Episode 89: Sharran Srivatsaa - $500 Million Acquisition By 21 Years Old

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Hey, what's going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. And welcome to the Rise of the Young podcast today. We have Sharon Svatsva with us here today and we're gonna be going over his story as an entrepreneur because I know that I've been following you for quite some time now, Siran, and it's such a pleasure to have you on the show and you've built so many amazing things. So first off, I just want to say welcome to the show and I really appreciate you coming on.

Awesome, man, Casey, thanks for having me. And people don't realize how in short amount of time you've done so many amazing interviews and just getting people on, interviewing them, making sure you share the message of the world. It's a lot of work. So I want to thank you for. Thank you for doing it and putting this stuff out there.

Thank you, man. It really means a lot, honestly. So one thing I want to get into is because even for myself, whenever I listen to podcasts, especially interviews, it's like, all right, whether that be the intro itself or the individual that's on there, you instantly want to know, like, who am I listening to? Right. So I'd love for you to just kind of give a brief recap of about what you're currently working on today so that people are kind of caught up to speed before we get into the story.

Yeah, totally Good. So. So today I'm the CEO of a company called Kingston Lane. We build. We are the world's only push button platform for the real estate industry. We started this company just 200 days ago, and in 200 days, we have thousands of users across 10 countries right now. But this, all, this all came about, well, about seven years ago when I took over a company called Telus Properties in. In the real estate space in Beverly Hills, California. When I started, we had 35 people and it was doing pretty well. It was doing. We were a lot of million in sales with 35 people. So really good business. Yeah. But we grew it 10x. I grew to 10x in five years. So in five years we grew to $3.5 billion business. And at the end of last year, we sold it to a public company called Douglas Element, which was one of the, kind of the most notable sales in the, in the real estate business. So we grew a business 10x in 5 years, 700ish people, 3.5 billion in sales. And then I realized I wanted to build something international.

Okay.

That's why I built this technology platform which we just launched called Kingston Lane.

And that. That's amazing, man. So I'm sure everyone that's listening, they're like, all right, building soda or built the company to 3.5 billion in sales. That correct? Right. So just for like an instant question, I'm super curious just to have that sort of 10x on that business of going to 3.5 billion sales. I think a lot of the young people that are listening, the average audience member is I would say 16 to 25. Right. And when people hear that number, it's like you hear 3.5 billion. It's something that a lot of people may not understand what that means. Right. So just for their sake of things. What was the team aspect like on a day to day business, Day to day structure for a company like that? You said you had 700 people. Just what was the day to day like within a company that was doing that sort of volume?

Yeah, it's. So it got big, right? It got big and it's complex. So we had a. The team was big. So when I started, it was just, you know, a couple of partners and a small team. And then as we grew, we added more and more people. And so like, I'll give you the first thing, the first thing that we learned very quickly is when a company gets big, if you don't stay within your zone of genius.

Yeah.

Like what you do well, stuff will fall apart very quickly because. Because the fractures or the fractures of a, of your, of your skill set when a company that big are. Are very easily noticed. So for example, people will tell me when my operations team will, you know, kind of build and grow a new office where they say niho, that means, Sharon, you can do nose in, hands off.

Okay.

So I can smell everything, I can touch everything. They're like, hey, Sean, you can smell, you can see what's going on. But this is not your lane.

Yeah. This is not.

You cannot touch this. And what you realize, Casey, is that sometimes, like, I have a partner, he's our coo, he runs all our businesses. He's completely back facing. He runs all operations. He has full control. So I, if he may do something, only 80% of the way, I want it done, but he's going to get it done, and he's going to do it with full responsibility and full care. And most entrepreneurs can't let go. They want everything done their way. And if you want everything done your way, you will always stay small. You will always stay, you know, perfectionist. And you will never be able to grow and scale and impact more people the more you can let other people do what they do best. And it may not be exactly your vision, but it will get the job done and let you do more of what you do best. That's when everything started. That's a really big lesson. And so there's this amazing quote, and I think you'll appreciate this. Everybody says in this personal growth space, oh, what's, what are your strengths? What's your weaknesses?

Yeah, yeah.

And they're like, let's work on your weaknesses. And this is amazing quote which says when you spend time working on your weaknesses, you have a bunch of really strong weaknesses. Right.

I love it.

It's crazy. And, and if you can't, like, really dig deep and say, hey, I'm good at this, like, I'm good at connecting with people, like, if we can't build into our ecosystem what we do best, we're in the wrong ecosystem.

Totally.

Right. And as soon as we realize that, like, even your association building empire, even your podcast, your companies, your app, you figured out how you serve well and the team around you does what they do well.

Thank you, man.

And. And without that, there is no growth without that. And it gets bigger. Now you're doing everything and it gets more stressful.

Yep, for sure. So for you, did you ever go through, I'm sure, like there was a lot of, I would say, mentorship that got that to that level of thinking. Right. I'm sure you've went through a process where you were trying to be that perfectionist. Right. So just so the audience knows, just number one, like, when did your entrepreneur journey start? Because I think a lot of people, they hear this advice, they hear the quotes or they hear the tips. Right. But I think everyone likes to know, and that's the reason that I love doing podcasts is like, where did this, I would say, level of thinking come from when did you actually take that first step to actually building your own business from an early age? Like, what was that like in your life? Yeah.

So early on I. So my time when I really first made money, I did like the whole baseball trading, stamp trading, things like that to like, pay for stuff. But what happened was my parents, we were not very. We were poor. And my parents sold everything that they owned. They sold everything, like, everything.

Where are you guys from?

We were. I was born in India.

Okay.

And my parents sold everything that they owned to send me to the US Everything. Wow. And they said, sharon, here is one check. It's gonna carry you for one year. So I had my first year of college. Paid for room, board, laundry, but I had one year. And my dad said, hey, if you can make your years 2, 3 and 4, great. If you can't, come back and we'll take care of you. So they gave me a safety net. But. But I had only one year's worth of tuition. That's all I had.

Okay.

And so I had to do something my first year to know that I would come back my second year. And this is the first thing that happened. So I. I walk into my dorm room.

How old were you at the time? Real quick.

I was 17. 18. 17.

Okay.

So I walk in my dorm room. Casey. And this was the. This is. I'm 38 right now. So I walk in my dorm room, and this was not a long time ago. And this was the first time that they were hooking up like ethernet cables into the dorm rooms. Right? Like, otherwise you had to go to the library. The funny part was the, the. You entered the door and there was this ethernet box where you could plug the cable in. But the. The desk was on the other side of the room. It was 16ft away. Right. So I said, huh, this is interesting. Every dorm room in the. In college is wired this way. There's an opportunity. So I maxed out nine of my roommates credit cards for 10. For $17,000.

Really?

And I went and bought hundreds and hundreds of feet of ethernet cable and I stocked my dorm room with it because I knew that Everybody would need 17ft of cable because they would have no idea.

Yeah.

And I sold out the entire cable.

Oh, wow.

At. I sold it at 3 times markup.

3 times markup is that. That's within the first month of being in that dorm room.

First week. The first week. So the first week of being in the dorm room, I made my tuition and everything back for paying for next year.

No way.

And. And so so we made. So we made close to 50, $55,000 in. In one week just selling Ethernet cable.

That. That blows my mind. So. So just so I'm clear, you. You go to the US for what. What part?

To be exact, I was in Iowa.

So was that something where, like, your. You said your parents gave you the check, and did you go off by yourself? Were you with any siblings or. How did that work?

Me, I showed up. I had no idea. I'd never been to the States before.

That was the first time. Wow.

First time.

So that just blows my mind. So you go to this dorm room where at the time, like, were you fluent in English? What was your life like back then?

I could. I could speak and understand, but it was not. I was not fluent at all. I was starting to listen to accent tapes just so I can. I can be. I can speak, but I just show up and I go, I have. I need to make. I. I want to make sure that I can come back next year. Year. I really wanted it, and I. I was grateful for my parents or what they did. I'm still grateful today, but that's all they could afford, and I didn't know how else to make money. And I said, wow, this could. But we took a big gamble, you know, maxing out mine and my roommate's credit cards. And he took a big gamble in me, but he made a ton of money, too, because we were 50, 50 partners. But I didn't. But I showed up with two bags, so I had no clothes, so my entire closet was filled with cable.

That is hilarious. So just that thought process of, I would say, making that happen, like, prior to coming to the US like, because obviously a lot of people, they wouldn't look at that situation and say, all right, let me make money here, number one, and number two, let me solve people's problems. That entrepreneur tendency of, all right, let me put money in to then get more money out. Like, from someone that was growing up in a family of. Not entrepreneurs. Like, was that always a thought process, growing up of, like, figuring out ways to solve people's problems and to fix that thing? Like, was that always going through your head, or was that something where you just saw the opportunity right there and then just executed on it?

Yeah, great question. So my parents are. My parents are. Were entrepreneurs. They're retired now.

Okay.

They built a small advertising company, just like a mom and pop shop with, you know, they had about 10 employees total at the height. At the height of it. Okay. So I saw my. I saw my parents Hustle. I saw my parents. So we, we were not very wealthy. Like we lived in a one bedroom apartment. I slept on the floor. I slept on the floor till I was 14 and, and because my parents slept on the bed, I slept. I didn't know any different. Yeah, I had one small cubby in my, in my parents closet. That was my only place where I could keep my clothes. But I didn't know any different. I was happy my parents took care of me. But I'll tell you the story, Casey. Once my, and my, my, our, our apartment was our office. My parents used our living room and our, our, our dining room as the office. And once they had a meeting, and they had a meeting at like 7:30 in the morning. And I had to go to school, but I had a rule that if there was a meeting I couldn't go to school.

Okay.

So I just stayed in the bedroom for seven straight hours.

Really?

I had no water. Like I had no, like I couldn't go to the kitchen because I can't leave the bedroom. I just stayed there. And what you do is you learn to like, you learn to be in solitude and you like think about stuff. So I would just say, hey, if I got out of here, I would do this, I would build this. I would just dream of things. But I had never had the chance to go out and be entrepreneurial. Was. I didn't know how to go. I didn't hustle. Like my parents were like, hey, you can't go ask for money or whatever or you can't go sell something. I did a paper route, but that's all I did.

Yeah. Yeah.

This is when I'd ride my bicycle, I'd throw the paper, throw the newspaper into the, into the porch. But that was the. So I earned money early on. But necessity, necessity is the mother of everything. Right?

For sure. That's great. So, so growing up regarding like coming to the US Was that always sort of like an end goal for you personally saying hey, I'm going to go to college in the US or how did that sort of roadmap to moving out to Iowa just by yourself at 18 years old?

So it's a great question. You're, you're really good at this stuff, man. You really know how to pull great stories out.

Thank you.

So I, I was just, I was, I was not a very talented kid, meaning I was like a B student at best. I was so I was colorblind. I would get kicked out of art class, but I would do a thing wrong. I was Tone deaf. I am tone deaf. So I can't sing, I can't play musical instruments, all that, Okay? I was somewhat athletic, but not decently athletic. And I was, I had add, adhd, dyslexia. So I was socially awkward, okay? And so my parents are like, like, who is this kid? Like, what are we going to do with him? He gets kicked out of art class in, in third grade, he's kicked out of music. He's decent. I mean, he's a B minus student. He never gets picked in sports. I mean, I was kidding. I would not get. Kids would make fun of me. I would get. I was a small kid. I grew in high school, but I was a small kid. I would get bullied a lot. And there were times when I couldn't go from one classroom to another, like just in a two minute walk because I knew that people would bully me. So I would run all the way around the school just so I wouldn't get bullied, right? And being bullied is like the worst. And you know, it happened. And I never told my parents and all that, but one day my parents found out. They, they found out that I was struggling in school. They found out that I was colorblind, I was tone deaf, I was getting bullied. They found out that I had, you know, diagnosed conditions like ADD and all that stuff. And they said, you know what, Sharon? India is not a place for you because this is not a safe environment. They don't, they, they instantly look at you and say, oh, that kid's stupid. Right? That's. They label you. So my dad said to me, he goes, we need to get you out of the country. We need to get you somewhere in an environment that is not going to ridicule you. And for that I really thank him, right? And he told me, but you don't have any skills to get out and we don't have any money to get out, so we need to do something. And he said, you need to get good at something, and I don't know what it is. And I. And we were sitting on a bench, Casey, we were sitting on a park bench. I remember this. I was 10 years old and my dad's telling me, like, we have to get you out of the country. I was 10 years old. That's crazy.

Let's do it.

And I was thinking, like, I was like, get me away from these bullies. Like that. That would be great.

Yeah.

And there were these tennis courts across from us. And my dad said, hey, do you think you could play tennis? And Maybe that's an individual sport that will get you out of the country. And I said, well, I don't know. He said, we don't care about school, we don't care about grades, we don't care about anything. We're going to focus on tennis, and the only thing we care about is you getting good enough to get out.

Wow.

And so for six years, all I did was eat, breathe, sleep, play tennis. And I got good enough to get out of India to go play. You know, I tried to play on the pro tour. I was good enough to get out. I was not that good, but good enough to get out of India. And tennis was my passport to living in that.

Oh, yeah, that was, that was a missing, that was the missing link for me. So I appreciate you sharing that story. So. So you started tennis at 1 8, like, what age you said that was? You were 10. So. And then you said you went to, was it college for tennis in Iowa?

Yeah. So once you play. So I tried to go play pro. And once you play pro tennis in the US you can't play college tennis because you can't go from pro to amateur status.

Okay. But.

Yeah, but, but it was a. I tried to make it. I didn't. But. But the colleges will still recruit you and say, hey, we can't give you a scholarship, but you can still play. So I went to a small Division 3 school, just so that was my way of getting, getting leaving India.

That is so cool. Do you still play nowadays?

Just recreationally. I actually, we. This is a good story. We. After I actually built another business right out of college, we built a business in the technology world that got bought.

Okay.

And after we sold that business, so that was our, that was our first exit. After we sold that business, I took five years off and I taught tennis in the Caribbean, Dubai and Maui.

What a life. That's amazing. So real quick, I want to go back. So how many companies have you exited just for the viewers? Because I know you said that once before, that you've had another exit, Because I think that that's something as an entrepreneur and I think a lot of young people that listening, like, they hear, oh, you exit that company, you exited this company. It's like that's an end goal that I think a lot of people want to get to. Right. So for you, like, what's, what's the number of companies you've exited just for the viewers?

Yeah. So as a, as a operator. As an operator right now. So us owning and exiting three so far. Okay, so Three companies and. And as an investor, multiple more that we've invested in, but having run, built and run three companies so far.

Okay, that's amazing. So how old were you when you first exited your company? Was that after college?

That was after college, so around 20, 21.

Okay, that's amazing. So, so just so the people know you, this whole tennis is missing link that we missed at the beginning. The interview. You played tennis, came to the States, and the first day, first week there, you end up making 55 grand selling cords. Right. So from, from that point on of like entrepreneur, business mindset, you're going to school. I. I would believe. And you're in your classes. Are you still dedicated time to tennis or is it. That's off to the side and you're fully dedicated on your studies and you were planning on working a normal job or where did, like, having your own business actually, like, come to fruition in your mind? Like, oh, wow. Like, let me actually build something myself and see where this goes.

Yeah. I never had any thought of building a business. I just wanted to survive. I didn't have the money. It was always about, hey, how do I come back to school next year? That was all I was thinking about. And so I played tennis because I was decent at it, and, and, and in college as well. So I played tennis during tennis season, and I was in. In school the other season.

Okay.

But my entire goal, Casey, was like, how do I come back next year? Can I have enough money to come back next year? I worked. I worked a good. I worked almost full time, dude. I did every job. I. My first job because I had no skills was, you know, cleaning toilets. I did, I did janitorial stuff, and I would do it at night because I had to go to school during that, and I was too embarrassed. Yeah, I didn't want anybody to know that I was doing that. So my shift was 11pm to 5am wow. So I would. I would just.

Muffler.

Yeah, I would just mop toilets. I would, you know, and that's when I would listen to accent tapes.

Okay.

So I could. So I could actually learn to speak English. I would put on accent tapes and I would just mop, like the science building. Mop. The arts building. I would clean toilets, you know, until you have cleaned a toilet, man, like it does. I'm not saying anybody should, but my parents didn't know I did that. But I cleaned toilets, flip burgers, made pizzas, collected as much. And Casey, that's when I realized everybody's in this mindset of they think they can work the hours and make big money. Right. So if I work, when I started doing this, minimum wage was $5.15 an hour. Right. So I work eight hours and I make $43.

Yeah.

And yes, $43 is good, but I, I, people have to realize that. I work 11pm to 5am I haven't slept yet.

Oh, my Lord.

5Am to 9am Then I go to class and then I go, like, work flip burgers. Like it's a constant thing. No social life, whatever. But then you realize at the end of like a month, you made, I don't know, like $600 and you pay taxes and now you have 400 bucks.

Yeah.

And you go to Walmart and you buy like a, you know, like a, like a winter coat and then you're done.

Yeah.

And so I realized, Casey, that I go this, this working, trading time for money, that was my big switch. Trading time for money doesn't work because, yes, you can have a decent life. Yes, you can. You can, you know, have a job and get a paycheck and do that. And that's a good stepping stone. But if you want to create big pops of wealth, if you want to actually take the risk and you need to own equity, that's like, you need to have an equity based compensation and you don't need to own 100% of a company. Like, everyone's like, oh, I want to start my company, I want to have 100% of it. I'm like, no, like 100 of a zero is zero.

Right.

But if somebody listening to this right now can say, hey, you know what? I'm going to partner with Casey and Sharon as equal partners and we're going to launch something. He gets the benefit of your network, my network, our experience, and he gets to be along for the ride. Like, how amazing would that be? Right?

That's the truth. My partner says that all the time. Why would you want to own 100 of nothing? You know?

Yeah, I'm a big. But some people, Casey, are not just, are just not built for partnerships. Like, I'm a good partner. Like, I stay in my lane, I work my ass off. And good partnerships, I've learned that you the person, like, if you and I are partners, I have to take 100% responsibility for our partnership. I can't say it's 50. 50. So Casey needs to show up. That's not it. I take 100% responsibility. Therefore, you see me hustling. You take 100% responsibility and then we both Crush it.

Yeah, for sure. So. So your first business that, like you say, equity wise, that was like, you need to own equity. And people that are listening, they're like, all right, I'm starting something by myself. I don't have any partners. Like, when you first started your first company, what was that? Just so. Because I'm super curious.

Yeah. So I'll give you the story on what happened. So I was a computer science major in college.

Okay.

I go to. I go to University of California, Berkeley.

And they have this after Iowa.

From Iowa.

Yeah.

It was my senior year. I was almost done with school my senior year, and I go to pitch. I go to a pitch contest where you pitch where you pitch ideas.

Okay.

So I'm pitching an idea on stage and I don't win. I don't win.

Okay.

But one of the judges, after my pitch, pulls me aside and he says, hey, Sharon, I have a proposition for you. I just funded a company that has three guys that are building something pretty cool. And they just started. What you presented is the missing link on what they need. If you choose to talk to them and join them, I'll put more money in. That's what he said.

Wow.

So I said, who are you? I don't know who these guys are. Like, I have no relationship. I don't know anything about starting. Like, I don't know. So I met with them, we built the business. We joined. I joined them. So it was four of us.

Okay.

And we built a technology business together. And that was when, you know, that investor actually wrote his first check. And that investor from that day 22 years ago is. Is my partner today.

Wow. No way.

Yeah.

And you got. You met him at a pitch conference or pitch tank.

He was. He was a judge in a pitching.

Wow. Wow. That is. So that. What was the company exactly? It was a tech based company, correct?

Yeah, it was optical switching, optical network. So we built like big network devices.

Wow, that's so cool. And that was. So that was. So you go to school for computer. Computer science, correct?

Yep.

And was. Was it sort of the transition of like you said you were that missing link, right. The two people that you met, how did that, I would say, conversation go? Were they your age? Were they in college? Like, what was the. The three partners outside of the investor?

Yeah, they. They were. They were very open. They wanted to, you know, they were young. They were all my. We're all the same age. And the investor made the introduction. He's like, hey, guys, nothing changes. You get the missing link to the puzzle And Schwann's in here. And I'm gonna write a bigger check for you guys to go build your dream. Like, you should do this.

Yeah.

I mean, we. I got very lucky, right? Very, very lucky.

That's amazing.

But. But we all took on. When the investors came on, we all took on a ton of debt too. Like, we had to. We raised a ton of money, but, like, we took on a ton of personal debt. I borrowed. I called friends, family, like, after I graduated, my uncles, aunt. I borrowed to the hilt. I was so leveraged. I borrowed. I borrowed everything. And I was like, if this doesn't make it, Casey, like, I can. I got to move to Australia or something.

Yeah.

I can never look my. Look my family back in the face. But we had a. We had a great, great exit, and then I paid everybody back.

Okay.

And that's how I was able to take, you know, five years off to kind of figure out what I was going to do next.

So. So when was the time in your life when they got you? When you guys became partners? You were how old?

I was 21.

Okay, so you're 21 and you're still in college at the time?

I just graduated.

Okay, and then when did you exit that company? At what age?

So that was two years? 23. Wow.

So it's just a two year run with that first, like full time, like, baby, you would tell a company, right?

Yep.

Okay. And just for people listening, I'm not sure if you want to share this. What was the exit that you guys exited for?

It was. So it's a good story. Good, good question. So the company that bought us, bought. So I'll tell you what happened. We started it. We got a bunch of investors to the founder. We didn't know what we were doing. We're 21. Real quick. The investor, the investors that came in start said, hey, we need to run a much better company. Right. So they actually brought in professional operators to run the business. That was really hard on our egos, by the way. It was very hard on our ego totally. But I didn't realize what had happened. What had happened was the contracts that they had written to buy. Not to buy us, but to bring the other people in, dramatically diluted and reduced our equity.

Okay.

And when I say dramatically, I mean not 10%, not 20%.

Wow.

50 times lower.

Wow.

50X. So. So when I see this, if you have 50 bucks, now you have one.

No way.

So if you have $100, now you have two.

No.

Right.

Wow.

The company sold for $550 million.

Okay.

Right. So. And we went down like this would have been a home run for all of us.

Yeah.

And we not only after we got paid out 50x lesser.

Yeah.

Then we had to still pay out our debts.

Okay. Okay.

So on paper, it looked like I was Richard Branson's brother. But. But. And nobody knew about any of this because once the formal operators had taken over the four original founders, our names were nowhere, nowhere to be found. Like, we were wiped off the face of the earth as far as credit and credibility and all of that, because we didn't know any different.

Yeah.

And that's when I learned how investors work. That's when I learned how contracts work. That's when it's called a ratchet contract. It just ratchets you down.

Okay.

It starts at 100 and Ratchet. I had no idea any of any of that worked.

So. So for the people that are listening, like, what would you say is the most important thing to do when let's say someone has investors or they're looking at contracts? Like, obviously we can't get in to depth of analyzing a contract, but when you were 21 and you say your equity got diluted, like, how do you look for that to happen? If you're looking at investors, maybe someone's listening right now, and they're either talking to investors, they have investors. Like, what's the number one thing to know before you go into a contract like that so that you don't end up screwing yourself at the end of the day?

Yeah, great question. So very simple. We call it what we do. Like, I'm an investor now. I'm investing 13 companies now. We call it a sensitivity analysis. And all that it means is in very simple language, it means that Casey, you start a company, I give you $100, and you say, okay, if my company goes is worth a hundred dollars tomorrow, what do I get? If my company is worth $200 tomorrow, what do I get? If my company is worth $3, what do I get? Once you see those instances now you realize where you fall and what actually happened.

Got it?

You break that down and then you give it to. You just need a good attorney. Just break that down, give it a good attorney and say, hey, is my math correct?

Okay.

That way you're going eyes wide open. Because what everybody says is, Casey gave me a hundred. That's cool. My company's going to be worth 3 billion, so we should all be good. The numbers are so big.

Yeah, it'll be just fine.

Like everybody we Call the, we call it that. You know the problem with large numbers. Right. People just think just because the number is big doesn't mean you're going to get a big number.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that was. I heard that. I learned that lesson the hard way. And that's why I'm very protective of equity, very protective of terms. I keep things really simple. I'm very transparent about this stuff. Stuff. And, but that investors made a lot of money and my partner today was an investor, then he made money and he said, hey, I'm going to help you. So he's like a father to me now and we're partners and he's been my partner in every company, including my current one.

Wow, that's, that's amazing. So it blows my mind. So you're 18, you move to literally from India to America. Then you're saying, oh, exit the company, whatever the number is.500 million, right. What are your parents thinking at this stamp, like this point in your life when it comes to you move out of 18, you sell $50,000 with the cords and now you're exiting a company with those type of numbers. Right. Like just, it just blows my mind like to think about the story of how that led to where it was and where it is today. Like what was your, what was going through your parents mind when you were just going through this like four year process from like 18 to 21. Yeah.

So great question. I actually there's a story I should tell you before that, which I, I didn't tell my parents a lot of this until, until this year. This year was my coming out year on this year.

2018.

This 2018.

No way.

Like coming out here on telling a lot of stories because I was just afraid as to how my parents would feel. And for those that are listening out, I want to tell you a story, Casey. And this is a, like, it brings tears my eyes sometimes when I tell the story because it's, it's the truth. So. So I'll walk you through exactly what happened. So I have this one check. My parents give me one check and they say, hey, go do your thing. You know, it's awesome. So I show up my first day in school. I come early for international student orientation. So I come like 15 days early. I go take my check to the financial services office or the, you know, whatever. And I say, hey, hi, I'm Sharon. Here's my check. They're like, awesome, Sharon, thanks. Everything's good. You're good for the year?

Yep.

By the way, it's an international check. It's going to take 10 to 14 days to clear. I said, no problem. I understand. It's. It's good. It's good.

Yeah.

But the funny part, Casey, is I had no money.

Yeah.

Like, zero dorm room, zero money. So I had, like a hundred bucks.

Okay.

Which I needed to buy. I need to take a cab. I needed, like, I didn't have a lot of money.

Yeah.

So at that point, I had maybe like 10 bucks. Right. And I thought that I would get my room and board plan so I could go and eat at the cafeteria. Right. So for 14 days till that check cleared, I had no money. For the first couple of days, I went to every pizza party that I could find. Pizza party, rookie floor. I would go to any party that there was.

Yeah.

And I was this weird kid standing in the back trying to stuff his pockets and eat food. Right. And after a while, it, like, a couple of days later, I just got hungry. And I had never. I experienced hunger before. Like, almost poverty. Like, hunger.

Yeah.

And I was walking by a dumpster, and I saw two guys toss two big pizza boxes into a dumpster. And I thought to myself, okay, I'm a little hungry. They just tossed the boxes. So I'm sure there's, you know, some good pepperoni or something in there.

Yeah.

I waited. I was embarrassed, so I waited till it was dark, okay. Put my hoodie on, jumped in the dumpster, grabbed the two boxes of pizza. There were like two or three slices left. I ran to my dorm room. I had my dorm room, luckily. And I just ate the pizza for a couple days. And, like, I would take 2, 3 bites at a time. I didn't have a refrigerator, so I would. I didn't want it to go bad.

Okay?

So I, I, that happened. And then I said, okay.

Crazy.

Two days later, I'm walking by this dumpster again. I'm hungry. I'm just drinking water out of the waterfront at Waterfront. And I see these two guys throw two big subway sandwiches into this dumpster.

Okay?

So I said, okay, this is a bonanza. Like, this is amazing. I wait till it gets dark, I jump in the dumpster, and as I pick up these two box. As I pick up these two subway sandwiches, Casey, I see a box of pop Tarts.

Okay?

And I'm getting greedy. And the strawberry pop Tarts, and I'm like, awesome. So I grabbed these box of pop Tarts, and suddenly. I kid you not. It's dark outside. I'm in this hot dumpster. Suddenly I see two Yellow glowing balls. And I'm like, what is that? Then I get smacked in the face and I start bleeding raccoon in the dumpster, trying to. Trying to take this box of pop Tarts from me. And I'm close confines with this raccoon, and I'm fighting this. So I don't know what to do and fight or flight kicks in and I kick this raccoon, I grab the box of pop Tarts, I grab these subway sandwiches, I jump out of the dumpster, and I'm like, do I eat or do I get to health services? Tetanus shot. I don't want to get rabies.

Oh, my God.

So I sit down under a tree, I eat some Subway sandwiches. I eat half a sandwich. I run to health services, I'm bleeding. I got like a three part, like a, you know, small mark on this on my cheek. And she gives me a tetanus shot. And. And the nurse knows exactly what happened because I'm smelling like I'm from a dumpster.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I'll tell you, man, like, that is when everything changed for me. When I believe that if that is as bad as it's going to get, if that is as bad as it's going to get, I'll be okay.

Wow.

I'll be okay.

Insane. What a story, man.

Dude, I could not tell that to my. My parent. I've still not told that story to my parents. My mom heard it on a podcast, and my mom heard me cry, and she wrote me an email case and she said. She said the subject was podcast. We need to talk.

No way.

And I. I still have had no courage to tell my mom that because they sold everything that they had to send me, and the last thing they wanted was for me to dumpster dive to survive.

Wow.

Right. And I have. Because of that, I. I was very reluctant to share any stories, any successes. So my. My parents were always asked. They're like, hey, are you okay? Are you staying for another year? Are you good? And I'm like, yeah, mom, I got it. Whatever. So I'd work. I'd work two jobs over the summers and everything, but I never shared a lot. Like, to answer your did you share with your parents story. Even after my first exit, even after our last exit, where we grew our business to $3.5 billion in sales.

Yeah.

My parents had no idea about the magnitude of the growth.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow. Are they still in India?

Yeah. So my parents are still in India. My parents are retired. They live in India now. And they're we have children. So my parents are. They spend all their time just talking about my children and their grandchildren. So.

Okay.

But my, my. They're great. And so what I decided this time, Casey, was my new company, which we started recently. I've been telling my, my dad everything about it.

Okay.

And you know, I told him, I was like, hey, I don't take a salary. Like, I write a check, I hire people, I don't take a salary. This is what I'm growing. My dad's like, wait, you don't take a salary? Do you need some money? And I'm like, I'm okay, dad. Like, I'm okay.

That's amazing.

And, but now it's really helped my relationship with my parents because I let them into my world a little bit. Yeah, so. So maybe this is the question you're asking. It's really hard to be, to grind and be an entrepreneur. And people talk about being an entrepreneur as a badge of honor. Like for you and me, Casey, I think it's a curse. Like we can't do anything else. This is how we're wired. And because of this, it affects our family. Like my wife is like, hey, you're never here. Like you're not present. You work on the weekends, you can't leave your work and work. And I'm like, well, that's how I am. Yeah, we're better now. But I think it's a curse and we need to have really great people around us, a really great support system around us to support the crazy dreams that we have. And may that be good best friends, may that be a partner or spouse, may that be parents, may that be family, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc, like go, go. Like you need to recharge with your core because we're out there grinding and hustling so much that we got to be reconnected sometimes.

Yeah, that is what a story. So it was just like your parents had no idea whatsoever about what was going on?

No idea.

That is crazy journey. So just in the situation you are now, like you said with your parents, super good relationship, you tell them everything. It's like even up to the point where when it comes to the growth of your first company, and I think that's something I want to touch on again, just regarding up to that exit point, what was your, I would say like day to day life, like when it comes to that, right, you graduated college before you went from full force into that company or like how did that transition look from 21 year old kid that's just in College to now working on that company. Like, was there a time frame, I would say, like after college, where you were fully dedicated or how did that look?

Yeah, good question. So I. We started that before I graduated, so I was still. It was during the Silicon Valley boom we were building. It was 1996. 97. So this was the height of the boom. Okay. And. And this is when 97, 98, 99. All the growth happened. And we. I. I was in this. I started. We started the company in 1999, and then I started Full Time 2000, and then we sold the company in 2003.

Wow. So, okay.

The. The man. All I did was work. I worked on the stuff because we were so excited about it.

Yeah.

Worked on the stuff all the time. I was single. That was really helpful.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I had a really minimalistic life. Like, I would. Didn't have much. I drove a Honda Civic, got to work. I spent all my time just building stuff. And that was what the life was about. And looking back, it was really unhealthy. It's all I did. I had maybe four friends total, and three of them worked with me.

Okay, that's awesome. And.

And we just. I mean, we. I used to. I used to eat when I get tired, I would fall asleep. I would wake up, you know, and wake up, Work out, work.

Yeah.

And when you're single, you can do that. When you're young, you can do that.

Yeah.

So if the young folks on the podcast right now listening, whatever you can do right now to hustle your brains out, hustle your face out. If you can just put in more hours right now, you will win so big. Because I'm 38, I have a family. I have two kids.

Yeah.

You know, and. And when I go home, I gotta have dinner with the family, play with the kids. Two. Two young kids, put them a bath, read them stories, put them down.

Yeah.

Like, that's four hours in your day, gone in the mornings. Like, my wife or I have to, like, drive him to school, drop off soccer practice. Like, this is good. I appreciate it. But the time that you thought you had, you don't.

Yeah.

And now I. I'm fortunate that I've done all of this stuff before, so I'm a better entrepreneur today than I was before.

Yeah.

But the faster, you know, like, I would tell you, like, hey, if you're listening right now, and you can somehow become partners with Casey or somehow become partners with a great entrepreneur, like, the learning will pay off in gold because you can see how people can Lift their lives. Because, dude, I had no mentors. Like, I, I, I don't know what you think about coaching, but I have an interesting coaching story for you.

Okay, we definitely got to get into that.

So. So I'll tell you what happened. So you talk about this life. So I, I attended a. My friend invited. My life was getting completely burned out, okay? And my. I call my dad, and I'm like, dad, I'm really burned out. I'm really tired. I think I'm getting sick. And my dad said, hey, I heard that there's this, you know, work life balance conference going on in San Francisco. You should go to it. Maybe you'll get some ideas.

Okay.

And so I go to this conference. I sit in the back. I'm really open. There's no cell phones or whatever. I'm taking notes in case. I kid you not. This lady goes up to speak. And I'm probably 23, right? And I'm a young guy. And this lady's speaking, and whatever she's saying is totally jiving with me. Like, I'm like, this is amazing. Yeah, I totally think she can be a mentor and she can help me. And then I. As she's talking, I have questions, right? I'm so, I'm thinking about raising my hand, but she's so intuitive that she just, it was like she was hearing me, and she was just answering my questions before I even asked.

Yeah.

And so I'm driving home, and I call my dad, Casey, and I say, hey, dad, like, I went to this conference as you suggested. I met this lady. I just, like, shook her hand, but she was amazing. I really, like, I wish I had a mentor like her.

Yep.

You know what my dad tells me? He says, ask her. I was like, well, what do you mean, ask her? He's like, here's what you do. He gave me a script. He said, sharon, write her an email. And you have to say this. You have to pick an amount, a number, okay?

That.

That is a dollar amount that is big enough for you, but it's still painful, and you have to offer it. And I said, well, what does that mean? He says, write an email that says, hey, dear. So? And so I saw you at the conference, and you blew my mind. I want to offer you pick a number. $10,000 as a symbol of my seriousness. I don't want to be coached or mentored. All I ask is, is that from time to time, when I email you, you will prioritize your responses to me. That's all that was the Only that's all I wrote.

Okay.

So she responds saying, is this a joke? I said, no, this is not a joke. And she said, hey, if all you're saying is you're gonna email me from time to time and I'm just gonna, like, respond to your emails, give you some guidance, I said, that's all I want. So I offered her. I offered her almost all the money I had.

Okay.

And I will tell you, Casey, like, when you pay, you pay attention.

Yep.

And it's not about, like, when CEOs pay to work with me right now. I. It's a symbol of seriousness. Like, I. You can. When someone says, hey, I want to pick your brain and go to lunch, the answer is no. The answer is no, I do not go to lunch with entrepreneur. I don't want you to pick my brain because I don't know if you're serious. I don't know if the time I spend with you is act like you're actually going to take advantage of it. But if you say, hey, you know what? I'll pay you $1,000 for 20 minutes on a phone call, and you're going to help me with something, I'm in. Because I know you care that much that you're actually going to do something with. So all the CEOs that I coach and mentor right now pay me a lot of money, and my job is to deliver them an insane amount of result and they quit any time. But that was my first time, Casey, where I really like. That's when I started to believe in paid, like, paid coaching, paid accountability, paid mentoring. And I will tell you, I wish I had done that sooner.

Okay. Like actually taking the paying for it so that you can actually pay attention, like you said.

Yeah. And it changed my life. It, it, it. If there's one thing that changed my life, it's the compressing all this experience. Dude, if I hung out with you and I said, tell me how you built this business, I'm compressing decades into a day. Like, that is a. Like that's invaluable, right?

Yeah.

Nobody. But you're not just going to volunteer that information. But if I told you, here's 25 grand, can I spend a half a day with you? You'd be like, okay, Sean at least cares.

Yeah, totally. So what would you say to young people that. Let's say someone. Let's say they're listening, they're going to conferences, because we have a lot of these events at the house where it's like super enclosed environment, 100 people. A lot of top level people. Right. But what would you say, the young people that are, they're in the mindset of like, they know that paying for, let's say, a consulting call or an event is important. What do you think is the determining factor for someone? If they don't trust that person yet, they don't know if they should pay them. But what would you say to someone that's 18 to 25, that they know that is something that's valuable but they haven't pulled the trigger on it? What would you say? What would you say to that person?

Yeah. So the question is only. The question is always just one thing. The question is, can you buy speed? That's all it is, is can you buy speed? So why, why should you and I go meet with Tony Robbins?

Why?

There's only one reason.

Yeah.

He's probably seen 10 times what you and I have so far. Probably. He probably has 10 times the connections. Probably. I don't know. I'm just, I'm just assuming.

Yeah.

If he can download his 25 years of experience and his 25 years of business connections to you and me in one hour so that you and I don't have to work 25 years to get there, I will pay for it. It is, it is buying speed. It's basically saying, please install what you know into me right now. Like, this is the. Dude, I don't know if you ever. Have you watched the Matrix?

I, I haven't in a long time. I watched it when I was younger, but I didn't understand the concept of.

It when I was like, yeah, so, so totally. Like the movie is basically like in this, in this computer world, right. The. They call in and say, hey, I need a operator. I need a program to fly this Apache helicopter. The operator says, here you go. And you like, shake your head and you have this program and you're done. Now you know how to fly a helicopter.

Yeah.

Like, that is what mentoring is. That is what coaching is. And it's not like the whole, hey, I'm going to coach you and I'm going to meet with you, you know, every, every week we're going to have a coaching call. I'm going to hold you accountable. And did you, did you make your call? That's not what this is. You spend half a day with me and I draw out your whiteboard strategy like, you're done. Like, you don't need me for another three months until you get stuck again because I've downloaded all my experience onto you. And I would say if you are able to, if you want to buy speed, you should do it. You should take the amount of money that allows you to. It hurts, but it's still. You can afford.

Yeah.

And Casey, the other thing I'll tell you is I have three entrepreneurs right now that can't afford my fee. And they, three of them pull it together and they do group sessions with.

Okay, right, makes sense.

So take five friends, combine it and go off for Casey, like, hey, dude, introduce me to your network. Here's $25,000. Can you spend a half a day with us?

Yeah.

And your fee is probably more than that. But I. But, but, but the. You can also pull resources. Right. And people don't realize, they actually think they can hack it by watching YouTube videos, watching Instagram live, listening to a bunch of podcasts. But if the, if the information that you can take away from this is like, it changes anything, the shift is going to happen. When somebody sits down with you one on one and compresses their decades of experience into an hour, that's where.

Absolutely.

That's what happens.

Absolutely. No, no, that's. That is the truth, honestly. And I know with Modi, we're at 56 minutes right now, so we have four minutes before this will cut off. So I definitely want to wrap it up. And obviously just for the people that are listening and for. I'm sure their minds are just racing, they're like, all right, where should I spend money today? I need, I need to pay for my speed. Speed. Right. But just if you had to simplify things throughout your journey so far, and I definitely want to, obviously I want to follow up with you sometime and do an in person podcast. I think that would be an amazing opportunity for me and I would definitely love to get that in person experience with you as well. But for people that are listening, I know that we connected on social media. That's where you're building your brand. Now. Where can people follow you and what's the best place to reach out to you or see some of the content or even if they have a question or if they have that budget or whatever your fee is, what's the best place for people to contact you?

Yeah, so Instagram is the best place. It's my full name. So when you pick the show notes, it's Sharon Trivad says my full name. You can, you'll find it.

Yep.

Instagram is a perfect place. Direct message if you need to talk.

And I call that down below.

Yeah. And that's the, that's that's the way to do it. I'm spending just like you, Casey. I'm over indexing on the Instagram. Want to. I want to share, I want to give. And when the right person comes along, if I'm not the right fit for you, I'll connect you with who the right fit is.

I love that. Absolutely. So everyone listening, if you're watching this right now, make sure you go check out Sharon down below. I'll make sure that I link his Instagram, Facebook, website, whatever it is. I'll do the research on that and the things. But definitely hit him up on Instagram. That's where we connected. And I know that he'll connect with you as well, but obviously come with value. It's funny because a lot of people, they'll try to connect with someone, but they won't bring value. They'll just be like, what's up, man? Right? Like, if you're reaching out to him, do it with intent and do it with purpose. And other than that, Sharon, I very much appreciate, appreciate you coming on the show today. Everyone, keep building your empire. Appreciate you, man. Awesome.

Thanks, Casey.

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