
EPISODE 43
Thievery and Pie-Eating (The Stealth Mode Myth Revisited)
Maybe you’ve felt it: that feeling of fear or dread when you realize that something you’ve worked hard on might be slipping from your grasp; or worse, has been taken from you in broad daylight. In this episode, we talk about our recent experience with a fellow entrepreneur encroaching on Precursa’s land, how we responded, and what’s next for our journey. If you’ve wondered how strongly we feel about the advice and teaching we give, this episode is where the rubber meets the road.
Even if you’ve never experienced it, you can imagine it: that feeling of dread and fear that is all-encompassing when you realize that someone’s stolen something from you; the utter violation of all that should be beyond reproach. And when it’s all or part of your idea, your startup, the thing you’ve put blood, sweat, tears, and hard-earned money into, it can be magnified by a thousand (or in Precursa’s case, $150,000).
We were recently part of a conversation where we realized that someone had appropriated part of our vision, and in today’s episode we go deep in the exploration of what happened in the immediate aftermath, including all of the feelings we had about it, as well as where we ultimately got to and why. We’ve talked in the past about the “Stealth Mode Myth”, and we teach that trying to build in secret will never net the kind of results you really want for your startup. That advice and wisdom was put to the test in the rawest way possible for our co-founders, and in the process, we gained a new level of understanding and empathy for the very real fear of being stolen from many entrepreneurs experience.
We also dispel a couple of other myths that can be cancerous to a good strategy and vision, including demystifying the science and technology behind artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and we discuss how important a great support system is when you’re taking on the very difficult (but very rewarding!) job of being a startup founder.
Let your light shine… Do you, boo!
Be sure to like, share, and subscribe to Precursa: The Startup Journey on your favorite podcasting platform and tune in for the next episode!
Email us with any questions or comments (startup@precursa.com). Check out our website (https://www.precursa.com) for more information on getting your startup rolling.
(00:04):
Straight to you from Denver, Colorado, this is Precursa: The Startup Journey. We share the ins and outs of building a tech startup from inception, to launch, to revenue and beyond. If you’ve ever wondered what building a startup from scratch really looks like, you’re in the right place. With full transparency and honesty, we reveal it all about Precursa on our ride from idea to exit: the wins, the lessons learned, and the unexpected twists and turns.
(00:37):
Hello everybody. And welcome back. This is Precursa the up journey and I am recording this at a different time of day. So my energy might be different. I hope my voice doesn’t sound different. Maybe it does. I don’t know, but I wanted to put this episode down because we have a little bit on the podcast, but certainly in the platform we talk about the stealth mode myth. And if you miss that episode, I’m gonna put a link to it in the show notes so that you can go back and listen to that if you’re curious, but my position on the stealth mode myth is that. And you know, I think I’ve talked about it even recently, but I would much rather have data, have conversations with people, real end users and know that I’m building something people want then to be concerned about having something stolen from me or having a piece of I IP ripped off or something like that.
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And the reason that I say that, and I go into why in the whole episode and more into the platform, we talk about this quite a bit, but the reason why is because it doesn’t matter if somebody rips you off, if there’s no value there, right? And it actually, the converse is also true, which is even if someone rips you off, that there’s real value there there’s value there. So you should go build it. And it was, you know, your idea and you should, you should it, and maybe build it better. There’s this probably another myth we could dispel, which is the first mover advantage myth being the first mover in a market does not necessarily turn out as an advantage. And in fact, I’ve used the Facebook example before talking about, you know, Friendster and MySpace were out there and then Facebook came along and, you know, their approach was completely different, but they had the wisdom of what was already in the market to help guide them.
(02:30):
And so I talk about this a lot and I think it’s important to tell you the story I’m about to tell you so that you understand, when I say this is our journey. And when I say this is what it takes to build a successful startup, which is a, exactly what we say when we say sign up for Precursa and we will guide you like the roadmap works. I have to eat my own dog food. Okay. So, well, what does that mean? It means we live by what we say. We build our company based on the methodologies and the pathways that we tell you to build a company on. If I don’t one, I’m a hypocrite, which I don’t wanna be that, but also how can you trust me? Right? How, how could you hear a story? Like the one I’m about to you and not believe my advice that it actually, it can turn out and it’s fine, and that it’s better to have the data than to worry about your IP being stolen.
(03:32):
How could you believe me if I didn’t live by that? Okay. And so whenever I tell you a story like this, it’s only to illustrate one why we believe the way that we believe and why we teach the way that we teach. But two also to instill a little bit of trust in our process because we trust it. It’s how we are building this company. It’s how we approach the things that we do. And, you know, I, I have said many times over the last, probably two months that I swear Precursa is like a journey in humility and empathy for me, because this is my sixth startup, my sixth company that I’m building and never, ever has it been as difficult as Precursa has been now, there’s lots of reasons for that, right? But I feel like, you know, the, the thing that my intuition and my gut tells me is that this is, you know, God’s way or the universe’s way.
(04:32):
However you wanna think about this higher power’s way of giving me the empathy for every step in the process. I don’t want it to have, have to be this hard for anyone else ever again. And I say, this process is exactly how you do that. But in order for me to know that the process is right, the process works, the process delivers what I say that it does have to have experienced it, right? And that’s not to say that all the data I’ve gathered building close to 200 startups over the last 10 years, myself and other people’s, that’s not to say that that data doesn’t give me a pretty good insight into this, but 200 startups is nothing. When you think about there’s 1.3, 5 million new tech startups every year, right? So it also, what that also can’t give me is the empathy for a founder who is in, who is in one of the down points and your down point could be something very different than, than someone else who’s even a competitor of yours, or who’s building at the same time as you are, you know, they rock their data and they get ENV.
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You know, they get a product market fit really, really fast, and it’s really clear, but they have a really hard time raising money. You have no problem raising money, but then you can’t figure out who your market is. Or, you know, you, you can’t find your product market fit, right? Like we don’t know what your individual challenges, what your highs and your lows. We don’t know what that’s gonna be, but if I’ve experienced most of the highs which I have, and if I’ve experienced the lows, you’re probably a lot more likely to trust what I have to say to believe that I have your back to believe that I understand what you you’re going through because I have so Precursa for me is like the ultimate experience, the ultimate journey for empathy. And so all of that preface leads me to the purpose of this episode.
(06:35):
It’s been a few weeks. So I’ve gotten some time, some distance, some perspective. I’ve had some great conversations. I felt like that this was important to share with y’all because again, the stealth mode myth is probably the thing I get the most pushback on from all of my clients, from people who are, you know, I’ve worked with as mentors, uh, and incubator programs, accelerator program rooms, like everybody pushes back on this. And what the stealth mode myth is, is that I have to hide my light under a bushel. I have to, uh, not talk about what I’m building so that no one will come along and steal it from me. So I’m gonna go into stealth mode. And by doing that, I’m going to protect my IP. And I’m going to pretty much guarantee that no one else can get to market before me or steal what I’m doing.
(07:27):
And again, I’m not gonna go into stealth phone myth. I’m gonna tell you this story to illustrate why I still believe what I say about the stealth mode myth. So this has been a few weeks, and you know, when you’re building a startup, you’re looking for partnership opportunities. You’re looking for go to market strategy. You’re looking for ways to piggyback with other companies or on other companies, um, you know, partnerships, sponsorships, like you’re looking for every opportunity you possibly can to get in front of the right kind of users. And sometimes what that looks like is there are other startups that are in a similar space, or they’re working on something that’s tangential to what you’re doing, or they have the same audience that you do. And you say, Hey, there might be a really good synergy here. Let’s talk. And see if we can come up with something.
(08:17):
I have been doing that like crazy for over a year and had a really great conversation with a guy who’s building a startup he’s local here in, in, uh, in Colorado. Uh, he was building a startup also wanting to help early stage, early stage entrepreneurs. And as we talked, I was like, oh, this is perfect. Precursa fits you beautifully in your, in your like vision of the world. We fit beautifully right here. Right. Alongside what you’re trying to do. And he was like, yeah, that’s so great. Like, I love that. You know, let’s, let’s talk again in a couple months when, you know, you’re closer to launch and I’m closer to launch and, and then, you know, we’ll see how this all comes together. Great. Right. So it was about two months later, I brought Paige and Sarah along for the chat, because as strategic as I am, it’s a lot easier to see the strategy when it’s not your idea.
(09:13):
And so sometimes even when it’s, you know, it’s in your bones, this thing, right. Sometimes you need a little bit of perspective. And Paige is usually that perspective Sarah’s perspective from what’s reality. And what’s fantasy Paige is perspective from strategy, vision. How do we thread the needle? Right? So the three of us got on a call with this guy. I totally thought I knew how this phone call was gonna go because this guy and I had just a month before had pretty much had a conversation. So I thought this was gonna be like a recap. And he was gonna demo, you know, what he had done since then, which was, you know, basically building out his, the rest of his thing. I was getting ready to launch. And that was gonna be that. And we’d figure out how it’d work together. Right? What actually happened was
(10:05):
Inspiration has STR you’ve stumbled upon a great idea that you just know will change the world. So now what now pre we provide the best tools to help founders and entrepreneurs. Just like you turn their great ideas into great companies that solve real problems for real people. We believe you are the change makers, the innovators, and the force that moves technology forward. All you need is an experienced guide to keep you on track and help you navigate the turbulent waters of starting up Precursa is that guide. And with us, your roadmap to successful launch is more direct with far fewer pitfalls, ready to change the world. Precursa has your back.
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We got a pitch from this guy that was like two thirds Precursa. And I’m only able to laugh now because it’s been, it’s been a few weeks. Like I said, I got some perspective. And as I’m watching this, I mean, there were even several times where he is like, you know, like, like you said, the FICO score for your startup like that, right? Like, so he’s now got a score. He’s now got the opportunity for modules. He’s now selling to incubators and accelerators. And as I’m watching this, there’s like so many emotions. I mean, as my friend, Brandon would say all the feels, all of it, right. I mean, I went from being super pissed, really angry to being like incredulous. Like, am I seeing what I think to, to even being like disbelief, right. Am I really seeing what I think I’m seeing? May I must be crazy?
(11:48):
Like Paige is gonna tell me no, you’re crazy. That’s not what he said at all. Right. So we finish up the phone call, thank God Paige and Sarah were on the phone call because they are much better. They were in that moment, much better equipped to be really kind and really generous and political, you know, not political, like politics, but political, like, you know, generous and kind, and, and be great in a phone call and set up a follow up and like all that kind. And I’m just over here. Like my face is, uh, you know, like if you could see my face right now, it’s the face I was making, right. Just wide eye and, and complete and utter disbelief. So we get off the call and I St for a couple days, and Paige and Sarah and I had a, had our regular checking call a couple days later, we kind of got angry about it together.
(12:43):
Who the heck does this guy think he is? You know, he’s had two exits and, you know, so we went through all the things, had all the fields. And then I started getting that perspective. I was talking about, you know, there was a couple of the gentleman who said to me, you should Sue him. Uh, I was like, that seems stupid. And a waste of my money that I really would rather put into my startup. Uh, but I had to listen. Right. And there were people who said, don’t worry about it. Who cares? It doesn’t matter. I mean, it was, it was all over the spectrum. The feedback that I got and the opportunity in it was I realized something that I think is really important to me and really important to Precursa. What I realized is that, you know, there’s this mass Exodus happening from the corporate world and I’m putting corporate in, in, uh, in quotes, right.
(13:34):
But there’s, this mass exit is happening. And we, we had Tom cook on the show a few weeks ago and he talked about the gig economy, particularly how it relates to space, but, you know, kind of in general, the gig economy and this momentum towards, towards more autonomy and more ability to work on different projects and cool things and how people stay, places, show, order in shorter periods of time. So we’re seeing, you know, as a result of so many different things, we’re seeing this shift where a lot of people are leaving corporate. A lot of people are leaving a traditional work day. And a lot of people are discovering that working side of someone else’s construct, maybe doesn’t fit for them. Right. And here’s the realization that I had. What if the mass Exodus, and what if the construct that doesn’t work is the way that business has always been done.
(14:32):
And if I look at this situation inside of my own ethos of the stealth mode myth, I can see a couple of things that actually mean this is good news, right? And again, I’ve had a few weeks to get here. I’m not saying that the minute you realize somebody sort of like crept up and took a little piece of your idea or whatever, like you should go get excited and, you know, you, you gotta feel the feels. But the first thing that that I noticed is if this mass Exodus is happening, it’s an indicator that something is broken, something is missing, something’s not working. And people are looking for another option. My hypothesis is that the thing that doesn’t work, the thing that people are pushing back on is the way business has always been done. Now, a lot of the advice that I got in the intervening days after this happened, when I was saying to people, can you believe that happened?
(15:29):
Like, what would you do? A lot of the advice I got was what I’m gonna call the old way of thinking about doing business. I don’t want to do that. I believe there is a different way to engage with people. There’s a different way to interact with people. There’s a different way to engage with this type of situation that doesn’t involve. What’s mine is mine and get outta my space and, and suing someone or, or 95% of the things that came up in a lot of the advice that I got. Now, there’s another piece in here, which is that the fact that he, uh, first of all, I don’t think this was malicious. Maybe that makes me naive, but if he did it maliciously, and in fact, I’m not even certain that he ha that I think if he was listening to this episode, he wouldn’t even realize I’m talking about him because it would not, it would not surprise me at all to learn that he did not act our conversation and what I shared with him to his ultimate decision to go the way that he did.
(16:41):
So I don’t believe that it was nefarious. I don’t believe that it was malicious. And I don’t believe that there was any ill intent. The other thing that makes me makes me think that’s true as my very good friend pointed out, who listens to this podcast every episode. So thank you for this, my dear, if he had meant it maliciously, if he did make that connection, he never would have presented it to us like that. Right. So what the other piece that’s underlying this a little bit, first of all, I was pretty thrilled that, you know, once I got my head on straight, I was like, oh, see, there is something here. I knew it. I was right. Let me keep going. Right. Like, all it did was reaffirm for me, I’m onto something. Now other people are starting to see it. And the piece that makes it special is still belongs to me and it still special.
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And so that was, that was really, I, I, I had to get to that place, but the other piece of this is there is room for everyone. Like everyone actually can win. And I know, I know what that sounds like, right? Like if you say to Elon, Musker you say to Jeff Bezos, everyone can win. They’re gonna go. Yeah. Well, I have billions and billions and billions of dollars and I’ve crushed most of the little guys. So I would argue that everyone can’t win. That’s exactly the thing that I think people are railing against pushing and why the mass Exodus from corporate life, right from working for other people inside of a construct that is millennia old. Let’s just be honest. I don’t think I do not believe that one, only one of us can win. And this goes back to the thing that we talked about a while back in an episode about the economy, right?
(18:31):
The economy is not, we always hear it as a slice of the pie. The problem is pies don’t grow. Okay. Pies are a fixed state in time. And in order for someone to get a bigger slice, somebody else has to get a smaller slice. Well, if you compare GDP in the United States from 1920 to 2022, obviously this pie is growing. So it’s not really accurate to call it a pie, right? It’s economies grow in a way that is so unique that there is more for cutting up. So Jeff Bezos getting his huge percentage, didn’t stop mark Zuckerberg from getting his huge percentage, which didn’t stop bill gates from getting, do you see what I’m saying? And I’m using that, those big examples to show you that it’s true because you, you know, you might think, oh my 70,000 or $80,000 a year slice, not really making a difference in that realm.
(19:29):
Right. But at the point works at any at any number there’s more, there just is more if I believe that what people are pushing against is the way business has always been done. And if I believe that we both can win. In fact, not just the two of us, me and this other guy, but lots of people can get into this water and find ways to, to swim around and find their little piece of the world and win. There’s no longer space for me to get upset about it, right? Like I’m just gonna feel flattered and I’m gonna be like, huh, I’m onto something. Yay for me, keep going right now. He didn’t steal the whole thing outright. His market segment is different than ours. His, one of his go to market strategies is similar. I still think there’s room for both of us. And in fact, I think there’s, there’s a time when we will be the back end for some of what he’s trying to do, just because I think we have better technology.
(20:37):
In fact, I’m certain that we do. So after a few weeks, I’m in this place, where is it a bummer? Yeah. Uh, I’m, I’m still like, I wish that hadn’t happened, but I’ve done my research. I’ve done the work. We’re collecting data like mad. We’re, we’re getting ready to start an effort to collect a whole bunch more data. Because the thing that you’ll learn about AI and machine learning, in fact, I’m gonna debunk this because I’ve had so many conversations in the last about it that I just feel like if you’re someone who who’s like, Ooh, AI machine learning, that would be really cool. I want, I wanna debunk something. AI and machine learning are mostly based on math. That’s existed for a very long time. Most algorithms are not new. They might tweak something might, but, but the reality is AI and machine learning is now as accessible as it is simply because processing power and processing speed have become commoditized.
(21:38):
They’re very cheap. It’s you can have something running on AWS. And for very little money, you can run a crap ton of data through a machine learning model and get, get something valuable out of it. Okay. The actual value in AI and machine learning and data science and all of this, all predictive analytics is the data. And the reality is if you have the data, you’re the king cause anybody who wants to build some kind of predictive, anything who doesn’t have the data is coming to you to buy it, or they have to take the time to collect it. So we’ve had a ton of conversations over the last week and a half or so where I’m like, so what you’re telling me is I need the data, the way I’m gathering the data and how, how I’m tagging and categorizing that data makes way more difference than the machine learning algorithm or the, you know, which open source machine learning process.
(22:40):
We run this through. And the answer is a resounding yes, the data matters more than the technology behind it because the data is the thing that’s go, you know, that’s, that’s why Google and face book and all these companies are huge, cuz they’re generating, generating and recording massive amounts of data all the time. So I’m telling you that because when we talk about AI and machine learning, it sounds super mystical. It’s just not like there. There’s just not a lot of, not a lot of misses behind it. You have a question and you have a data set that has the potential to answer that question. You can go mining through your data, set with a very powerful machine and find the answer. Um, and that is that’s data mining. And then you could teach a computer, teach a machine machine learning to bring in new data sets and compare it and tweak the answer that you get to be more accurate, more complete, more precise, um, more correct over time.
(23:42):
Um, so I just, I wanna demystify that a little bit because a lot of times it gets looped in, you know, we’ve heard this from our, our investors so many times, how does the, but how does the tech work, but how does the tech work? It’s not about the tech is almost irrelevant. I mean, it it’s relevant because it’s how we produce answers. And it’s how, you know, it’s how we start to make predictions. But what they should be asking me is, is what is the data you’re collecting? How valuable is that data? Could you get it somewhere else? Is someone else already collecting that data, which makes your data less valuable? And the answer is, nobody’s collecting this data right now. Nobody is paying any attention to early stage because there’s so much volatility. And I say, the volatility is predictable and, and stability inside of that volatility is also predictable.
(24:31):
So we still have what makes us special. And there are so many other potential applications for this that I still know we’re on the right track. So all of this to say, I’m glad that I have the data that I have. I’m glad that I’ve talked to the people that I’ve talked to. I, I, I, I would love to, you know, someone suggested to me, well, what if you talk to ’em? You know, if it, if there’s no awareness, we, we, you know, we’re talking so much right now in our culture about, uh, unconscious bias and uh, all the things that happen simply this is the way the world is oriented. Right? And, and without us even realizing that we’re doing it, we’re doing it. What if you went to him and said, Hey, just wanted you to know, like, this is how this was received.
(25:17):
And I thought about that for a little bit, right? Like I thought, well, is that helpful? What would be my motivation behind doing that? What would my, he result be out of doing something like that? And what difference would it really make? And, and not being able to answer those questions in a way that had some resolution and had some feeling of like, oh, that totally makes sense. Why that would be good was how I made the, the ultimate decision to, to not, to just let it go. Because the reality is I still think there’s opportunities to partner with this guy. I really do. And I can’t let all of the fields and my desire to show him that he did something wrong, right? Like that’s the only place that I could come to by having a conversation like that. I don’t want that to impede our ability as a collective, as he and I, to eventually solve a big problem for a lot of people with what both of us are trying to accomplish.
(26:24):
And I still believe that that’s possible with both of our solutions out there. So what I want you to get outta this conversation is one, we eat the dog food. We, I, I, there were so many times, especially early on now realize we’ve spent 150, $175,000. We were about a year and a half into development, like in earnest, right? And the, and the year and a half before that, I was talking to over 200 entrepreneurs. People I’d worked with people I hadn’t worked with to understand this problem. Right. And understand how they see the problem we eat. The dog food. This process actually does work. So my goal with this is to, is to one show you that I get it. It’s scary. I, I don’t know the number of times when I was talking to entrepreneurs where I would hang up the phone and I would be like, wow, I just had an hour conversation bringing to an entrepreneur’s attention.
(27:24):
Like someone who obviously knows what vision is, someone who can execute like these are all people who are actively building companies. I just brought to their attention, this big, huge gaping hole in the market. They could go build it. They could go figure out a solution. They could beat me in my own game. Right. It was not worth not having the information, not having the answers for the potential trade off of avoiding that outcome. It just wasn’t worth it to me because understand 150 to $175,000 in my world, in my net worth right now, it’s a big deal. It, it, it’s actually quite a bit of money to me. There’s a lot of other things I could have done with that money. If at the end of asking all those questions and talking to all those people, I was like, wow, there’s nothing here. I’m moving on with my life.
(28:16):
Right? Like I could have built something else with that. Money could have invested it in the stock market. I could. I mean, there’s just, I could have bought a really nice car, right? Like there’s a lot of other things that I could have done, but I chose to do this, but I chose to do it because I had the data because I knew the answers that I needed to know in order to be able to say yes, spending this money makes sense and will get me the result that I’m looking for. And I understand the ROI. So I’m telling you all of that because this is the process. And I want you to know, I understand the fear. I understand the pain. I understand if I could, if I had gotten on the microphone right after that happened, the amount of anger that you would’ve heard in my voice and the amount of pain you would’ve heard in my voice would have been palpable.
(29:09):
And that’s important because you may go there at some point during this journey, you really may go there. And I want you to know we get it. We’ve experienced it. We understand. And I’m telling you if you believe in it. And if the data is proving that there’s something here, don’t stop. Don’t give up your confidence. Don’t let it shake you. If something like this happens to you feel the feels get the support you need. This is, you know, it’s interesting because this is why a really good support system who gets the journey you’re on and who is, who is like behind what you’re doing is so important. Cuz the reality is if I was by myself, let’s just say, I didn’t have, you know, someone in my life who was super supportive of me. I did didn’t have co-founders who, who were like really bought in and also shared the vision and like totally got what we’re up to.
(30:09):
It would be very difficult to come back from something like this. It would be very easy to SL into a corner and give it all up and say, well, I tried and then watch him go be really successful and be resentful and have that be a defining moment in my life because I have such great support because I have conditioned my community, my family to this is what it looks like to be an entrepreneur. Please support me on this journey. And this is what I might need from you sometimes because I’ve conditioned them that way because we’ve had those conversations, we’ve communicated about it. The minute that happened, David was right there. He was like, you got this, like, you know, actually the first thing out of his mouth was I can’t even believe that guy. Like what, what a jackass. Right? And I was like, well, hold on, like, let’s talk it out.
(30:59):
And he was like, okay, let’s talk it out. Like let’s, let’s get super of. And, and then he held me and let me cry. And when I was done crying, he looked at me and he said, I still believe in you. And I know you can do this. And now at least you have some proof that you’re right. And we laughed. Right. And it still took me a few days. It still took me a couple weeks. Right. I mean, it’s been a few weeks. Like I said, having a port system, having people who are on board who are on these, aren’t the people you’re interviewing to find out whether or not this is a good idea. Okay. Let me be clear. If I was like, Hey David, I had this idea to, you know, go reinvent the wheel. What do you think? He, he might tell me it’s stupid, but most like, he’s gonna be like, I think you can do anything.
(31:42):
I love of you so much. Right? Like you need that. Not for the data element. You need it because when things like this happen, when you’re at the downs, you need people who will hold the vision for you for just a little while, while you sort out the feels same is true in reverse. When you’re you have the highs, you need people to celebrate that with celebration, lock something into your body and it draws towards you. The, the same, you know, parallel the same kind of energy. There’s a word I’m looking for. The resonant energy of that celebration. It draws it towards you, which just amplifies and multiplies your celebration. These are very important parts of this journey because otherwise you’ll be crushed. You will be crushed. This is hard. This is so hard. And yet if you’re made for it, if this is the thing that like you can’t, you just can’t put it down.
(32:50):
It’ll be the easiest thing you’ve ever done in your life. And the hardest that’s the duality of life, I guess. So I just want you to, to understand when I, when I talk about the stealth mode myth there’s so I have so much empathy for all of the things that make us feel like going into stealth mode is the safest option or the best option or the only option for us. I get it. And I’m not, I’m not saying what I say about the stealth mode myth to be flippant. I’m not saying it in a throwaway manner. I say it full of empathy and full of understanding and full of having been there. And I want you to know that there’s a better way. There really is a better way because if the game is stealth mode, but I don’t know if I have something or I find out after I’m already too far in that there’s nothing behind what I’m doing and I’ve spent time and money or the alternative is maybe someone could steal something or maybe someone could copy or maybe someone could get there first.
(34:04):
But I have the data, I have the verification and I’m very confident in the money. And the time that I’m spending is going to be worth it, I will choose that second avenue every time and on, you know, even in that moment, anger, fear, frustra hurt. Even in that moment, I knew this is a potential outcome, but I would not trade what I know and the confidence I have in the path to avoid this feeling, the trade off isn’t worth it. So I have empathy. I understand. And I want you to know we’ve been there. We’ve been, if you’re there now, we’re there together with you. If you’re listening to this five years from now and you’re feeling it or you’re worried about feeling it or you’re thinking, but I really wanna go into stealth mode, Cynthia. I really think I have something. I promise you.
(35:02):
I have been there and I promise you the trade off isn’t worth it. It’s just not. So don’t hide your light under a bushel. That’s the message today. Let that listen to light of mind. I’m gonna let it shine, shine, shine, like let your light shine, get the data, talk to people, figure out how to solve the problem in a way that they need you to solve it. Way more important to do that than to worry about some, what someone else is doing. Okay. Be you be bold, be brave. Let that light shine. Okay. All right. So we’ve got more guests coming up. If you are listening to this show and you would like to be a guest, I would love to hear from you. So, uh, we have talked to a range of entrepreneurs. Most of whom are at least partway through their first entrepreneurial journey.
(36:01):
I’d actually be interested in hearing from some people who have never taken the leap to talk about why and what’s there and what interests you about pot. Like I, I I’m, I wanna explore this and I would love to do it on the show. Uh, so reach out startup@precursa.com. If you’re interested in being a guest and let’s chat, I’d love to have you on. And, uh, I’d love to have some of these conversations with more listeners. The last thing that I’ll say is a few weeks ago, I think in my last, in my last it, I mentioned that someone, I very much respect in the investment world here in Colorado, made a statement about the nine out of 10 statistic being BS. And I was able to get into his inbox and he is going to come on the show and talk about it. So we’re working on getting him scheduled.
(37:01):
I’m super excited. I, I don’t know when that episode will, will drop to be quite honest. Um, it could be a little while, but I’m super excited because it’s going to happen and you are going to get to hear, I’m going to get to hear, we are going to get to talk to someone who has a different perspective than the one that we’ve always heard. And I’m super excited about that. So that’s coming preview of coming attractions. So next week, we’re back with another really great guest. And, um, hopefully you can feel the, the goal of my communication to you today, which is be you like figure out how to solve a problem. Do it really, really well. And you will win because there’s plenty of room for, for lots of people to win and to win big and to win in support of each other. So don’t let that, don’t let that scare you away cuz we’ve been there and we’re coming out the other side. It’s gonna be awesome. All right, El, so as always happy entrepreneur and I will see y’all next time.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Precursa: The Startup Journey. If you have an idea for a startup and you want to explore the proven process of turning your idea into a viable business, check us out at precursa.com. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. Until next time…
Copyright © 2021 Precursa | All Rights Reserved | Site Created by Natalie Jark
Copyright © 2021 Precursa | All Rights Reserved | Site Created by Natalie Jark