Lunch & Learn - Session 21

Good day. Tom Powell with the Founder's office. Candace Powell joining me from the founder's office as well. And we have our special guest, Kevin Peterson, who is the sastermind. Tell us about sastermind. What is that, Kevin?

So it's a mastermind that I've been running for six years now, which is a community of tech founders and investors. And it was originally called the Sastermind because it was almost solely focused on SaaS software as a service. And now really any tech platform includes AI and blockchain. So now I just say it's tech founders and investors to include make it a little more all encompassing.

That's super cool. And the purpose of. And you've had some people that have stayed in for a long time. This isn't just like a one and done come to a seminar workshop. This is actually build your company, have an exit, then go help others build or you go build again.

That's exactly right. And in fact we have many members in the community who are on their second or third or in some cases fourth venture. So they've had multiple startups and exits, some of those bootstrapped throughout the process and somehow they come back to the table and sign up to go again. It's always a mystery to everyone that if you've had a successful exit, why would you ever do that again?

Why, why would gambling, right, like you, you don't quit because you left the table in one bag. You're gonna come back, see if lady luck will strike twice.

It is crazy, especially for our spouses within this space. And then when they find out that not only do you go in and build a new one, you then help others with their addictions. But we're the opposite of helping alcoholics to stay away from it. We're like, oh no, this is a great idea. Let's go raise capital again.

They're not thinking big enough w this

is how we can do it. But with that, the wonderful thing that we've been able to build with the founder's office here and working with Kevin is building pathways that make it fun, interesting. Still the exciting side, but like skiing, figuring out what you can actually do with the equipment so that you can survive that crevasse that you've decided to just go down, look, look super cool on the YouTube channel, right? And that's the founders isolation paradox, which we talk a lot here. Because what founders do end up doing, the more they scale and the bigger they get until they get to a certain level, they are all by themselves. So this week sastermind. How do people join that? I know Angela's got a QR code for that.

Yeah. The simplest way is go to sastermind.net and there is a registration form there.

Awesome.

Yeah. And you did hit on one thing that I'll just touch on, which is I do have members and longtime members who say this is my favorite meeting every month. And the reason is I don't have anyone else I can talk to about my business. My spouse doesn't want to hear it, my family's tired of hearing it, and friends look at me cross eyed and wonder why I'm doing this at all. And so it's very meaningful for people to have a community that they can tap into and riff with about their business and about growth and share experiences and learn from each other. And it's actually, it's actually extraordinary and unique.

Yeah. I don't know if anybody out in our audience today has had those experiences, but I will, I will share with you. We've. Candice and I have actually had the lecture going into like Thanksgiving dinners or birthday dinners, those type of things. Family vacations that. No, this is a free zone. You don't actually get to talk business here. And then the problem is last night. Huh.

We did great at family dinner last night.

We did do. We did.

I thought about that after.

We didn't really.

Good job.

Talk about it at all. It was actually really good. That's because we had an 8 and a 5 year old that pretty much monopolized the conversation.

True.

So that was the fun. That was the fun. Joy of it. But yeah. So it is a learning process and that's, that's what I love. So we are here to talk today about something that blends a number of my favorite things and just so happens when Kevin and I met also blends his. Some of his favorite things. So it's like one of those songs that you put out there. But if you could imagine sliding around on snow, which to me is probably one of the most joyful things I do every, you know, if I could do it every single day, I would. It is just such a fun experience working within nonprofits, which for myself I've been doing all of Candice's life. Pretty much. It's been almost 40 years. Not saying you're almost 40, but it's been almost 40 years of doing nonprofit activity within that space and sitting on a lot of different boards helping others and then helping founders find capital and helping capital find founders. So tell us about how we came up with which was really your brain. Brainchild idea for lift pitch Tahoe.

Sure. So lift pitch Tahoe is elevator pitches on a chairlift. And this really just started over a lunch conversation that Thomas and I had. And Candace, you were witnessed all of this. And we were discussing our passion for entrepreneurship and also for skiing. And then we got talking about adaptive skiing, which is helping those who may have limited mobility to learn the sport of going up and sliding down the snow. And so we discovered that we also share a passion for adaptive sports. And so that's how lift pitch was born. I've had this idea in my head for some time, and I shared it with Thomas. And then we got to talking about a resort where he's on the board and how the program could benefit the adaptive ski school at this very resort. And from that, it turned into a very real thing that's happening this Sunday.

Well, so I just got to fast forward in there. Not only did we come up with this plan of building this thing, and we have over 80 participants, 80 people coming up now, which is fantastic, and it's going to be a great day on the snow, but we also got Kevin as one of our instructors. And you've been tootling around on the mountain with some of our athletes and getting them out on it. Talk about that. What's that like for both you and Candace? I got pictures of Candace this week, which was awesome as well, where she's out with one of our adaptives.

It's fantastic. So this is my sixth season volunteering as an adaptive instructor. And what that means is we, again, we take people that may not have all of their physical ability, they may have trouble walking, in some cases, they cannot walk. I actually specialize in sit ski techniques where we take people up mountains where the person does not have use of their legs. And so they're in a skiing, you know, sit skiing apparatus where they're sitting down and they've got little mini outriggers for poles and they can learn the sport of skiing, you know, while sitting down. And we can take anyone up the mountain, and we do.

Yeah.

There's no limitation.

Well, if you haven't seen, and I don't know, Angela, this is kind of last minute. And maybe that Sky Tavern youth adaptive program goes there. But if you have not seen Jimmy's face as he's coming down the mountain, but more so to me, Jimmy's mom and the family about how they're able to get out there, because we don't just teach the athletes, we actually empower people to Be able to get back out and slide around on snow. And it seems like such a simple thing, but it's incredibly powerful. Now Candice, you've been doing this for a number of years. You are involved in adaptive and I know there's certain terms that might be, I guess, more appropriate, but you talk about this, you're in the classroom, you're in a number of different places.

Yeah, I do quite a bit of accessibility volunteering. So I on a committee for accessibility to our local theater. I do an accessibility committee at our, at the elementary school that my children go to. And so Adaptive was just another awesome opportunity to get involved. And it's just a great program. It focuses on visible and invisible needs. And I think that's what's really amazing about the program. Typically the, the children I'm working with on skiing have invisible needs. And so it's great that our mountain has created a safe space that is so inclusive. And I was, I was telling my husband this weekend because our 8 year old was up and I hadn't seen her since 8am hadn't seen her. We got to the mountain, she ditched me, she knows where to go and she just took off and, and then I got my little one into her program and then I went into my program which is adaptive. My kids know where to find me. Everybody in the program knows who my kids are. So if they're searching for me and by the time, by 2:30, 3:00 clock and, and we have, everybody's friendly up there. It's a friendly community. I didn't give my kid money. Somebody fed my kid, I know her. But you know, it just was, it's just so funny because in this day and age there's so few places where that still happens. That felt very pre 2000s parenting, right? Like to just let your kids kind of just go and. Free range where they're at Free range. My kids don't have tech, so I have no idea. But I knew from enough other parents on the mountain, they'd text me, I just saw, I just saw your one go down the mountain, you know, and I think that's just such a beautiful thing about the sport. And so making it accessible to everyone is what's really, really, really cool. And while I'm teaching one of my littles, their parent is actually in a lesson as well, which was also really cool because it really was a family event. So, you know, we're just, we're really passionate about getting people outside.

Well, let's, let's move this in so, Kevin, you know this from the business you've been doing for these many decades, like myself and then Candace's is now several decades in business. The more we help others get what they want, the more we get what we want. Right, as Zig Ziglar kind of saying. And so in that, one of the joys of being in business and being able to help build these is when you can give back. And so where we're really talking with this lift pitch was how it brought these other things together, because we had the Capital Edge Summit up at Lake Tahoe, and that was a $10,000 entry fee, I think, or maybe it was even more to come up to Lake Tahoe and spend some time with some sharks and be able to practice and perfect your pitch. And we had a numbers that came up there, a number of companies that actually got funded out of that, number of founders that did relationships out of that, which was great, and it was a beautiful event. And we're doing this for $500. And, Kevin, we actually got a sponsor that's cut it now down in half. Is that right?

That is right.

So we've got a code. If you go out to liftpitchtahoe.com it's now down to 250. And that mostly goes as a donation to Sky Tavern's adaptive program, which is great if you already paid for the full price. We appreciate that. If you want that back, come back and talk to us or whatever. But what we're actually finding is most of the people that are getting the disc are actually now donating the balance still to. Because it does go to Sky Tavern, which is fantastic. So there's the snow 50 that gets you the discount for signing up on there. We have a handful more spots for both founders and people with the money. And this is where I want to talk about it. So the framework that we're using or the framework that we highly identify, is breaking it down into the power of storytelling. So the Lyft ride is about six minutes, I think we put it out there. That's closer to eight minutes, but I think it's really closer to six minutes. It may even be closer to five minutes if the thing's running at full speed. And so when you've got that period of time, this is the methodology that we'll be looking for, and that will generally lead the founders to the success and gives the framework to the investors to be looking for. So the first thing is identifying what the challenge is that you're solving. And Kevin, you know, and Ken Says, we've talked a lot of different times in the United States. When it comes up, someone's going to say, hey, Kevin, what do you do? And then Kevin immediately starts into talking about, oh, I've got sastermind, da, da, da. Instead of saying, hey, Kevin, what problem do you solve? Well, I help founders do this and this and this. It's a whole different deal because we get engaged when we can say, me too, which is the, the, the sixth one of these, which is connection. So we can build. And I'm going to go through them really quick. It's challenge, champion, change, credibility, action and connection. And what that really means is it just follows the, the storytelling that as humans we've been using for several thousands of years. It's what's the problem that we need to get solved? Or what's the big ugly monster in the room? And then who's the hero? And it's not the hero as the founder, it's the hero as the idea that actually solves that problem. So how is that going to get solved? And then the change is what happens because that gets solved. So case in point, you know, garage door openers. Let's say, gosh, I hate getting out of my car when it's rainy and I'm pulling up, or it's not safe at night. And so what is the hero in that scenario? It's the garage door opener, which nobody thought they needed back in the 60s or 70s. Now no one doesn't have them hardly. Right. But then what is that solution? It gives the people a safer place to be able to pull into their garage with lights and all the different things, or it gives them the opportunity to not have to get wet in the snow and the rain and all the other things out there. That's the way to tell the story. And then the call to action is, is we're raising the next round of money to do X, Y and Z. So we've got a person right now that came to the Capital Edge Summit, Candace, and they're working on a device that improves people ability for VO2 max, especially flatlanders, right. So they get to be able to take the mountains with them down to the flatland. And so I think, I don't know if David's making it up there. I think he is making it up there, but he'll actually be talking about that next round that he's raising for capital. And so the problem that he's solving is still giving flatlanders the VO2 Max. That doesn't sound that Sexy. But what if he can improve their ability on the bike or on the run or in the hike and do it at a less cost? Right.

Well.

And he only got the next date. And I think where this is getting into more of the meat of the conversation and why we even started talking about lift pitch today. For those who are new, you never know where you're going to run into a potential investor, potential potential connector who wants to help you or. Or can. Can be the catalyst for your business. And so this goes so much deeper than an elevator pitch. I think a lot of, A lot of us have heard elevator pitch and being people that have been pitched a lot. The three of us being people who've been trapped on a chairlift in an elevator, you know, on an airplane with people. And of course, natural conversation. What do you do? The hook is really starting with that. What do you solve? So the, the, the gentleman we're talking about, I, I know him. We, We've known him really well for a long time. What we worked with him on was getting that a little cleaner because I don't know that any of the three of us would have given him the next date had we not known him. And so had he just run into me and given me that his initial spiel, I don't know that he would have gotten my information or a next step with me. But working, tweaking that language and it'll be really fun to see how he does it. Lift pitch. He's done such a great job of really fine tuning his problem statement to get me interested, even somebody who. I'm not an athlete, but he's gotten me to understand what the problem is that he solves. And I can understand that it's actually a pretty sizable problem and there's a decent market there. And so as an investor, and especially an investor that we do participate in med tech, I'm going. Huh? Okay. Yeah. I do want to know more about that. And so that's what we're really talking about today is maybe you're not coming to lift pitch. We'd love to have you come to lift pitch. But what happens in your real life lift pitch? What happens when you end up on a chairlift with that person and you're sitting there and you're excited out of your skin to tell them what you do, Take it down a notch and start with that problem statement.

Yeah. So if I could, if I could encourage anyone that's coming, whether they're on the founder side or the investor side, what we're listening for is what problem do you solve? If you can't get past that, there is no other conversation. And the more you talk about the solution before the problem, the less the money actually gets interested. And that is the truth, right, because it's all the. And then they go into the details and it's like, no, I don't need the details. I don't know. Need to know how this shot works to solve this problem. I need to know that my pain goes away and that you've got the right team. So again, what it comes back down to is that challenge, which is the big hairy monster that we're going to help solve. How does it get solved? How do you succeed over that? And what does it actually mean? The villagers are free, they get to live in peace, they get to, you know, whatever it is. And then the credibility is, this is we've killed three monsters down the road or this is the stage that we've gotten to. We've shown that they can, you know, get this next stage that's going on. So in David's case, right, that next stage is he's got clinical trials that are being engaged by university sports teams that want to see how this actually works. So this next round of capital is going to help him get to that next stage, right, which is frigging incredible. And then he also starts talking about his team. The call to action is we've got this round of capital and it's xyz. This is what it's going to do. And we're closing that round. We have another, a gentleman who's coming up with another med tech young man and he's got a closing round going on right now. And this helps with hearts, right? So as another idea that. What's coming up, Kevin, I know you've got a list of people that are coming up, but all of it gets down to the right investor is the one who is already saying, yeah, I saw that problem and I want to see it get solved and I think we can make a lot of money doing it. That's it. It's that. It's like a six sided Rubik's Cube. Some people can do it in 18 seconds and some people can never do it, no matter how long you give. And most people get frustrated and they stop.

They're taking the stickers off or breaking

out the pieces and putting them back in. All right, so talking about that, Kevin, who are some of the, who are the, some of the people that you see coming up that are coming up to join us?

Yeah, so we do have a mix of founders and investors. And I think one surprise that maybe I should have anticipated, and I did not early on when we were planning the event, is that some of the investors have asked me if they can also pitch. And some of the people who are pitching are also angel investors. And so even though we will be distributing jerseys that are different colors so that. So that founders can identify investors and vice versa, we will set ground rules at the beginning of the day that, you know, the. The founders should be pitching the investors. And after you've heard a couple of pitches, it's okay for investors to pitch other investors or for founders to pitch other founders and vice versa. It's just sort of the nature of entrepreneurship in a way that people may end up on both sides of the table.

It is amazing how we end up on both sides. I mean, even when we come in and engage a new group that we're working with at the founder's office, much of the time we're using the capital alignment method, which is realigning their capital, which means we're working on their story because we either need the banks or we need their capital stack as it exists currently to understand where we're going. Neverending process within there. And this process, by the way, also does work with how you actually attract customers. It's the same process.

Right.

It's just, who's my customer in this scenario?

For sure.

I think a lot of times, too, when I get pitched, people are pitching me. They think they're pitching me their investor pitch, and really they are pitching me their consumer pitch. And. And I see it a lot.

So.

Or I'm getting like. Or I'm getting like an engineer's report, which is probably more. Even the most common. So I want to ask you both. I'll start with you, dad, because I think I know what your answer is. I do know what your answer is. Some poor individual gets on the chairlift with you. No, I'm kidding. The. The lucky person who gets on the chairlift with you. You sit down. What are you asking? What is the first thing out of your mouth? I want somebody. I want these people to be prepared. What is the very first thing you're saying to them? And how much time do they have to answer before you've tuned out?

Well, we've done a lot of research in this. And that's the joy of having a doctorate is we do take these analytics and put them into data and start reviewing them. It seems that. But most of the money loses attention at the outside of 28 seconds for the whole thing. Meaning you need to be able to get through all six in 28 seconds and then expand as they ask questions. Right. So that's really what it is. So it's, it's. You explain the problem. If you have to go into a lot to explain the problem, it's not the right partner on the chair. Right. So the way that generally you start into this, and we do know that these are, you know, they're wearing a jersey, so that doesn't happen in normal time. Right. But it's like, oh, okay, so what's going on? I think that'll speed up the conversation a little bit because, you know, you're getting pitched. Generally what happens is there's that start of the conversation, which is, how much credibility do you have? And you're always building credibility. So credibility in this case could be like, I can't believe this opportunity, or we're going up skiing, or it's a beautiful day, or it's going to be rainy, or what you're. You've got a shared experience. Experience because you're trying to get the other person to say, me too. And what a great opportunity. Because you now at least know both of you are in the me too scenario because you're out on a ski lift in whatever weather is experiencing. Right. So that's a great place to start, is getting the me too and then carrying in there. And oftentimes it can also be like, what do you do? So one of our methodologies that we really focus on at the founder's office is you very rarely are talking to capital that you don't know who they are. Right. And so who they are and what they've already invested in is all these things. And you have so many tools available to you between LinkedIn and Instagram and Perplexity and all these other things that you can go out and find out if they've already been investing. And so it's like, I like xyz. That's awesome. Candace, I know that you are really engaged in the adaptive programs. Have you guys done any investing in that area? You know, that would be possibly where I would start in that conversation. You know, I've got. Could you imagine if I could get a child who is experiencing autism, a family of that at a high level, and we could get them sliding around on the snow with big smiles, and we can do that in under 30 minutes. Would that be something that might excite you? Yes. Great. So now it's again, engaging within that, because I Know that you're there. We don't necessarily have that information about who the investors are going to be, but you certainly can build that credibility within there.

Yeah. Right away. So thank you. You were way over 28 seconds, sir. You lost me there. Kevin, your turn.

Yeah.

You're getting on the chair. I want to prep people for if they get you on the chair. What are you. What is. What is your approach? What are you going to ask? And how much time do. How much time do they have of your attention to really hook you?

Yeah, so I'm inquisitive by nature. So my attention span is probably more than a minute. It might be less than two minutes, but I'm definitely over the 28 second mark. And I'm naturally inquisitive. So I tend to start asking questions early. And that's true whether I'm pitching or being pitched. And I do encourage that from founders is don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't feel like you need to do all the talking, because in fact, when you're asking good questions to the person you're pitching, you're going to make a connection sooner. And so one of the things that I coach on is, is that art of making a connection. Because, you know, there is an adage that investors invest in people, not ideas. Like, ideas are a dime a dozen. Great founders are more rare. And so making that connection early in the conversation is super helpful. So that's what I look for. I mean, so one question that I would ask on the investor side of the table or on the investor side of the chairlift is, why you? Why are you the guy or the gal? What makes you qualified to do this? Do you have a passion for it? Like, that's what I want to get to is, was it just an idea and you thought you can make some money and that's okay in some cases if the person is really good at execution. But what I want to find out is where. Where are you on that spectrum? Like, are you passionate about it? Are you passionate about solving this problem, fixing it, helping people? And actually, a lot of times I ask, what are you going to do with the money? Right? Like, let's just say this works and you go all the way to, you know, IPO or a massive exit, then what, what do you do after that? I do like to ask then what questions,

and not.

Not as a gotcha. I'm not trying to trip people up. I really want to know, like, well, then what happens? What happens if you get this money and what happens if you hire 15 people. If you open the next store or factory or you release that next iteration of your software platform, whatever it is, I want to know that they're thinking ahead. It's not just that they've got something more than, well, quite frankly, more than just that, you know, six minute lip pitch. They've already thought it through.

This is the value of the overall learning the process. And Kevin, you've got a process which I really appreciate because when we give you these six Cs, that's only the start of the conversation. And the first part of that other conversation is most likely the person you're talking to is not going to be your investor. So don't think you're going to get married on that chairlift ride. What you're actually looking for is they probably likely know the person who may be interested or may be able to introduce you to the right investor. So if you come in from that standpoint, it's always building that credibility and asking the questions when it sounds desperate, when it's an immediate that you're my last hope, that's not going to work. And you also gave, you know, in our foundation of this is how you tell the story, but what the story framework we're actually trying to build is in the me too. So Candice and I and our family office, we're always looking at something that is an idea that needs to be solved that we've already identified. If you're not bringing us that, then all we're doing is now learning about a new opportunity. We're probably not going to be your investor, but if we've already identified it's a problem we want to solve, then, and we've identified it as a big problem that if it's solved will make us a lot of money, then we like that. The second part of it is, is there something about it that gives it a protective moat, in truth, meaning because whatever you're doing and if you say you're the only one working on it, then it's probably not a very big problem and probably not a very big opportunity. You may be the only one that's come up with this secret sauce type scenario, but that really is an important part. And then, Kevin, to your point, we look at the founder and we believe that in all cases there's really one founder and then there's the founder's team. So there's co founders and such within there, but there's one person who's the spearhead. And then has that founder been able to attract and Keep the management team. Have they. They said so our next, this next round of capital is going to help us bring in the right project manager to be able to take this or going to open up Asia to us or whatever it is in that space. And then are there problems that we've identified and challenges and what are the ones that we have and who else do we need on the team to be there? All of those things go into that framework of how do you actually raise the. Or what's the methodology of raising the capital? So we're not going to have that much time on the, on the chairlifts? Most.

No, likely.

Well, and to kind of marry what you two were talking about, I will tell you one of the biggest turnoffs for me when I'm talking to an investor. One missing the human element of like, we are having a conversation. We are human beings engaging and recognize like, I might not be your investor, but I may have a connection for you. And so keep it. I think a lot of people get really rigid into what their pitch is or what their statement is. The second piece is if you're the full hero of the situation, it's, it's, it's you, it's all, you're, you're the only person who can do all this. You don't have a solid team behind you, but also you can't. You kind of know all of it. Sometimes that makes investors nervous. You know, we, we want to see that somebody can surround themselves with great people. You know, if you, if you have a talent in attracting good. Or if you're, if you can attract great talent, that is something you should be very boastful about. You should, you should highlight your incredible team that, that you've been able to attract, because that is very attractive to investors. And there's times where sometimes we have found out way down the road that actually they've got this incredible team behind them. And I'm like, I wish they would have told me that sooner because that is a really, really, really big deal. So, yes, you're the one taking that initial punch there and going for it. But bring up your team and highlight all the incredible talent they've been able to bring on board.

Steve Jobs is excellent at being, you know, identified as a creative talent, but Apple would have never gotten anywhere had he not been able to bring in other people and retain that talent. Even in people talking about the Elon Musk and the, and the Steve Jobs of the world, they're not necessarily known, the Larry Ellison, as being the most fun loving people on the planet nor the nicest bosses. Well, in all those cases, all three of those cases, they didn't remain as the boss very long. They actually brought management in that had all the skills of doing that. But what they were able to do was attract people to their ideas and they were able to identify the people that they needed. So it goes back to the who, not how. In a lot of cases, it's like, I need someone that can do this. That's what I'm looking for. Get them onto the team and then have the systems and structure built around them so that the founder doesn't blow it up. So I think that's that, that skill that you're talking about. We do have a question can from

Jan. Yeah, Most investors are not focused on climate crisis solutions, so I find it best to focus on investors in that specific vein. Are there any climate tech investors?

Well, we've definitely done, from our standpoint, I don't want to say that that's the reason you should come out, but we definitely have done some climate tech. You know, we've got various investments that have been in that space. We've also, to be clear, we've also invested in that lovely dirty oil and gas because we do find that there's still a need in that space. But as to specific investors in that space, it may be what problem you're solving specifically, because that's such a broad taste. I would tell you from my standpoint, if you go to the outdoors events, you have an awful lot of people that are very much concerned about what's going on with climate stuff and clean snow and water and cooling and various things. So identifying that into the right conversation. They don't have to feel like they're, ooh, the, the, you know, as they be put out there in California. They might be, but they don't necessarily have to be because you have ranchers in Wyoming that care about the climate as well. So, you know, I think, I think you can take a look at that and say, how do I fit that need? So I don't know. Kevin, what's your, what's your thought in that?

Yeah, so I'll add one thing to that, which is there are designated ESG private equity firms and funds. ESG is, and you're gonna have to help me with the acronym, but the. It stands for environmental sustainability and there's some governance. Governance. Thank you. Yeah. And what I hear from PEs that have ESG funds is they've got the capital and they have a hard time finding Quality projects. And so I don't know, I don't know if you've heard the same, but

there's also a lot of groups and dad, you can definitely elaborate more, but I know plenty of investor groups that, you know, non. We, we wouldn't necessarily categorize them as ESG because there is a high threshold to meet that environmental social governance threshold. But they do they, they would be considered more of like that, that almost like moral investor, social impact investor. So I, I do think that that's.

I'm going to bring it into this one. I'm going to close out on a couple other. Other thoughts in that space. So I have. So non profit getting money raised for non profits and we've raised tens of millions of dollars for various nonprofits over the years is the same challenge, right? It's finding the right people that see the cause. Some people will just write a check because they. That's good. Cause I'll do it because they're walking by in the United States are very philanthropic just at their heart, which is great. But the people who write big checks generally want to see in today's world that there's going to be an impact. And so impact is where. And I think that you can be saying, okay, what is the impact that you make and how does that impact and why does that make it valuable or not? It can be a nonprofit. So I'm going to give you two quick stories. One is I bring a contractor to one of our Boys and Girls Clubs down the and I used to sit on the national board and he's really invested into the YMCA and some other different things and wasn't any discount on the ymca. It's just trying to get him to understand the Boys and Girls Club. And at the time they were painting these rails. He's like, those rails look like they're in pretty good shape. Why are you painting them so well, you know, our process here is two, we don't. We have a sinking fund for the building because we don't want the building to fall into disrepair. So the investors that put the money in for the building, we want to make sure that it stays around for decades for the people that use it, but also the people that we serve, the clients that we have here, the young kids, we want to teach them that if you take care of things, it makes a difference and you have better, nicer things for the quality. He wrote a $10 million check. So that was the impact of saying, okay, this is what we're doing relative in a nonprofit world. And it happens to be the same dollar check, but it's a totally different story. Mrs. Milgard came to one of our Boys and Girls Club in Tacoma, Washington, and this was a great story. They made a ton of money and they were going to start their own children's advocacy. And the leader up there said, hey, why don't you come? You're already a donator to us. Why don't you come see what we're doing? And these three little boys come running out of the building when she showed up. And the first little boy runs past her, second little boy, third little boy holds open the door and she tells the story. Their little boy says, welcome to our club. She also wrote a $10 million check that day. And it was because what they wanted was to get better manners. They didn't plan this. They didn't know it was going to happen. It was circumstances. And that goes into the third story, which is we're working at the founder's office with a group right now and they're actually struggling with even. Do they hire us? Not hire us. They've gotten some benefits out of it. They've raised $10.5 million. So that's a really successful so far on the path. They're just struggling now to get past that next point. And part of it was, is that they found their investors everywhere because they go to everything and they're talking to everybody, but they're now into that critical point of many of us are already talking to each other about it. We're like, eh, no, I don't know if I'm gonna go the next round. Yeah, we were excited about what they were doing. And so the last, last big investor they found was luckily in a hot tub. It's like, that's great. But that is preparedness meets opportunity. If you, you weren't prepared, that opportunity would have made you look like a fool and you wouldn't even know it. Right. So those are kind of the stories about where do you get into that scenario? So a couple more. John. I don't know if it's Jan or it's Jan. Sorry if I'm saying it's wrong, but our tech is for fireproof, waterproof and disaster proof building envelope, advanced material composites that is as much environmental. Again, Jane or Jan. Sorry if I'm saying it wrong as it is. It's, it's. How do you build better buildings? How do you build? I mean there's a lot of different ways.

There's a lot of opportunity that's also that's the solution. I think you have some really powerful opportunities for problem statements in that that gets a lot of people invested from more than just even a climate crisis standpoint, but from all various walks of life in, in building and tech and this. So there's a big opportunity there for clarity on the problem statement.

Yep.

I actually have to. Speaking of challenges out there, I've got a time commitment today. So we're going to cut this just a slight bit short. Actually, we're cutting it on time. But I want to do answer Ernest's question. The ability to bring in the leadership team is critical. You don't actually have to have them on board, but you do have to have them identified. So to Candice's point, if the founder is the smartest person in the room always and forever and the best at doing everything, then it'll stay a very, very small business and very small opportunity. It takes the group of people and the ability to work together on those ideas. And so if you've identified them, these are the people we're going to bring in. You don't even need to have them on board, but this is why we're using the capital. That's great. Yes, there are shuttle services. It's on the website.

Not from the Bay Area though.

Not from the Bay Area. Oh no, no, no. That's right.

But if you, if you can get to Reno, which there's a number of ways to get to Reno or South Lake from the Bay Area, not South Lake, I'm sorry, incline from the Bay Area, then yes, we do have services.

Cool. Liftpitchtahoe.com how do they get involved with the Sastermind? Sastermind.net Sastermind.net and then I've got one last one as we've just finished up the Olympics and yes, I love everything that has to do with sliding around on snow. So the Winter Olympics are my favorites. And so congratulations out to our all of our Olympians that participated, especially our gold and silver and bronze medalists. It was amazing, amazing experience. If you would like the opportunity to hang out with some Olympians and some of them world class, some of the most famous Olympians in the world. I have them as my guests here next week also to benefit Sky Tavern. So you can go to Franz, Franz and friends. Awesome FISOM. It's called Franz 4 Sky Tavern. Also benefiting our non profit mountain Kevin and Candice talked a little bit about really is one of the most unique places in the world, but definitely in the country. 75 years of being nonprofit teaching people how to slide around in the snow. Come out and take a look at Franz and Friends or come up for the lift pitch event and keep joining us here on lunch and learn. Kevin, Candace, anything else before we jump?

Just hope to see some people that. I'm so excited. I think a couple people who've been attending are coming and I'm really excited to meet you guys in person. And yeah, we do. We hope to do this every year. This is a, this is a fun take on how all of us have been pitched in in some capacity. And so this will be really fun. We're looking forward to it.

Well, we're glad for everybody joining us, huh?

The snow is great.

Snow has been amazing. Kevin and I were both out. You may see some pictures of us out there. But I just crashed at the end of this weekend and on Monday. And my, my wife was even joking. She's like, you're so tired. You can't even go ski today. Like I. My legs. We've got so much backcountry and everything else. It's just been incredible. And the kids and the smiles and it's just awesome. So to our, our program director here, Angela, thank you for keeping us on time and on track and pulling those up on there. And Kevin, as always, thank you for being our co host on this event. Actually, you're the host. I'm kind of more the co host. You've been driving all of this, so thank you so much. And Candace as well. Thank you guys. We'll have you See you next week. Lunch and learn. Have a great one.