This is a transcript of a live talk (YouTube video) by Ryan Daniel Moran in Kiev (Capitalism.com, July 2018) encouraging entrepreneurs to seize unique opportunities in Eastern Europe. Moran opens with an anecdote about dining with well-known entrepreneurs (Gary Vaynerchuk, Jay Shetty, Lewis Howes, Josh Bazzoni, Colin of Wild Foods) and frames the current moment as a limited "window" for building multi‑million-dollar companies. He outlines a blended "formula" for seven- and eight-figure businesses drawn from those entrepreneurs (social followings, branding, product launches) and answers audience questions about his Back Room advising/investing program and criteria for admission.
Questions this video answers
Two years ago had zero followers; now has 13 million followers.
Went from zero to $100 million in its first 12 months.
He recently sold a business for eight figures.
About $1,000,000 annual revenue (pacing ≈ $85,000/month).
capitalism.com/backroom
Chapters
Two days before I arrived here in Eastern Europe, I was having dinner with Gary Vaynerchuk and Jay Shetty and Lewis Howes and Josh Bazzoni and Colin from Wild Foods. And I took this picture for a very specific reason. And I wanted to show you this picture for a very specific reason.
Ram.
So this was a major fight.
That guy definitely had his hand on my butt. Out of all the people I met in Ukraine, he was not the person whose hand I wanted on my butt. That's really my biggest fear, is that people are going to miss this. They're gonna miss what the opportunity is. They're gonna miss what they're sitting on. So we're gonna go on stage and my one takeaway people get is I hope they get what special times they're living in. I mean, there are entrepreneurs starting from zero who are building eight figure companies just by playing a few chips well. So I know there's people in this room who over the next couple of years are going to do something that they hope is going to work and it's going to become a multi million dollar business. There's already been people who have come up and thanked us for our work in the past. And I know that there are entrepreneurs waiting to see that same pop. And it's not because they're anything special. It's just because the opportunities right now are so unique and it's so big and it's only getting bigger right now. And we have this window, we have this window of success where it's open where people can come in and compete. And it's not always going to be that way. But the people who play this game, well, there's just some very, very special things going on that are making people very successful, very wealthy. And I think we're at the cusp of something even bigger than what we've seen in the past. But this window is not going to exist forever. So if I can inspire a handful of people in this room to be able to take advantage of that, we've done a very cool thing. So that's what we're up to today. All right, let's go.
What's up, dude? Can I stop here with you? Yeah, you bet my business. What's your name? Roman. Hey, Roman. My business on Amazon started with your video. Oh, awesome. Appreciate it. Dude, the cat scratchers. Yes. All right. Very cool.
Thank you very much. All right, Roman. Good to meet you.
It.
Podcast of freedom. Fast lane.
Cleveland Indians. Ryan Daniel Moran.
I have no idea what Igor just said. I didcatcapitalism.com and Cleveland Indians though. Yeah.
I love this part of the world and I love this energy that is so palpable because.
In the US we're spoiled, we're kind of lazy. We've had entrepreneurship available to us for as long as we've existed. But here the opportunities are so new. You've had the ability to.
Live life on your own terms for just a couple decades. I mean, within many of our lifetimes, none of these opportunities existed. And so this first generation capitalism is so exciting for me as the founder of capitalism.com, as a voice for entrepreneurs. It is such a surge of energy to be here. I'm so proud to be in front of you right now. I remember the first time I was here in Kiev. We go to the city center and I'm in this new culture. I had never been here before and I'm still getting to understand the little nuances. I made a fool of myself a couple times, tried to talk to a couple of girls and thought they were going to beat me up. And I go to the city center and I see this sign in big letters right in the middle of city that says freedom is our religion.
I went to school to be a pastor. I now no longer know what I believe about religion and spirituality. But I know.
That we're all pursuing freedom.
And this idea of freedom is our religion gave me all kinds of feels. Because at the end of the day, what we are doing is bigger than Amazon. What we are building is bigger than E Commerce. What we are building is bigger than a business. We are in this for freedom. We are in this to call life on our own terms, to call our own shots. And the very idea that right in the city center we see freedom is our religion. Do you realize that what you are building and what you are doing.
Is creating freedom for yourself and for generations to follow? Do you realize the opportunity, opportunity and the trend that you're sitting in front of right now, that if you play this game well for a couple of years, you are literally changing economies, you are changing your entire family tree because we're in this game for freedom. At least I am. I don't know about you guys.
And the energy and the fact that this part of the world recognizes that and is all in on that, makes me very excited and very proud. And you should be very proud of what it is that you're building.
I have on the screen a picture that was taken.
Two days before I came here. Two days before I arrived here in Eastern Europe. I was having dinner with Gary Vaynerchuk and Jay Shetty and Lewis Howes and Josh Bazzoni and Colin from Wild Foods. And I took this picture for a very specific reason. And I wanted to show you this picture for a very specific reason, because if we just go down the list, Lewis Howes has built an incredibly large social media following. Same with Jay Shetty on the right, two years ago had zero followers, now has 13 million followers, all organic, no paid. Josh Bazzoni, second in from the left. One's a company called BioTrust, went from zero to $100 million in its first 12 months. Gary Vaynerchuk, most of you know, and here on the right, Colin from Wild Foods runs a brand that's a multimillion dollar brand that has done a really great job as a case study of doing branding well and mixing the two worlds of e commerce and social media. And then I recently sold a business for eight figures and now teach entrepreneurs how to build seven and eight figure companies. And what was interesting about this is if you were to take the strategies that each one of these individuals represents and you put them into a blender, you have what I think is literally a formula for building seven and eight figure companies. Because it's no longer enough to just think about what product am I going to sell on Amazon or how am I going to get reviews. The game has changed and it requires the entrepreneur to change as well. And so it requires the thought of where are my followers going to come from? How do I stand out in a crowded marketplace? And so what I thought was interesting was that each one of these individuals specializes in something and if we take the overall strategy among them, we have what I consider to be an eight figure formula. Thank you so much for having me. I'm such a fan of all of you. I appreciate you. I love you. Thank you so much.
And I'll stand here awkwardly until Igor escorts me off the stage.
Hey, thank you. You're welcome.
How can I get to.
Yeah.
Well.
So I, I am an investor in physical products brands and I and I have a group called the Back Room, in which I'm advising and also investing in some of the students in there. The minimum criteria is a million dollar business. And once you have a million dollar business, it's@capitalism.com backroom there's just an application and then that gets you into the group. And as you get familiar with the group, then we look at advising or investing in those types of businesses. How can I evaluate my business so.
If it's at a million or not? In revenue or what? Yeah, it's just in terms of top line revenue and that's how I determine if something has met the minimum criteria to be a viable business. It's too easy in this world to release three to five products selling 25 to 35 sales a day and get to that million dollar brand. And once you're at that point, then we look at it, we see if it's a fit for the back room. And then once we get to know you a little bit better, then we consider advising or incubating that business. So if I have million in revenue per year, I can apply to you? Yeah, actually as long as you're pacing a million dollars, so doing over that 85 ish thousand dollars a month, that's when we would consider it. Okay, see you soon. All right, great.
Yeah, got it. Yeah.
So first question was, how much brands do you have now? Do you need to build separate audience for each of your brands? Absolutely. You need a separate audience for each brand. Unless of course, there's one caveat to this. If all of your brands are targeted towards moms, because you have a brand that is for new moms, you have a brand for women who are trying to conceive, you have a brand for moms with toddlers, it's a toy brand. If that's the case, if they're separate brands but to the same exact demographic at different points of the buying cycle, then it can be one audience from multiple brands. So for example, if we look at someone who has an audience of.
28 year old self single straight men, you can launch dating products to them, you can launch make money products to them, you can launch fitness products to them and they can be completely separate brands. But it's the exact same demographic. If you're targeting different demographics, absolutely, you need different audiences. So the question is, who is the buyer behind each purchase and is it the same type of buyer across multiple brands or are they different? And if they're different, you need different audiences for each brand.
So I'm. Good morning.
That talk was so hot we sent out the fire alarm. Yeah, Kiev.
