. So it literally is like cash. It's like giving you cash. I'm not going to get it back unless you give it back. Um uh things like that. So there's, you know, cuz with credit cards and PayPal and all that, 6 months later, they can reverse the, you know, do a charge back and reverse it and things like that. It's also, uh, not completely anonymous. It's pseudo anonymous, but, uh, it's as anonymous as you want it to be. So, um, it can be useful for, you know, uh, donating to political causes that are illegal in that country. It's a global currency, so it can be used for anywhere, for anything. So, people know the value globally, no matter where they're traveling to. It's electronic, so it's super super easy and convenient. You can do it with your smartphone, right? I know PayPal is restricted in a lot of other countries. Yeah. And that's the thing. You don't have to have I mean, you can literally be, you know, 16 years old and you can set up an account. I mean, it's absolutely uh not regulated or you don't have to be approved by anybody. There's no banks or governments involved. Um you ask about the drawbacks right now. Yeah, obviously deregulated. People can, you know, buy drugs with it. What? and arms they could what what else I don't I don't know anybody who is but it's possible to do anything with it um just like cash just of course most people use cash for that but um but anyway as far as drawbacks right now um the biggest drawback has been how to store it safely because anybody can use it anybody can set up a bank anybody can set up a a website and say I'm a Bitcoin bank deposit your Bitcoin with me and you're you're trusting a stranger and there have been bank height es there have been people there have been shady people who who steal your Bitcoin. So it's about where you store it and also there are even viruses on the loose for Windows and probably there will be for Mac if not yet. Um but for sure I know that there are for Windows that will actually you get a virus on your computer and it'll steal your wallet file from your computer and things like that. So security is a big concern. That's why I promote Mount Gox because you can actually store it on there with the UB key and it's very very safe uh because it's on their machine. Um if as long as you trust Mount Gox, you're still trusting them. But um security has been a big big concern. There are new versions of the application that actually encrypt the thing and then store the an encrypted backup uh in the cloud that nobody can access without your password. Things like that. So there the the second generation of all the software is just now coming out. So that's probably the biggest thing. Also um current the volatility of the value of it. It goes up and down and there's been speculation in it. So it's gone like way up and down. I only I don't even look at those big spikes. I only look at the the bottoms. So, it goes up and down, up and down, up and down. And I only look at I connect the dots with the lows. So, like a year ago, it was 6 cents and today it's something like $3. So, um I ignore those huge spike. It actually went up to $30 at one point. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, it's it's very volatile. So, it's not great for um it's not great to for short-term investment, like, you know, buy now and then sell it a month later. It's not not necessarily great for that. for long-term investment it seems to be very good but uh so far you know the past it's crazy it's like the new form of I mean imagine the new form of of obviously it's new form of currency but imagine insider training when insider trading when you're speculating on Bitcoin it's totally deregulated I mean just imagine you find out hey that some you know Walmart is going to start accepting Bitcoin and you find find out a month beforehand and you buy up a bunch of Bitcoin coin and and flip it. I mean, that's that's really amazing. There's anything like that. And also, there's no um Yeah, I mean, it's so new. It it's not even considered it's I mean, we use it as a currency. You can use it as a currency. We refer to it as a currency, but legally it's not a currency because legal legal term terminology wise, it's not issued by any government or bank. So, it's not a legal currency. So, um yeah, so there's that. Um the other thing is that you don't have to worry about people hoarding it either like with gold or silver uh like especially in the olden days like if if the the the village you know somebody hoarded all the silver coins there wouldn't be any coins for the for anybody to do any commerce but this is not an issue now with Bitcoin because um there's there will never be more than 21 million Bitcoin. It's a it's a finite supply by definition. I forgot to mention that's a huge benefit. It's huge because that implies that as long as people continue to use it, the value will probably keep going up as demand more and more people need it, the value will go up. Now, but it's divisible virtually infinitely divisible. So, you can have uh like right now it's up to eight decimal places, 0.00001 bitcoin. So, in the future, if the value keeps going up and up and up, we might be buying a Starbucks coffee for 5 millionth of a bitcoin. We'll call it MVCs or something like that. I really hope there are some smart economists behind this thing. Yeah, there are a lot a lot of economists and computer geeks and cryptography experts because it's a combination of the technologies are peer-to-peer file sharing and the state-of-the-art in cryptography and then the ancient idea of a limited quantity of something that we all agree has value. So those things go together. See, now we're off on a Bitcoin and we can't stop talking about we have a show, one of our shows, our flagship show really probably is uh between this one and the Bitcoin show. So that's another show on only one TV called the Bitcoin show. So if you're interested in that, you can check it out. But uh I you get me started on that topic and I'll never stop. So and you can as a business back to this as an entrepreneur you can accept Bitcoin. If you have if you have a website it's literally like two clicks. You go to I created a littleformational brochure that doesn't sell anything. It just tells about Bitcoin. It's kind of like a Bitcoin for dummies site. It's called bitcoinme.com. So you can check that out and click on accept. There's an accept tab and it'll teach you how to at your brickandmortar restaurant or shop or whatever or in a website. You literally just a couple clicks, you get a Bitcoin address. It's like your own email address and you can put it on your website and you can say we accept Bitcoin and that's it. It's super super simple. And then you can get really compl complicated. If you want to have a an online shopping cart system, they have those developed already and stuff. It's really really uh sophisticated now. And you don't it's like literally in 5 minutes you can be set up to accept Bitcoin as well as your credit cards and PayPal and all that stuff. It's crazy that someone can in today's day and age you can just invent a new currency. I know, right? Well, it was invented in uh 2009 and people just started finding out about it. Well, I learned about it in November 2010, but uh but yeah, people are still learning about it. Actually, the the December Wired magazine is going to have a big big uh there is I don't know if the whole issue is dedicated to it, but I think it's a cover story about Bitcoin that's going to be real interesting coming out. Cool. I have to check it out. So, check that out. So, all right. So, back to this entrepreneurialism. So, let's say I am um a a young tech, by the way, back to the age thing. If you're under 29 or 30, whatever, um you're pretty techsavvy. Would you have you found that that most people under 30 are techsavvy or is that is that So, I see all levels of tech savviness. Um, I mean there there's the people I mean I've met people as smart enough to be able to develop something like Bitcoin and then college students who say, "Yeah, I know how to use Facebook and Twitter. That makes me a social media expert." Yeah. So there there's a there's a broad range, but all in all, our generation is pretty good because we've grown up with that. That's definitely true. But not only that, it's that um we all have friends who are are working in the space or um we have the just the intuitive nature to go and Google something and learn more about it. You know, if back in the day if you didn't know about something, you went to the library. But now I mean I think our generation has just become a sponge for information because it's all at our fingertips. I mean right on your phone. True. True. I know. I think that. I mean, there are always exceptions. I'm always shocked when I meet somebody who's um 22 years old and says, "I don't like computers. I don't like social networking. I I don't I don't even do email." And the only thing they'll do is text messaging. And pretty much that's it. They don't even make phone calls. Just text messaging, right? That's it. They I mean, when I hear and and I know a few people like that that are 22 and just absolutely don't like computers or social networking at all. And I always find that as like a shocking exception. And then the opposite is true too when there's somebody who's 60 years old and is real techsavvy that's like wow that's also equally shocking but uh for the most part like my friends who are 60 in that age range I would say when they want some information they'll think of who would know that and they'll get on the phone and call them right absolutely but if you're if you're you know my friends who are 22 or whatever 25 um they the first instinct is always to Google it and research and read it tweet about it or something and Facebook it. Yeah. Figure out, you know, who that's See, that's our version of picking up the phone and calling somebody who knows. Well, tap into your 800 Facebook friends and see which one of them knows. Yeah. Or you tweet about it and you get a response from uh Cairo and Usbekistan, you know, Philippines everywhere. So, you have you tap right into the global consciousness of uh humankind. It's a it's an amazing thing. So the the young people have grown up with this and they just uh it's just like second nature to them. It's just like their left hand, the internet being right there. So if you say about maybe you're guessing about 80% of the the new entrepreneurial businesses are startup tech startups. I would the ones that are on our top list but we're seeing you know young entrepreneurs getting into real estate and getting into their their family business that they've studied forever or getting into you know other things that they're passionate about that don't have anything to do with technology. Um, lots of those businesses are are somehow looped back into the the tech industry. Um, but no, I mean it it can be anything as as long as there is opportunity there. Okay. So, like if um I'm going to use myself as an example again because I remember when I was told that I should host a talk show and I didn't know anything about it other than watching talk shows and I knew a lot of most I didn't want to do that most of them. Uh but I I I don't know anything about the business really. And so your first instinct if you're, you know, savvy enough is to Google it, Google it, research it, talk to everybody you know in your social circles. Does anybody know about this business? And pick everybody's brain and both both publicly on Twitter, Facebook, and among among your friends. But let's say it's something kind of unique like starting an internet television network. There's not that many. And so um basically nobody knew. I mean even Google didn't know. I mean that was really weird because I mean you you'd find all these articles about you know again p old media you know all kinds of things that really didn't relate to me. So um what I found was that uh I really felt like I needed a mentor. I needed somebody who was successful in this to be my mentor. Okay. And uh I in my case I I I found my mentors but um without actually having any relationship a one-way relationship with them. like they're my mentors but they don't even know it. So, so I just picked them and I studied them and you know I didn't become a stalker but you know I I just absorbed everything I could from studying their life, their career and stuff like that but it would have been better to have an actual mentor relationship. Do you promote uh the idea of finding a mentor? Oh absolutely. I mean, so yeah, you could go and look at someone like Kevin Rose who has, you know, a million plus followers for and has this tremendous web show, etc. Um, and a whole network. So, you know, but you could probably call Kevin, he may or may not pick up the phone. Um, but developing those those one or those two-way relationships um is really important. So, we talk about peer mentorship all the time, and that's getting together in a in a mastermind group or a shark tank and and saying, "Hey, look, ask me the tough questions. I mean, don't hold back because I need to know how to dodge these punches." So, that's that's very important. Um, the one-way mentors are great. And then we we very much promote just just emailing someone like Kevin Rosen, he may or may not get back to you. You don't know, but you'll never know until you try. Um, we just we just interviewed uh a guy named Samir from a company called Jungle Sense and he just landed $1.5 million in investment from Mark Cuban and he, you know, he has a mentor in Guy Kawasaki now because simply because he just emailed them and said, "Hey, here's me my idea." He approached them the right way and and now they go back and forth all the time. Um, and that's a real mentorship relationship with someone who, you know, people who have made lots and lots of money before and seen lots of ideas and they can really poke some holes into your business. You you said that he approached them the right way. So, expound on that approach them the right way. I mean, you can like, for example, you if you have a business that you're going to start that's, you know, okay, a flower shop and there's a 100 million flower shops in town or whatever. That's one side. And then if you're going to there's the other thing is that if you're going to if you have a business idea that's brand new and unique and it's it's really really unique. It's very hard to find a mentor uh specific to that business especially if it's completely unique. Maybe you're the first one to ever do it. But let's say you find somebody who you think is a brilliant business person um and potentially even investor and all that. How do you approach them the right way? Yes. Okay. So, and I like how you used an offline example with a flower shop because we feel that there I really like to stress that there's really no difference in the manners between how you would talk speak with someone offline and how you would speak with them online. So, don't walk into the flower shop during the busiest time right before closing and sit there and, you know, read off a whole presentation this thick and you know, you're going to you're going to fail. you would go in there and say, "Hey, you know, I'd love a minute of your your time. Um, I'm a I'm a young entrepreneur in the local area. Um, I'm studying different business models. Um, I'd love to ask you a couple questions. When can I take you out for coffee or when can I take you out for lunch?" Or don't even go that far into getting into commitment. You know, coffee is is a commitment with a busy flower shop owner. say, "Hey, look, um, would you mind if I emailed you a quick couple questions that you could answer on your leisure?" Or, if you're going to email this person, it doesn't matter how famous they are, email them and and keep it brief and get to the point, flattery goes a a long way. Don't don't overdo it. But, you know, people people like to know that they're a respected person and that they're looking, you know, someone is looking for help from them because they're going to bring try to throw something in there that's going to spark their their mindset to when they were back, you know, living out of their car or selling their product out of their trunk, etc. Because everyone says, "Sure, I'll do an under 30 CEO in interview with you." because when I was your age, you know, I was doing X, Y, and Z, and everybody has a story. Um, so getting these these mentors is really not that difficult if you approach them the right way. So, keep it brief. Um, you know, be polite. Definitely definitely compliment them and but do your research and don't ask don't ask ridiculous questions. Make sure you go and and give them quick little questions that they can answer to very quickly and grow that relationship. Don't bombard people. Um because then it, you know, if I open up my inbox and I see a huge email from somebody, it's it's overwhelming. But if it's two, three lines, hey Matt, love under 30 co was just wondering how you grew it to this size. Um I'm doing I'm doing X, Y, and Z. This isn't the position I'm in. I'm going to think back to three years ago and say, "All right, cool. Let me send this guy a paragraph back. it'll take me five minutes and maybe we'll grow that relationship. Yes, I like all those ideas. One of the one of the things I've learned about communicating like through email, you're talking about the length of it is uh I have this theory that the shorter the message, the higher the probability I'm going to get a reply. So like a tweet, I always think tweet, make it a tweet. If I get if I ask just if I can put it into one sentence or one question or two even two sentences, the chances of getting a reply are a thousand times higher than if I do three paragraphs. The the brevity that teach that Twitter teaches, it's really amazing. You get to be very good at sending short, concise messages. Yeah. And I love what you said about you you do the research. It's I mean, the quickest way to blow anything like that is to not know who you're talking about, not know anything about them. At least Google them, read their Wikipedia page, know something about who they are, what they're about, and don't insult them by saying, you know, something stupid and asking them something that, you know, you should have known before you talk to them. And respecting their time, obviously, it's just basic consideration. If you were them, what, you know, how would you want to be approached? um you know, not when you're out with your family or doing something social, not when you're really busy at business, but actually literally going maybe talking to their staff and saying, "When is his downtime? When is he most relaxed?" Somebody who works for him will know that and they might tell you tell you that. The other thing is I' I've actually heard this from super successful people um privately, you know, off the record, but saying um everybody a like they would say maybe everybody asks me for either money or a job. So don't ever ask them for money or a job. Sure. Or not upfront, you know, don't email the person and say, "Hey, I'm looking for seed capital here." If the relationship grows, that'll come out of it maybe, whatever. But um don't ask them for money or job. ask, but what nobody ever asks me for is advice. So, um I love what you said about flattery if if it's sincere. Of course, it has to be sincere flattery. And I think the word flattery actually denotes that you're you're putting in too much fluff. Um I think there's a better use word to use. I can't put my finger on it, but complimenting them, letting them know you're a fan, you know? Yeah. I appreciate your work. I love your I appreciate your work. I've been a fan whatever. Whatever. And but it has to be sincere. to be true or don't even bother, right? But yeah, and then uh and people can read that if you get enough of those emails, you know who who's you know, and then asking them for s for sincerely asking them for advice because uh I think that they they respect that. They respect they don't respect people who ask them for money and jobs, but they do respect people asking them for advice because they know there's no reason why you can't be as successful as I am. All you need to do is follow what I did. do my, you know, follow my advice and they know you're smart. And you're opening yourself up. You're putting yourself at a vulnerable position in saying, "Hey, I don't know anything. I'm 20some years old and I don't know what's I don't know what's going on here. I just need a little bit of help. Can you lend me in the right direction?" Yes, exactly. Well, Matt, it has been great. We have to have you come back. Absolutely. More about all this. Sounds good. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. Hey, absolutely. All right, take care and we'll see you guys tomorrow. Thanks for joining us. [Music]