Aristotle Loumis - Selling A Company To Billionaire Marcus Lemonis & Buying It Back

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Rise of the Young podcast. On today's episode we have Aristotle Loomis here with us. Aristotle Loomis is the co founder of hello Philo as well as the founder of Ware Ellison. Not only did he sell his company to billionaire Marcus Lemonis, but he bought it back. And we're going to be diving into that story on this podcast. But that being said, hello Philo has raised over $18 million and they are conquering the cannabis industry. So that being said, make sure you share this episode with a friend. Screenshot this. Put it on your Instagram story. Tag Aristotle. Tag myself and enjoy the episode.

All right, what is going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today we have Aristotle Loomis, the co founder of Philo. Thanks so much for coming on, man.

Thanks for having me, man. I wish we could be doing it in Arizona, enjoying the sun.

I know, right? Well, first off, I want to give a big shout out to my man AJ Ramsa for connecting us quite some time ago and he put us in touch. And I definitely appreciate you coming on today, man. Your story is absolutely incredible and I'd love for you to give the audience some insight into what you're currently building when it comes to Filo.

Yeah. So you know, obviously shout out to the Chicago kid himself, AJ Always, you know, anybody that connects a friend of his is a friend of mine. So great to be connecting with you and seeing all the great things you're doing as it relates to Filo. I suppose the 30,000 foot explanation of kind of the origins and what we're doing and how we see ourselves in the market is we're effectively creating the largest database and regulation technology for highly regulated markets. And so we were born to solve the issues facing the cannabis market, but very quickly learning that many other industries, whether it's autonomous driving, whether it's pharmaceuticals, micro mobility, they all suffer from the same type of regulatory constraints. And so what we've come to learn in our journey, in our one year journey, we've had our first birthday last week, is that our solution could be a solution for many industries, not just one.

Love that.

I'd love for you to take us back because I know your story as an entrepreneur, you've started and sold multiple businesses. Where did this entrepreneur drive come from at an early age?

Yeah, it's the way I like to share my story is by sharing my family story. And so, like most immigrant families, I come from a single mother, eight children, Chicago. Grew up in Chicago. That moved a little bit more on the northern side as I got older. But when you have seven brothers, I mean, you're kind of an entrepreneur to begin with, right? And experiencing those hurdles from a single mother, you got creative. And so, you know, we did the typical, you know, landscaping. You know, I was actually one of my first endeavors was I was a local neighborhood pooper scooper. And so I used to go around and what I realized soon on is, you know, when parents typically get a pet for their children, it's supposed to be the thing that teaches them responsibility. But what they soon realize is that they are the ones picking up the after the dogs, and they're the ones taking care of it, and they're the ones doing these things. And I recognize early on, my friends were always getting in trouble because they didn't meet the chores of the responsibilities granted to them by their parents. And so I found an opportunity and I said, listen, I don't want my buddy AJ And Casey getting grounded all the time. How about if I go pick up the dog poop or go do this or change the calendar or do these chores? And so I brokered a deal with one house, and I was able to establish a $7 every time I did the front yard cleanup. And I did that with 40 different houses. So very early on, at about 10 years old, I was generating about 500 to 1,000 a week. That was going to support me and my family and things of that nature. But, you know, that elevated. Like most immigrant families, I had two choices growing up. I was either a doctor or lawyer. Now you could be an engineer. But I went down the medical path and so went into college when I was 16 years old. But things didn't really take a turn until I met my father for the first time in Greece at 18 years old. And so that was the first time on an airplane. First time seeing my cult, being introduced to my culture. First time seeing the ocean. So you could imagine how impactful that was for a young adolescent. And first time meeting my father. And so you could imagine how that impacted me and dating it. It was 2008, so you can imagine I met my father 18, 2008, and this was the midst of the not only US depression, if you will, modern depression, A recession. It was Greece. And for those that are a little bit older than you would recognize and probably remember how Greece was impacted and majority of Europe was impacted from things that transpired in the US and so my father is a very successful entrepreneur out there. And, you know, I had just met him. And so, long story short, I was able to fall in love with business by meeting my father. And that was the thing that kind of connected us and ultimately built that father son relationship. And so at a high level, you know, very traditional, you know, kind of story of the immigrant family growing up. But it took a turn, and I got hit by the entrepreneurial bug more formally when I was 18, when I met my father in Greece.

Got it. What was the transition from finding that entrepreneur bug to then starting Ellison? I know that was Ellison Eyewear is a company you were a part of and sold. And there's a lot of depth that goes into that. But when did you start Ellison? Because I've seen that everywhere.

Yeah. So a great question is, like, how did you get into eyewear? Right. You don't just wake up and think sunglasses. And so, you know, when I was going to Greece, you know, and this is a very American thing is, you know, I went to a country that I've never been to on a first airplane. So as. Again, as you can imagine, it was very impactful. And I met my father. And you're seeing kind of what we're dealing now with. This pandemic, high unemployment rates, People are kind of victimizing. Well, it's different in the US US doesn't really play victim. We're very American in the way that we, you know, pride ourselves in our neighbors and our community. But Greece and Europe, you know, they had a different mentality that has now completely eradicated. I'm incredibly proud. But at that time, it was a little bit more of a victim mentality, like this is happening to us, and they didn't really take it as an opportunity to innovate. Right. And I truly believe that in moments of crisis, that is the moments that is the moment of most opportunity. And so I come from America. America was born and raised. And so I kind of have this ingrained in me. And so as I met my father and built that relationship, I was more introduced to the Greece. I started thinking, okay, first I was attending university, I was going for dentistry. And so I kind of had a timeline, right? I met him at 18, the same year I went to college, when I was 16, transferred to University of Iowa. 18, and I was pursuing dentistry. And so I knew I had four years kind of to make up my mind, because once you go and, you know, get. Get accepted to dentistry, dental school, you're in debt, you're becoming a dentist, you don't really kind of back out of that. And so it wasn't until my senior year, so about three years after meeting my father, being exposed to Greece, you know, being close to him, developing that relationship, I always thought to myself, like, I want to be an entrepreneur, but I don't know what, like most entrepreneurs, right, everybody wants to be one, but they don't have that aha moment. And so I started thinking, what are the three things that motivated me? What are the three things that I could get behind? And the three things that motivated me was being closer to my father, right? He was absent my whole life. He is an older guy. He had just experienced a couple heart attacks within that three years. And I said, one thing I always regret is not having built that relationship with my father in the event that something happened. So that was motivation one. Motivation two is culture. I fell in love with Greek culture. I fell in love. I always say I found myself when I found my culture. So it was something that I just got addicted to. I wanted to learn more about it. I want to be closer.

There's.

And the third one was travel. I, you know, didn't have much money growing up. I didn't really. Like I said, first time in an airplane at 18. And so it was something that I said, wow. My mind completely changed overnight, having experienced that, and I wanted more of that. And so with those three things, I started saying, okay, what can accomplish that? And so my senior year, high level again of college, you know, starting to take the VATs, entrance exams to dental school, I basically came up with this concept that was. And this is the time of Warry Parker, time of Tom Shoes. So this, this one for one model was very, very. It was very popular, very innovative, very disruptive, especially in the CPG category. And so, long story short, I went back to those three factors and I said, okay, these are my motivators. Now, what is a product and a concept? And So I looked at Greece, and I thought. I was like, how are all these people so stressed and the economy's dying? I was like, you could literally sell anything here. I was like, you could go put sand in a bag, say, made in Greece, and sell that, you know, and people will buy. Because the way that the Greeks and the Europeans were thinking about the way that they were viewed versus the way that actually the world was viewing them. You know, when you think of Greece at the time in 2008, you didn't think of financial crisis. You thought, okay, Mykonos, Santorini, beautiful girls, guys party. You know, like a vacation. You're not thinking of all this. What the. You know, what CNBC stock market shows are saying. And so I knew that there was a brandable opportunity, but I didn't know what to brand, if you will. And so I said, what is something that I use every day in Greece? And so when you leave your office or leave your house, you have your cigarettes, your sandals, and your sunglasses. Right? And it's just kind of the European lifestyle. And so what I found myself doing was I kept seeing. Finding myself back buying new eyewear or sunglasses. And every time I went to. In Greek, we called the Briptoro. So it's a little kiosk. They kind of like the New York kiosks. And there's obviously the shops and whatnot. But I always find myself at either the periptero, buying the $10 or $5, you know, wood throwaways, or going to the more local malls or shops, boutiques, finding and seeing the stuff that I saw in America. Oakley, Chanel, Prada, Gucci. And I said, why isn't there like a. You know, it'd be very cool in this. When you're Greek, you always. You're always gifting, right? So I'm always bringing back gifts and stuff. I said, it'd be cool to have a handmade product, and I just never saw it. And so I always found myself buying and repurchasing eyewear. And so, long story short, I said, why don't we. Why is the sunniest place on earth the Miami of the world? 365 sunlight, 3500 Islands known for the beaches in the sun and the elegance. Why don't we make sunglasses? And I couldn't find it. And essentially, that's how the initial concept was born.

Wow. So when you started Ellison, because I want to make sure we talk about Filo as well. When you started Ellison, what was that journey like from starting to acquisition?

Yeah. So 2008, met my father. 2011, dropped out, started Ellison. At least the idea ideation of it. So I was about 21 years old, right? So senior year in college. So I had this idea. I said, great, I think I'm motivated about something. I think I'm onto something. I said, okay. Manufacturing. Learned very quickly that there is no manufacturing infrastructure in Greece. Like there is no eyewear company. It was all made in Italy, which everybody knows, you know, with all the major manufacturers are made in China. And so I did exactly what everybody. Novice entrepreneur in the manufacturing world. I manufactured in China and I learned very quickly. So there was a little kind of the stories will be mixed. I knew I wanted to Greece, but I couldn't do it. So I said, maybe I'll brand a Greek theme and do certain things to kind of, you know, tie in Greek. But it had to be made in China because there was no infrastructure. Spent my whole entire life savings, you know, as a bartender, I didn't have money. So by whatever, I was able to gather together $20,000 on an order from China. And as most Chinese manufacturers now it's different with Alibaba and Skype and all these different ways to connect with the manufacturer. Back then there's a phone call, and if you couldn't get them on a phone call and you didn't have trust with that manufacturer, that you're sending money basically to a black hole and you don't know where you're going to get in return. And so that's exactly what happened. I didn't understand what I was doing. I jumped right in and I basically sent everything I had in this order and it basically came back and it was all messed up. And so I'm sitting there with all this inventory that's just garbage that I can't sell, that was not at all anything that I ordered. And you know, of course, try calling China. You know, phone's off. So what are you going to send the Chinese police out to them? You can't do anything right. And so it was a hard first lesson. Basically my dream was crushed. But I took an opportunity then and said, listen, I could either use this as an opportunity. Why did I fail and what could I do moving forward? And so I knew I failed because I jumped into it. I had no idea about the space, I had no idea about manufacturing. I had no idea about fashion or product or anything of the sort, international trade. And that mistake was a costly mistake, but it was well deserved because I jumped it in and I was arrogant. And so I Took that opportunity to actually say, I'm going to do this right? And so that's when I actually dropped out of college and I moved to Greece. And I said, I'm going to build it and I'm going to build it right? So found two partners. We went to Milan, bought an old factory making some of the brands that, you know, today brought the manufacturing plant to Greece. And I moved to Greece and I lived there for about three years, learning how to make sunglasses, like actually from scratch. And so 2008, my father, 2011, basically had this aha moment, said I'm gonna do this. Dropped out, moved to Greece until 2014. 2014, we officially launched Ellison Eyewear, the first ever Greek handmaid, Iowa production. I basically hustled. And while I figured out everything, manufacturing and this supply chain, the brand, everything, it was everything that you could ever imagine. One thing I didn't figure out was distribution. And so I basically moved back to Chicago and I recognized really quickly. And then we launched in July 28, 2014, which is summer. And then, as you know, in Chicago, winter comes in August, right into winter, owning a sunglass company with no distribution. And so for about three or four years, I literally sold. And you go to my Instagram Aloumis, you'll find kind of those, his historical snippets. But I basically in many cases lived out of my car, selling these one by one out of the back of my car. And so I traveled around the country five times. I went to over 200 states, if you had them all together and repeat twice. And I sold basically anywhere I could. And it wasn't until 2018. So now, almost eight, nine years after I started this, I was about to throw in the towel. I had exerted myself. I just got engaged. I said, I need a. You know, this goes more of the mental health of the entrepreneur. How much more can I give? And I ended up basically getting into a store called Marcus, owned by billionaire Marcus Lemonis, and by the grace of God, ended up getting that store sold out. We got into two stores, sold out very quickly, and then very quickly turned into their best performing accessory item across all 30 of their stores. Started an exclusive partnership. This was all like two months, very quickly, practically overnight. And that success from that one account led to an investment conversation from the president at the time, who then went up to Marcus and basically they said, listen, we know your product sells. It's one of our best performing items. We want to know a little bit about the man behind the company. And I told them the same story. I'm telling you now. And they said, wow, they heard all that backstory and they said, listen, we want to get involved in a larger capacity at one contingency. I was like, what? And they're like, you have to go on the show and tell that story to the world. And so I ended up going on the show in 2017 and late 2017, early 2018, Marcus ended up acquiring the company. Marcus Simonis Fashion Group ended up acquiring ellison in early 2018. And then my role elevated to the president of the CPG portfolio, more specifically the eyewear portfolio. And I was his partner for about two years. And then I had an opportunity to, as with most acquisitions, you're usually tied to one to three year commitment, sometimes more, sometimes less. And so I met the commitment, him and I had a very fatherly son conversation. And he basically gave me an opportunity. I say, Marcus gave me two opportunities I couldn't refuse. Two offers I couldn't refuse. The first, to buy my company, second, for me to buy back. And so I ended up buying, striking a deal with them to buy it back, and as of three months ago, ended up reselling it to the founder of Potbelly, which is like a very, it's like a Jimmy John's well known sandwich franchise model. But in that time of buying it back again, back to the entrepreneurial side of things, I said, well, I bought the company back, but you know, I had now gotten engaged and have a house and all these, you know, expenses that I didn't have when I was living, you know, basically as an entrepreneur, couch to couch, car by car. And so I had to support myself. I couldn't just not take a salary. And through that need, Fido was born. Of course there was a lot more to that, but basically I was in a crossroads. And as was my two co founders. And so we found another industry with a major need. And the way that translated is because when I ran the portfolio, it was about 100, $150 million portfolio. The biggest issue we faced was marketing, right? It was very complicated. You never know these agencies or internal teams all, you know, just from my perspective, which at the time I didn't have much marketing knowledge. I was more of a hands on, you know, deal guy, manufacturing, supply chain, you know, all that stuff. But marketing was, you know, it's a specific, it's like you, it's a specific talent and you have to earn it or you have to own that craft like you do anything else. But I always saw it as a business owner, as one of my Business expenses that I couldn't really quantify or track. All I know is that I would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a quarter on marketing, yet the results didn't really add up. And so I always got frustrated that I didn't understand that industry enough. And so I said, okay, marketing is hard in general for the traditional market. Imagine if you add it to the cannabis market when it's riddled with all these regulation issues. So not only can you market, but it's also confined by all these regulation barriers. And so we knew that if we could create a product to kind of unweb all that and drive the value in terms of great marketers, which is what my co founders are, technology and marketer. And then me being a CPG guy, knowing what our actual clients, you know, we make, you know, product. We're product guys. So we know. I know their pains and I know that, you know, all these cannabis products, you know, you can either go and sell them on a $20,000 digital campaign, or they're going to. Or they're going to do $20,000 in seeds. They're always going to pick the seeds because they know that they could grow it, they could harvest it, they could sell it. Whereas the market, there's all these question marks. Right. And so we wanted to make sure that I could speak to them in a way that they understood, not these very complicated, you know, pitches, if you will, and then make sure I had my partners there to execute on it. So it made it for a perfect, perfect formula for success.

Yeah. So when you guys thought of Filo, just the. Regarding the cannabis industry, where do you see that going? Moving into 2020, just with widespread adoption and legalization.

Yeah. So I think, you know, this is a blessing and a curse, and we're one of the very few to maybe not necessarily benefits, but it's going to change the dynamic and environment in which we operate. And so, you know, two months ago, you asked anybody the cannabis. So, yeah, it's emerging. It's hot. You know, a lot of people are getting into it. You ask them now, they're like, it's essential. Right. You know, depending on who you ask, it might be as essential as milk and eggs. Right. Because of your anxiety or depression or this or that. You know, it really is a medicine. Right. So many people view it as that. But just how about just for the everyday guy or girl or what have you that just needs to fight off the anxiety of having to stay inside. Right. And so what better friend to go puff and Netflix than It is to cannabis Supplant Edibles. And so with that, it's changed for us is that it has become more destigmatized, and it's not as it's becoming more widely acceptable. And we see that our numbers are up, our clients are doing better. And so I confidently think that in the next six months, possibly around the time of reelection, that we could possibly see a federal legalization.

Got it. Very interesting when it comes to just the software behind Philo. And actually, I want to pivot this because I know we had a conversation about your campaign. What do they call it, your crowdfunding campaign. That was phenomenal. I'd love for you to touch on crowdfunding and what you did in that space.

Did you watch it?

Yes. It was so great. The video. I'll make sure to link it down below.

Yeah. So, you know, again, going back to. And I think that you and I were really connected. I am not the guy that comes from. You know, I was not raised in an affluent family. My mother was a physician, spoke some languages, but, you know, like most immigrant families, she was all about the family and making sure we were raised right. So hard work, education were big. And while we had those things, we didn't have that long line of rich uncles and things that could just, you know, people that could just throw money. And so I had to get really creative. And. And while I am, you know, while I had my challenges, I'm still a white male. And so that gives me a lot of advantages in the end. And so imagine if I was, you know, you know, African American lady from Iowa, right. And I'm still geographically in a place where things happen. Not as much as the coast, of course, on New York or California, but I'm a white male from Chicago. And so there's enough going on there where I can leverage it. And that's exactly what I did. But I still dealt with the barriers associated with founders who have great ideas, who are extremely qualified, but just don't have the resources. And so the argument that entrepreneurship is an equal playing sport is actually not true. It's actually not very fair. Again, going back to the notion that if you live in New York and you're a white male or live in New York and you're, I'm sorry, the west coast and a white male, you are disproportionately more likely to get funded and to grow and to succeed than you are if you are African American lady from Iowa, a Spanish from Minnesota, or a Greek from Chicago. That's the way the numbers work out. And so I painstakingly sold and did everything I could, bartended. So the weeds I didn't tell you guys about were I to work three jobs, and I was constantly funding my own stuff, but I always found challenges in raising the necessary capital in order to grow. And so I did it very painstakingly over a course of eight years. And one of the things that changed was in 2014, don't quote me on this, but 2014 and 2016, the Jobs act was enacted and basically allowed anybody from any background to invest in startups versus what was prior, which is the accredited investors. So you needed to have a threshold of 100, 150 in value, all these assets, and you were allowed to basically partition, participate in the Ubers of the world. Right? I'll give you one example. What was the one? VR Oculus. Right? I'll give you an example about Kickstarter and why this ultimately translated. Oculus was founded on Kickstarter, right? I think they raised like $3 million in pre orders. Then a year later, they were able to, you know, grow substantially. And I think within like one to two years, they sold for one to 10 billion. I forgot the actual number, but I think it was a billion. And the people that actually sold or participated were the Kickstarter people. They were the people that contributed the hundred, the 200. They ended up, you know, contributing to what ultimately became the success and the momentum that ultimately led to the billion dollar acquisition. Now, the people that supported early on were never thanked or rewarded for them supporting Oculus. You know, who won were the two white founders that are from the coast. They exited a billion. And where did that billion go? It stayed in west coast, right? Whereas how about if everybody had $200 worth of equity in Oculus, you know, you know, initially and then sold for a billion two years later, those people would have gotten $50,000 checks. 50 to $100,000 checks. Now, what do you think what would happen if you're that same example, the Greek from Chicago, the Spanish person from Minnesota, the African American from Iowa. What do you think if you were to got that five, $50,000 check, what you would do? What we'll likely do is you'd be like, wow, investing is real. I took a chance. And you likely invest in another company. You would start your own company. And this is how you actually disperse opportunity. Because the reason why it isn't is because the winners are winning and they're on the coast. And so what we have to do is disperse it and so the JOBS act was actually the first brick in that movement. And so Jobs act enacted that allowed anybody from any background to invest. However, this is a sticking point now. Okay, great, Minnesota guy, Chicago guy, girl from Iowa. You can invest these startups, but the instrument and the infrastructure to support those type of investments wasn't there. For example, you come up with the podcast, I want to throw some money at you, but I'm your best friend from high school, and I only have 500 bucks. You're like, great, let's get it on paper. Let's get you involved. Okay, you got the lawyers on the phone. You do this, you do that. A $500,000 investment actually cost 2,000 in legal fees, right? And so the only one winning in that transaction are the lawyers, right? Because you need to have protection and you have instruments, and you need to treat it like a real investment. So there's all these different things that you have to consider. And so what was changed in 2016 is that was called a. I forgot the act, but it was some act that basically allowed online portals to efficientize this transaction. And so. And what was born from Y Combinator was called the Safe Agreement, which was a simple agreement for future equity. It was a one pager. It protected you, it protected an investor and allowed for this seamless transaction. And so how do you transact. And then that's when they created the opportunity for companies or platforms like a Kickstarter, like an Indiegogo, to actually start offering equity campaigns. And that's exactly what it is, right? So there's debt crowdfunding, there's gift or donation crowdfunding, GoFundMe, there's the Kickstarters, which are pre product, pre buy kind of crowdfunding. And then there's equity crowdfunding. And so I ended up getting a platform called Republic Co. And why that's different from some of the other ones is that it's highly vetted and you have to have a lot of credentials to get in. And it actually was started by a. The general counsel of Angels List. And Angels List is the largest community of investors in the world. And it was the GC that left and started a subsidiary called Republic. And highly vetted, highly credible. And what happens when you get accepted, the value add is when you get accepted, you are then exposed to that huge network of investors. And so I was able to go. I was actually the second or third person to go on to it. And imagine being in 2016. It's equivalent to me saying I was the second or third person on Kickstarter. So I went into this new thing, trying this new way of raising capital, but I had no choice. I was like, anybody willing to write a check or to do this? I've literally raised any way you can, because I needed to, and I needed to keep the thing going. And so ended up going on to it and raised about a quarter million dollars. It became the fastest funded equity crowdfunding campaign in the country, and then one of the largest early on. And so it was an amazing experience. Obviously, there's a lot more to it in terms of what to do to make it successful, but it's a great experience, and it just shows that anybody with a great idea from any background has an opportunity to raise capital. And so it was a great experience. And for anybody that's starting off something, you know, as you consider starting a business, you have to look at all options, and this is a great option to consider.

Love that. I appreciate the thorough breakdown, for sure. I have two more quick questions before we wrap up. One being, you know, the first time we talked last week, just catching up. I learned so much from you in this short period of time, and I'm sure the listeners are learning as well. But if you were to look back on your journey through raising capital and starting and growing and selling a company, what advice would you give to a young entrepreneur that's taking that first step in starting a company?

So just some context of how, you know, hustling, coming from similar background and challenges and adversities. I dealt with raising capital, you know, doing that quick crowdfunding. I raised about $1.5 million before the crowdfunding and then the acquisition with Marcus, all that jazz. So you could think about it over about $2 million from that experience. And then when Philo, you know, one thing we didn't address is that we raised within a year, we had our first birthday. We raised $18 million in the first nine months. And so this goes to show you, once you understand the game and your options and you and you leverage those tools, how you could drive it in your next endeavor. And that's exactly what I did. Right. People are like, how did you break records? How did you raise all this capital? And it was basically an idea on a notepad. It was nothing more. Right. Like most companies, but it was the narrative. There was a story. It was a conviction, and it was a structure that allowed me to get there. And so with all that said, I think the biggest thing that, you know, it's something that Marcus says all the time. People, product and process and so really fall in love with the process. I think, excuse me, I think one of the challenges I faced early on is even myself, like most entrepreneurs, I victimize myself. Like I don't have this and I don't have that person, I don't have that network and you know, whatever, whatever. And one thing I had my moments of vulnerability, but one thing I did do and it's just something that was ingrained in me as a child. I fell in love with the process and I just fell in love with how to put a contract together or how to pay my taxes or how to actually run the company. Things that were not as front facing. And because I did those things and become obsessed with them, and because I didn't have the money to outsource it, I understood, you know, everything I possibly could about the economics of a business that ultimately held, you know, helped me in the long term when I started fellow and ultimately led to exit and things of that nature. So I think as a young entrepreneur and the things I told you is do as much as you possibly can yourself. You know, even if it's hard, even if you're not experienced, as much as you can yourself. Because not only are you going to maintain control of your company, you're going to have more confidence in what you're doing. And this is going to allow you for more clarity as you move forward because you can make decisions. No one's ever going to work as hard as you do 20 hours a day working on your baby. And so if you have to be dependent on an accountant or a lawyer or a marketer. Right, whatever it is, and the more you can arm yourself with that ammo and that skill set, the more you're gonna be able to move faster and make those decisions and make them confidently. And what I like to say is when you build out a team, whether it's your marketing team or your legal team or your operations team, the more that you could speak their language, the more they're gonna do, the more you're gonna know. And it allows for further growth. Because if you live in a world of not confusion, but if you don't understand the process, how can you guide the process?

Right?

And so if you can at least understand 30%, no one's telling you to go become an accountant or a lawyer or whatever. And things I say and feel all the time, I could get us about 70% there on our accounting and our lawyer and our legal, but I'm not an accountant, I'm not a lawyer. So I'M going to ultimately bring in those people sign off or don't understand. But I could get us majority of the way there. And that's cost savings, that's negotiation, that's speed. So if you had a lawyer, an accountant, again, depending on these various people, the more you know, the faster you'll go, the more control you'll have on your ultimately your baby. So don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty and learning the nitty gritty stuff that is might make you feel uncomfortable. I always hated accounting. I always hated all this intimidating stuff. But now it's one of my favorite things to do just because, you know, I know that again, I have more control in that way.

Yep, I love that man. Well, Aristotle, I want to be respectful of time. Just when it comes to everything you're building now, I know on social media you're consistently posting on there. Where can everyone stay up to date with everything you have going on with Filo and everything else happening?

Yeah. So you could find me at A as in Apple L O U M as in Mark is on Instagram. It's pretty much the same on every other platform. And one thing I will note to you, and it's very important for your generation as well, not to outdate myself, but is that entrepreneurship is a community sport. So get to know your community. You know, those are going to be your ranting, raving fans. And like I said, it's not us. It's not an I sport, it's a Wii Sport. So I think with that in mind, no matter where you are, whether you're in Iowa, Idaho, Arizona, get to know your locals, get to know your neighborhood and build that coalition to grow.

Yep. With that being said, Aristotle, I want to say thank you so much and everyone tuning in. Make sure you go follow Aristotle on Instagram. I'll link down everything below. And thanks so much for coming.

Ch thank you, brother. Pleasure.

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