realistic day in the life of a 30yo millionaire in NYC

What used to work no longer works anymore because everyone's doing that now.

We just met with a brand. They sell caskets. And guess what? They fucking crush it. It all started because I just put myself out there, started talking, and one thing led to the next. Your aura is getting stronger. Yeah, consistency, kids.

Keep doing it.

It'll pay off. Did a quick 30-minute upper body workout, but we're back because today is actually kind of a banger of a day. Several new partner introduction calls to my good friends in the ecosystem introduced me to other agencies that do complementary services to Platter. So figuring out ways to continue to get more leads for the business. I also have a call with a company about doing an SPV, which is basically a type of investment vehicle into a new consumer brand, which I can't wait to tell you guys about in this video because it will show you how I go about getting my deal flow and being opportunistic with that. I'm talking to a brand that's on BigCommerce today. So trying to get them off that, back to Shopify. They actually sell caskets, which is bananas. After that, I am going to have coffee with a brand founder who I invested in 5 years ago, who's my largest angel investment and I think the best performing business in my portfolio. The biggest news of the day, Ben and I are going to look at an office for the first time in my entire professional career. There's a chance that I'm not going to work from home anymore. I know you guys see this apartment in every single video that I film, but I figured it was time to look for somewhere to leave the apartment to work at because I feel like when you have no division between the two, it can be kind of a slog. One of the best parts about working in consumer is that all these brands will send me product when I become friends with the founders. So I get to try a bunch of shit. This is what I'm having for breakfast today. Dawnbreaker protein oatmeal. This is not an ad. I love this product. It's 16 grams of protein in one packet of oatmeal. So I typically have like 3 different meals that I rotate for breakfast. And this is the easiest one. You just put in the microwave for 60 seconds, put some fruit and almond butter on it and call it a day. Brandon, what's up, man? Yo, yo, what's up, bro? How we doing? Good. So when they found someone they were excited about, and then I obviously got the news of your conversation with Kieran, I was like, I wanted to just like jump on the phone to better understand from your perspective, what is it that is most important to you? Is it compensation? Is it growth opportunity? Is it a combination of the two? Cool, man. Sounds good. I appreciate the time. We've been trying to hire a fucking designer for 6 months and no one meets the mark with our director of design. And we finally found someone who did and we extended him an offer and then his company gave him a raise and like more responsibility once they found out he was almost going to leave. And then he came back to us, was like, I think I'm going to stay in this position because my company matched the offer. And so I got back on the phone with him. This is the first time I met him, but I got on the phone with him, was like, hey, we have more wiggle room to increase the offer again and started talking. He's like, I have a lot to think about. Let me take the next hour or so and then I'll text you and let you know, but you've piqued my interest based on this conversation. So now it's a waiting game. We are going to get coffee with a brand founder that I invested in over 5 years ago. I haven't met up with the founder in quite some time, so going to get an update on the business. I am cranking right now on Top of Funnel for Platter. I don't know if it's because brands wake up in Q1 and they're like, oh fuck, I need a new website, or it's just that like intros are happening and things are compounding, but we have some whales in the pipeline right now. Your aura is getting stronger. Yeah, consistency, kids. Keep doing it, it'll pay off. Buy 2 desks, 2 chairs, 2 things, everything there. Right from there. Sounds good to me. Yeah, over there, over there. Okay, dude, and then we actually— I guess doesn't matter. I was going to say we can maybe, if you wanted, uh, I was going to say you can do the poker events. Yeah, we can do the poker.

Yeah, this is good. This is good.

You guys actually coming up here? Yeah, we're going to put— No fucking way! I thought you were fucking with me. So sick! —put a couple desks. Well, dude, I've been working from home for 5 years. The dog's name is Major? Yeah, dude. Peace, see you soon. Good to meet you. Yeah, that's fine too. You can click it in 2 spots. How we doing? Good, man. How are you? I'm doing swimmingly. I'm honestly just shocked that we haven't crossed paths before. Like, the number of mutuals we have on LinkedIn, it's typically double the threshold of what it usually is by the time that I actually meet someone. In terms of partnerships, like tech partnerships are typically not fruitful for us being the execution arm of building websites. The way that it typically works is some tech vendor will come to us and be like, yo, we have this amazing product that you guys have to use this with all your customers. And I'm like, yeah, I'm sure you would love another 200 customers on your product. We need more than just an affiliate fee. It just only goes so far. But with other service providers, whether it's growth marketing, email, etc., we actually find there's synergy there where it's not just one coming to the other trying to get them to use their software tool. We love when we talk with SaaS companies because for us and I always count down the minute until they're like, dude, that was a great joke. Anyway, can you introduce me to every single one of the brands? Bro, it's been 10 minutes. Yeah. So I'm not here to be like, yo, take my software and introduce me to your brands. It's more like I'm sure you guys have brands that ask you for resources to help on the dev side the same way that we do with brands who ask us for intros on like the email side, the growth side, whatever it might be. It is crazy, like the level of quality of some of these partners that you talk to. You can just tell the difference between good and great. So I spoke to the guys from New Standard, which is an email retention agency, and these dudes are absolute killers. Like, first call, you can just tell the difference in quality. And I've realized as you do partnerships, you want to align yourself with people at the top because they are working with the brands that we want to be working with and vice versa. And so something about it is it's nice to meet everyone once, and then after that you have to filter through to see like who are the ones that you want to go a lot deeper with. I'm back back to backs for a little bit right now, but I'm about to jump on a call right now with a company called Sidecar to talk to them about opening what is called an SPV, basically doing investment into a consumer brand. And I want to give you guys the background on how all of this materialized. So basically there's this brand called Bia. They're coming out with this like smart sleep mask. And as some of you know, I'm a huge sleep nerd and I found this brand online months ago and I preordered it. It still hasn't shipped yet, but I preordered it. And then Julia for the holidays actually got it for me. And when I opened the gift, she had got a receipt of also pre-ordering it. When I opened the gift, I was like, this is awkward because I bought this for myself 5 months prior. And so I ended up emailing them and just saying, hey, can you cancel this one order because we double ordered it? I already pre-ordered. And the founder responded and was like, hey, you should keep your order and let's remove hers since you're higher up on the waitlist. And I responded naturally being like, hey, I also work in this industry. If I can be helpful, let me know. I'm a wellness nerd, blah, blah, blah. And he responded and he's like, yeah, I'm actually coming to New York in a few weeks. Fast forward, had coffee with him. He had a a version of the product for me to try. And I was like, oh, I love this. Like, are you raising money? And he started telling me it's a pretty high valuation. So his minimum check size is higher than what I'm willing to put in on my own. But he's like, I have, you know, $400,000 to $500,000 worth of people who've reached out that also want to invest smaller checks. So if you want to open an SPV, I'll basically give you all these investors and you can just manage the opportunity. For those of you who understand the nuances around investing, I'm basically getting inbound investors from the founder of this brand to invest into a vehicle that I will manage and charge carry-on because he doesn't want to be responsible for the SPV. So I'm basically getting free upside if this company actually does well, if I go through and do the investment, which is crazy to think about. But it all started because I just put myself out there, reached out to the founder, told him I loved his product, got him in person, started talking, and one thing led to the next. And now I'm meeting with this company about formulating a vehicle to invest in the business. Like, it's just putting yourself out there, being open to opportunities, and just pouncing on them is like so important. And now I'm just thinking out how I have the potential to have equity in this business that I think can go on to be a multibillion-dollar business if they execute, just given everything else that's going on in the industry. But that's the context for this call I'm about to jump on to see what the legal ramifications are of doing an SPV to just figure out how to make it most effective. Hey Ben. Jake, what's up, man? How are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing well. Appreciate the time. Yeah, no problem. Awesome, dude. Well, look, I'll try to keep this quick for you. I guess the quick 2 seconds is that there's a brand that I'm talking to about potentially leading like an SPV. I did a handful of SPVs on allocations like years ago and it was just like a fucking headache. So I'm just trying to like understand because I've just seen Maggie like post about Sidecar Bunch. So I'm just like trying to understand what's unique about the platform. Let me just dive into a little bit about, you know, this deal specifically.

So are you working on a specific timeline here?

Do you have like a target close date or anything like that? No, it's— I guess I'll give you the context. So it's a, it's a consumer brand. And I was meeting with the founder. They have a valuation that was higher than something that I wanted to angel invest into with like their minimums. And I was like, oh, have you considered like an SPV? And he was like, I actually have like $400,000 to $500,000 worth of people who've reached out to me being, yo, I'd love to put a $10K check, a $20K check into the business, but they have a higher minimum. He's like, but I as the founder don't want to run the SPV. He basically said to me, he was like, yo, if you want to open the SPV and manage it and take carry on it, like I can give you $400,000 to $500,000 of like inbound interest. And so I was like, why? Like, in my mind, I'm like, why the fuck wouldn't I do that? It's basically like free carry on the deal. So I was like, all right, well, normally I have no interest in like doing another SPV, but you're making this really hard for me to like say no to. So that was when I emailed Maggie. He was like, all right, fuck it. I'll talk to someone at Sidecar and like see if this makes sense for me. Yeah, man. Listen, if you don't want to do it, I'll do it. Yeah, right. Steven, what's up, man? Hey, Ben, how you doing? How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? Doing great. Thank you. Look, I was given word from Tom that you guys are finally looking to switch to the dark side, huh? Yes. Yes. After years of being a BigCommerce man, we've been with them for 13 years now. So all good things come to an end.

You know, it's time to kind of upgrade a little bit.

So we've been talking about it for a while and I think we're kind of moving in that direction now. One of the funniest parts about working in e-commerce is talking to brands that sell things that you just don't think about in your everyday life. We just met with a brand who is looking to move over to Shopify. They sell caskets. And guess what? They fucking crush it because they have very little competition because who else wants to sell caskets on the internet? That call went as well as I think an intro call could have. So it's time to send them over a contract and see what magic we can make happen.

Every single time there's a huge technological innovation, people always say 30% of jobs are gone, and every single time 30% more, if not more, jobs are created.

That's how, that's how, like, maybe in the short term, but long term it's always growing.

That's what I'm saying, is like, we're always finding new shit for people to do. I know you use it way more than I do. It went really, really, really fast, and now I feel like it's at that place where it's starting to crawl. Like, it's only getting so much better on each new release. ClaudeBot is cool. It's made software development a whole lot more efficient. Like, you still need engineers. New York restaurant a few years ago serves some fucking pizzas. People come up to your window, they buy your pizzas. Now all of a sudden, if you're not on Uber Eats, you're not on Grubhub, you don't have 3 people in the back working the delivery station, your restaurant's gonna go out of business. You have to learn how to play the delivery game. It's like, that's a new element that didn't exist, but it's literally just like It's like, just like fucking like tech and all this shit where you see people get frustrated on LinkedIn. They're like, there's no point in doing this anymore. And it's like, bro, everyone else doing this is still making tens of millions of dollars. Like what used to work no longer works anymore because everyone's doing that now. So now you need to go be more personalized, do more, whatever. And people don't like learning how to play new games.

I think the number one thing I've learned is you will always overestimate the number of people that will download and pay for a piece of software. It's— you always overshoot it. So dumb and naive when we launched Platter Plus and I was like, oh yeah, like we'll get a couple hundred. Got like 5 people downloaded it or something. Yeah. Or the opposite. And then your crash site, which happened a lot to a lot of people. Yeah, maybe. You know how to reach— like, you know how to speak with people and make them do shit for you. And I just know how to build shit. Like, I just know how to build go-to-market funnel. And you told me top of funnel wasn't your thing. No, funnel. Bottom of funnel. Bottom is closing people. Closing people and nurture, like, and closing them from email. Top of funnel is just getting people aware of what you do. Yeah, I know, I'm not good at it. Another week, another vlog. That is all, folks. The people have left from poker. We got momentum right now. Things are happening. Deals are being made. New opportunities are coming up. I'm having fun with it. We got a lot more videos coming. You just gotta stick with it. It's, uh, understanding the concepts concept of delayed gratification is so important because when things start getting hard, you start questioning it. But trust me, most people who find any sort of success, there was a moment in time where they were the only ones who believed in it, or they were doubting it and found a way to keep pushing through it. And you need to do the same. That's it for this video. I will see you guys back next week. Peace.