In this candid vlog, a UX designer (Speaker A) openly shares his struggle to launch a business while carrying $32,000 in student‑loan debt and limited cash flow. He explains his motivation to document the entire process so others can learn from his failures. The video follows a meeting with three friends (Speakers B, C, D) where they review a simple web‑development agreement for a nonprofit client, discuss using HoneyBook email templates to keep the client engaged, and negotiate compensation and equity. Speaker D pushes an aggressive valuation goal of $100‑$300 million, emphasizing minimal cash payment in exchange for large equity stakes. Throughout, the tone is informal, self‑reflective, and instructional, highlighting the tension between financial constraints and ambitious growth targets.
Chapters
For the longest time now, I've been wanting to start my own business, and I don't have a lot of money. As a matter of fact, I'm in debt. I have $32,000 of student loan debt. I've had 2 jobs outside of college. Both of my parents are immigrants. They come from Mexico. My mom still cleans houses for a living. And so me understanding my situation and my process and being able to say, "I can still do this thing," Regardless of my circumstance, if I just put my mind to it, I'm confident that eventually something will work out. I, I have a job, so I have cash flow and I'm paying off bills. But by no means am I in a position to like put down $100,000 to a business idea. It's just, it's not happening. And so I'm really starting from ground zero. As a matter of fact, I'm starting lower than ground zero. I'm starting at negative because I have debt and it's risky for me to try to venture out and do something that may not work. And the reason that I'm documenting is so that you see exactly what my process is. You see exactly the beginning of this journey that I'm taking on, and hopefully you can learn something from that. So if you're interested in the journey of me trying to start my own business, subscribe, and hopefully things work out, but I'm sure they won't. I'm sure there'll be tons of failures, and so I hope that you can learn from my failures and And yeah, so today I'm meeting one of my good friends in Da Homme, and he's going to tell me, or he's going to teach me.
Oh yo! Hey!
What's going on, big guy?
How you doing? Good, good. How are you?
Good, man.
Another client now, uh, just finished putting together the web development agreement, right? It just simply outlines— you've seen the development agreements, right?
I've seen app and web, I haven't seen digital marketing yet.
Okay, cool. Right now it's just a simple web development agreement. They're a nonprofit organization, and what they're trying to do is build a new online presence. I'm trying to get funded, they're trying to bring on more users. Into their organization, and so they need a new website. Now I'm gonna shoot it out on HoneyBook, right?
Mm-hmm.
I get to see, like, this is one of our email triggers about what's important about having a website. All this stuff.
Interesting.
Right.
Keep them engaged. It lets us know that they're opening emails.
Right.
It lets us know that they're reading brochures.
Mm-hmm.
These are templates that you built?
Exactly. So these templates have already been made, right?
Yeah.
So I just sent this out. Give him a call real quick and let him know it's sent out, and if he has any questions, let me know.
Because you know me, I want to pay you as little as possible, give you the most amount of equity, and put this thing up into the $100 to $300 million range.
Got it.
That's what I want to do. I understand, you know what I mean?
Right.
I mean, like, like, fuck making $38,000 or $100,000 or $200,000 off of us, you know. Fucking making, you know, you know, $20, $30, $40, $50 million, you know what I mean?
Got it.
That's what I'm—
to hear back from you, and then, uh, we'll get the ball rolling.
Hey, listen, I love when you call me, so call me anytime.
