Fail Fast, Win Big: How Ricardo Turned $500 Furniture into a Multi-Million AI Company

Hello, everybody. Let's have some fun today. Talking to a winner, a mover, a shaker, and I just love his bio. I love his accomplishments. Ricardo Dakira. Hello, Ricardo.

That is actually pretty pronounced. Well, my last name. So I have to give you kudos for that one. So thank you very much on that one for much trying and also operating it. So awesome work. Nice to meet you.

Well, so you're talking to us live from Belgium today. Why? Why Belgium?

Born and raised, I would say. But then I moved out of Belgium when I was 18, moved to China and then moved to India, and then, you know, basically travel the world a little bit. Lives in Dubai for three, four years, Malta, Spain, technically, everywhere, until at some moment, you have to settle down a little bit. And when you want to build a business, I think it, you know, it helps a little bit to also have, like, a base to work with. So I moved to Belgium this. Yeah, about four months ago, back to Belgium, bought a house and stabilized a little bit.

Frame this up for us a little bit. You're not that old, so you've done a lot of moving around, a lot of business in a short period of time. How old are you?

I'm currently 31. I guess I got a little gray hairs already, but 31 you got.

Growing up in Belgium. So much of the culture over in Europe and the UK and everything is geared towards. I spent the first six years of my life in Germany, Italy and France. My father was Air Force, so I'm a little bit familiar with it. And then I spent some time in the uk. But, you know, the entrepreneurial spirit. There are people over there like yourself, but they seem to be, you know, you're going against the grain because every, you know, the EU and all of that political thing seems to want to put you into a pattern. Obviously, you didn't. You grew up with a different gene. And so how did that happen? How did you grow, you know, when did that happen that you said, you know, I want to go out and see the world, I want to start businesses, I want to make things happen in my life. I don't want to just be an employee serving the EU and letting them make decisions for my life and let them regulate everything for me? I want to bust out and control things. Where did that come along? How did that happen?

Very good question, Very deep question as well. But I thought about this quite often. I think the first thing is, and I had this on a different podcast as well, where I'm false, basically. So my father is Belgian, and my mom was Mexican. And they always say you get the best of two worlds. I'm not sure about that, but it does come with a huge amount of advantages because when I grew up, so, you know, my mom was, you know, teaching me Spanish about Mexican culture. She was then together with a new husband, which was French. So we spoke French at home. Then my new. The new wife of my father was speaking Dutch and English at home. They were from India. So we had, like this big mix of, like, cultures at home. We speak four native languages, you know, right out of the gate. So that really helps kind of broaden up the vision about the world. It's like, oh, there's more in Belgium than this city I'm living in. So I think that helped a lot. I grew up in a kind of multicultural country. Also Belgium, we have belgium, which is 11 million people, and then you have the Dutch side, which is 6 million, and 5 million is French. So you're already in a cultural mixed pound in such a small country. So I think that really helped shape up the world and say, okay, there's more to this and just the Belgian culture going on. And then when I was 18, I just moved out. I was like, okay, I don't know what to do with my life. I made a business case to my parents saying, you're probably better off paying, like, half of the cash that you're going to pay me when I'm going to college and just give half of that budget. I will go travel the world. I go to China, I go to India, I learn the language, and I'll figure it out coming back, what I really want to do in my life. So that's basically also what I did. I moved to China, learned Mandarin, moved to India, learned Hindi, and then basically tried to use that year to kind of discover what I wanted to do in life.

Learn to China, move to China, learn Mandarin. I know that it's easier to learn languages after you already know several, but good Lord, Mandarin. I mean, that does put you in a unique class. Doesn't it open up possibilities? Because a lot of this in life is finding what's possible for us, what we're attracted to, what we can do. But learning the language, in fact, in any industry you get into, even in the tech world, is there's a language here. It's like you gotta speak Silicon Valley. And to be at home and people could tell if you know the language, there's even a tech accent. So when you go over there and you learn these languages while you're there, it's open to possibilities for the rest of your life. And so you've already told me now, you were a salesman from the. From the beginning because you made the hardest sale to your parents to talk them into this thing. Right off the bat, you're a salesperson. Where did that idea come from that is that standard over there that you. I know if you're in New Zealand or you're an Australian or something that they have the thing. As soon as I get up out of high school, I'm going to go travel the world for a year and then come back home and settle down. But I didn't know that was customary.

Over in Europe, uncustom I would say. So I remember sitting in school and I was like 17 years old. And, you know, when you're 17 years old and you go, you know, you go to university or college, there's like, you know, you do this in class where like, okay, everybody now tell what you're gonna do next year. What are you gonna study? And so when you were like, coming from a doctor's family or like a lawyer family, most of the time you follow up the line and it's quite easy to decide. So everybody was like, going through Facebook, it's like, okay, that's what I'm going to do. Like, everybody had figured it out. And I was the only one that replied, yeah, I'm moving to China. And so, you know, everybody was like, yeah, yeah, whatever. You know, whatever you're doing, yeah, so. So they were just laughing at me until on the 6th of September, on my birthday, I actually took the plane to China and I posted on Instagram saying, salute. And then suddenly it was like, oh, he was not joking. He was really going to China. So, yeah, I mean, everybody had figured out. I didn't. Like, I had so many interests. And I think that's. As an entrepreneur, you mostly are very interested in a lot of things. That's why, like, become an entrepreneur. I also feel like you're interested in all these things. And I was like, I had the same thing. I was like, I don't really have a particular skill, but I'm very interested in a lot of things. So, yeah, just decided to take a gap year, I would say, and just figure things out and save my parents a little bit of money doing that.

That's clear thinking at an early age. And I can relate to all of that. Except in my case, I also applied that interest in a lot of things with a very short attention span. So also my problem, you know, that does keep you moving through life. And I came up, my father was Air Force, we moved constantly. And that's where I got my exposures to the bigger world out there. And it's a real advantage. But over in Europe, it is a common thing, but it does not create that wandering spirit, the ability to speak a lot of different languages and everything, you know, like Melania Trump, who's Donald Trump's wife, she speaks seven languages or something like that, you know. And when you grow up in Eastern Europe, it's a common type thing. It's really a funny thing to be in Tuscany and see in the restaurant the very English looking couple with the English Savile Row suit, you know, speaking fluent German to each other at the table. They're speaking German, you know, they're not German. And then the waiter comes up, they immediately turn into speaking fluent Italian. And it's funny how their whole appearance almost changes with the different languages. But it does create, you do tap into a different vibe because the cultures are different. It's like people are different. And to explore those differences gives you a lot of possibilities. So you go, why China? Of all the places, what was attractive? Not the United States, not Mexico, where your mother was from? No, I'm going to go China. So where I, where I have to learn Mandarin to be comfortable, you know, Give yourself a challenge, why don't you?

I guess it's like, you know, I like to think a few years ahead most of the time, even for now when we run the business, I'm the one that stinks. Like a few years ahead, basically. And so I was learning back in the days I was studying economics and I was like, oh, you know, there's this brick countries that you call and there was like the upcoming countries that will be the upcoming, you know, neighbors or the upcoming countries. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting. So if they're the upcoming ones, I should be there. Like if that's where the future is, why don't I just go to the future and just like reverse engineer from there? And so I, you know, the bric countries were China or India were Russia and Brazil. And I was like, if I go to Brazil, I'm going to party so hard I wouldn't learn anything. That sounds too much fun. Then Russia, something about Russia just didn't really interest me. I was like, yeah, cold country, not really my type of. And then, you know, China and India were like the only ones that were left. And it's like, okay, let's give that a go. And you know, my stepmother was from India, so I already had a little bit of that culture. And then China, I just didn't know what it was. I was like, oh, that sounds interesting. I know nothing about it. Let's go and figure it out. And I always think, like, what's the. In any decision, I always think about what's the worst thing that can really happen here. And that just puts everything in perspective. Like, if I don't like it, it's six months. Okay. And maybe get a little sick and then go to the hospital and go back and like, what's the worst thing that could really happen by going six months and studying Chinese? It's like, not really anything. Okay, let's just go and we'll figure it out along the way.

Yeah. And so things to point out, things that you were doing right, right from the beginning, you know, patterns to your life, as you were, you were looking to see, you know, find out for yourself with your own two eyes what is out there. I want to go see for myself. I'm not sure where. My future has not spoken to me clearly yet. So I'm going to go look for it, and I'm going to look at the possibilities, and I'm going to go look at the big possibilities, and I'm going to think forward. I'm going to look ahead and to get myself to commit to this, what I'm going to do to kind of free myself from being tied to Belgium the rest of my life, I'm going to say, well, what's the worst that could happen? See, I think that's a very important thing when you start a new business. Like, what's the worst? And almost always the worst is if you're in something that appeals to you at the front end. You probably are not gonna jump in if you haven't done some research. It doesn't have some kind of appeal to you. And then. So it's not gonna be a really stupid decision. It's going to be something that is gonna be probably good, but maybe not the best or maybe not permanent, you know, so you. What's the worst that can happen? You make some new friends, you have some amazing experiences, you make some contacts, and you develop some skills. And maybe even beyond, in a worst case, when you go from that situation, basically you're going back richer in terms of who you are inside than if you just sat on your couch and ate chocolate the rest of your life in Belgium.

And I would give one once to this, so I would give the exact same advice to My kids or like anybody that would listen to here with the nuance, which I learned from my father is trying to understand where the futures had it and then reverse engineer from there. So China for me was something that was upcoming and now actually, because now I'm 31, so that's 15 years ago or like give or take 15 years. And so now China is actually upcoming and if you look at everything happening in the eye where the smartphones are built and like, like it's crazy what's happening there. Like they're now advancing a huge amount of time. So it was something that was peaking at the moment. And so I always tried to think for people in the careers, like where is the future going? What's that? What's really going to happen in the coming five years? And then reverse engineer from there where you need to be. And so for me it was the same thing as like, okay, China is going somewhere, India's going somewhere, labor wise, you know, work cost wise, let's go there and then we'll figure out what to do with that skill later on. And I feel that has always been my driving force.

Yeah. And I've just realized that, you know, I've only done about 800 of these, so I'm just learning. But I've realized I'm stupidly not giving you your proper introduction that I worked very hard with, very hard with Joe to put into a little bit of a nutshell to kick off the interview. So to kick off the interview.

To.

Let people know that you're a co founder of Better Pick and you bootstrapped better pick from one and a half thousand a month to 270amonth. And now your annual revenue over. And that was in 18 months. In 18 months you got over 270 and recent revenue of over 3 million and so 7,000 plus monthly subscribers and so unbelievable growth. And that's your last thing. Now you've just come out of selling seismic. You bootstrapped to seven figures. We're going to get to that, but I just want people to know you're talking with somebody who has been able to make things happen. But when you started, I'm going to get you to speak to this. When you started, everything did not turn to gold right off the bat. As I understand it, you went through several start ups before you got traction and found one that would really be profitable for yourself. And that's why I have to have the numbers when I have somebody on here. Because the fact that you try, if I had picked you up in your first three, I think it says in the thing, it was like five startups or something that you blew through early on. Is that correct?

That is definitely correct. Depends on which ones you like. But three to seven, let's even put it that way.

If we had tapped in with you, you would have a lot of good things to say. If we had tapped into you on number four, three or four, you know, a guy, energy's learned things, he's moving forward. But you wouldn't have. You're not the person you are today in terms of experience, insight and maturity and wisdom to speak on these principles of winning because you didn't have the numbers behind. You just need more seasoning. You know, you needed to prove that you were going to actually turn. You actually could be a person of substance. Because what happens, Ricardo, is that we all get overwhelmed. We got to overcome challenges to make anything happen. And the deal is, when the tough times come, do you ever get over the hump? Can you ever make it work? And you've proven that you have. And so I heard something. Here's what I want you to talk about. I heard one of the sharks, Mr. Wonderful, I think, talking. And he was, by the way, he just walked by my table at the Trump International. There I was, eating breakfast two months ago, and he's standing there right in front of me with his big bald.

Head and the red watch. For sure.

Two or three watches. Funny thing, it was a weekend. So he was dressed in white. He's always dressed in black on the business shows and on the Shark Tank. Yeah, he's a fabulous guy. But he was talking about at his level, and I understand why he says that. He says, you know, when I'm looking for resumes, I want to see people of success. I don't want somebody that has had a lot of failures in their life, you know, And I'm sure that was not quoted correctly, but the idea is that it's. We all have failures early in our life, and that's where we learn how. Stu, I used to tell our training managers, I said, I can't wait for you to get out of this thing and get in your own office so you can find out how stupid you really are. Because when you sit in my office and listen to me go through things where I'm paying the bills, I'm setting up the meetings, I'm doing the training, you can sit back there and go, oh, yeah, we should be doing this. And why do you do that? And we need to spend money on that. Yeah, you get in your own office, and you're going to find out all of the things that you cannot possibly realize now that are going on behind the scenes because you're not in that position. And so it's when you fail that you start finding out, oh, I'm not as smart. There's a lot more to learn than I thought, and I'm not as smart. And because you just never been faced with it before. So as you went up the ladder, you were learning things, I would imagine a lot.

Yeah. I think to answer the first question is that if you are stubborn enough to believe that you will succeed one day, then you actually never fail. And that has also been my reasoning throughout the years, is like, I only need to get it right once, and then the rest doesn't really matter. Like, the rest is just, you know, pre gameplay. There's also the reasons why if you. I used to play a lot of hockey. You do pre matches. You do all this training so that when the match comes, you're ready. And I think that is exactly a little bit what happens once you mature is that you learn certain skills when doing and operating things, and then suddenly when the match, the real match happens, you're like, oh, I've done that before. I know exactly where to get this. I know exactly what I'm good at and exactly what I'm not good at. So I think along the US I started a coffee bar, I started cocktail boxes online, I started buying furniture, renting out furniture, I started a CV platform, all of these things. Suddenly you realize that it's like Steve Jobs always says, he connects the dots backwards. It was the exact same thing. You suddenly get into that position, you're like, oh, I know quite some stuff already because I've been doing all that stuff and now I'm ready to operate. And I think the best learning curves or the best things in life. I had a discussion with our CFO yesterday. Is like, if you're in a position where you know 50% of the things because of your back culture or your, you know, your baggage that you've been carrying for the last 10 years, but you know 50%, you know nothing about the job, that's exactly the position you want to be in. Because that means that you're going to be learning tons of things during the journey. If you already know exactly how to build a business in whatever space you were in and just repeating it, you're not really learning that much. You might be operating very well, but you're not learning a lot. So I think that's the best position I tried to position myself in. And even for the rest of us, like trying to find people that have. Have a good baggage, but then also like have never done it. And so those are the ones that would be learning a lot. So same thing happens here.

And let me tell you how I look at, interpret what you just said. And that is if you are doing. See, this is why to me growth is so important. Growth proves to me that you're still learning. Growth proves to me growth in numbers. You know, the first, the fact of having numbers proves that you can do it, you know, that you can accomplish. But growing numbers shows that you still have fire in your belly, that you still are fresh, you're still open to new ideas, you're still young in terms of your and adventuresome inside your mind, you know, that's what growth. Cause you're gonna be trying new things and you're getting new experience, meeting new people, getting better people. It's fun to grow because it renews you. And you found that out in sports, like I did. The losing team and the winning team expend about the same energy. But if you go in the losing locker room, they're all worn out and tired and exhausted and down and depressed. But the winners are like, yahoo. I can't wait for the name. Because the adrenaline is kicked in. There's this. Winning refreshes you. Growth refreshes you and keeps your spirits up and makes you have a company, an environment that people want to be a part of and want to join. And so that's the rising tide that raids all boats in business or any activity is growth. You're making things happen, it's working, and then everybody is elevated. And you could really, you could really look at a lot of things in life and say, divided it. Is it making things better or is it just going down? And where you're treading water, you can have people doing the same thing for 10 years and they. I've got 10 years experience. No, you had one year experience 10 times. Because in the last 10 years you've just been doing the same thing you learned the first year. And so it was great to hear. You recognize that at an early age. And I don't even know how well you think at this stage, but you develop some really good insights and really great operating principles along the way. And talk to me. You hit China, okay? Boom. The plane lands in China. You make your post. I'm in China. And now reality sets in. What was reality? When you hit the ground in a country over there and you do not know Mandarin. And I don't know if you had a network of friends over there, but what was the reality when you hit China?

The reality is that I had booked a family to stay in because I figured they want to learn English, I want to learn Mandarin. The best way to do it is really dive into the culture and live there, part of the family. So I get there and reality is that there's a son 21 years old, there's a daughter 12 years old. And so the son was the deal that I teach him English and he teaches me Mandarin. I was like, oh, that's great. With the caveat of the guy doesn't speak English at all. It's like you and I don't speak Mandarin at all. So I was like, this is going to be a very, very hard conversation. So the parents will speak English, the son doesn't speak English. The only person that speaks English is the 13 year old girl. So. Which is not great, but good enough to just have some conversation about the food, basically. And you know, you're having breakfast and suddenly you realize that you're eating chicken bones and breakfast, the real story. And I was like, okay, this is gonna be very interesting. You realize that you're two, two hours off with a, with a, with a train all the way to your university. You realize that's like a one hour and one hour back and then it's freezing cold because it's, you know, February, super cold. And you realize, what the hell did I get myself into? But I feel that's the best things in life. Because sometimes if you overthink things, you won't do it. Like, if I knew all the things that I had to do right now, running the business, I would probably said, never mind, I'm going out. Like out. But once you're in it and you're on that boat, you realize, okay, I just need to push a little bit more, a little bit more. And then you suddenly realize how much you've actually pushed the boat. And you're like, oh, wow, we actually got really far. And it's the exact same moment. He's like, okay, I'm, I'm now here, might as well deal with it. And so I lived there for about a month where I realized, okay, this is not going to work out. I need to find a solution. And so I moved in with, with three Latinos. And then my, also my new girlfriend, which was Chinese, she was from Norway, that she spoke a little bit of Chinese. She was also learning Mandarin. It Was like, oh, great. We just, I booked a room. It was like 90 bucks per month because we shared a two bedroom with like five people. I was like, okay, that seems to be a better situation. Let me do this. So, yeah, it was a fun first month, I would say now, as you.

Got going, you got your feet on the ground and what you said, what you said right there is. And this is the initial shock that we all get, no matter whatever it is new we jump into. It's like all of the things on the brochure that we saw of whatever, kind of like all the great things it's going to be to have a business, to go to a country, even vacations, you know what I'm saying? You take a vacation to go to Hawaii. It's unbelievable. Yeah. But there's a lot of steps you got to go through. And the reality is almost never matching you thought you were going to get, especially at starting. But what you said was, I'm here, I might as well make the best of it and let's push it a little further. Let's just see how I could push forward. And you were making progress. And it's those little incremental goals, you know, it's like you can have a goal of greatness. But I heard one of my early mentors and lifetime friends, Art Williams, said, everybody's got a goal of greatness. What they lack is daily achievable goals. You know, at least I can get through, you know, this. I could. In fact, I heard, I was, I listened to a Seal team guy talk, and he talked about he had 30 days of hell to go through with a Seal team training. And the way he did it was, he said, okay, when I wake up in the morning, you know, like at four in the morning, you know, they've got to do this big run. And he said, if I could just make it to 8 o', clock, it's 4 in the morning. It's like, if I could just make it to 8 o' clock for breakfast, you know, then I'll worry about what'll happen after that. Then after breakfast he said, if I could just, you know, we eat lunch at 11:30. He said, if I could just make it to 11:30, you know, I don't have to make it the rest of the. I just have to make it to 11:30. And he just locked in like that. And then it was like, I can make it to five o', clock, dinner. And that. He said, I did that for, I think he said three months. But he said, that's how I made it through that training. But that's kind of thing. You just take it in bite sized chunks.

It's the same thing if you think about for like a marathon or like running, like I do a lot of running. And so it's the same thing when you're doing a marathon or anything like a sports, like endurance sports, you, when you train for Malta, you don't train for the entire thing. You train for 2/3 of it. And if you can make it to the 2/3, you know you can do the last on your mental. And it's the exact same thing. It's like if I can just make it just there, then I know I can get to the next step. And if I get to there, I know I'm. I just. The rest is mental, basically. And they always say the body gives up first and then the mental comes in later. It's the exact same thing basically.

And so as you. And of course you had that in your mind from your athletic background too and hockey as well. And so you get over. When did you get the idea of starting, did you start a business in any of your businesses?

Actually in China I absolutely didn't. I partied like crazy. I went to India. I there is where I had like my first business in the sense like I wasn't, you know, I didn't get a lot of cash so I needed to do something for money. In China, I actually, you know, gave tutoring. So I actually learned. I actually tutored English class, which was 16 bucks per hour, which is a lot for China back in the days, which was great for me in that sense. So I was actually tutoring Chinese kids. Never tutored anybody in the line. I was like, okay, teaching people how to do English. And then I realized I had to also correct their homework, which was not paid, which I was like, oh, this is a horrible job. It pays the bills and I'll just do that for now. And then in India I was giving dance classes. So I rented a rooftop, which I got from a friend. And then I was doing European dance because everybody wanted to be European. So I was teaching them dance classes. I made some money out of that. I was working in a shop selling scarves. You know, I did pretty much everything just to get some cash off the ground and make sure that I could survive at that point. So I wasn't saying it's entrepreneurship, but it is surviving, I think, which sometimes is also a business just trying to survive. So I was at that point more surviving and trying to get some cash in the bank than really thinking about, okay, what's the next big thing I have to build. But I was at 19, I believe I started, really my first business.

Now, why did you. This is an important thing. You were in China, and all of a sudden now you're in India. Now, you did not quit on China, but I think. Would you say you got your curiosity satisfied about what was available in China in terms of options for yourself? And you said, since you had an Indian influence in your life, I'll go to India rather than. I'm not ready to go back to Belgium yet. So I'll. I'll swoop through and. And check out India. Was that what was your thinking? Was.

So my thinking was, I need to leave for one year. So I got a business plan for a year. And so my parents gave me half the money that they would usually pay for college. They gave me that, and I was like, here's the money, half of it, and then figure it out. So I knew that I was going to do two countries and China. I learned Mandarin, was a school, an intensive course for like, eight hours per day for like, six months. So I got my diploma of Mandarin. So I'm like, okay, now I can move to the next thing. And then when I moved to India, I learned Hindi. I don't know why. I was like, if I'm gonna travel, my mindset was, if I'm gonna travel, I just don't want to go party every single day or just like, they do nothing. Like, just travel. I really want to learn something and just, like, be busy with the mind. So I went to China, and then I went to, you know, learn Hindi back in India and just like, you know, discovering yourself. I think most people, they think that they know themselves at 8 years old. I didn't. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do in my life. I was interested in everything. And I feel like back in the days when your parents grew up, they had like, six to ten choices to study from now, when I really counted them, like, I could choose to go to school. And I was like, in just. Belgium was like, 124 choices. Because they're all combined nowadays. And like, okay, I have no idea what I want to do here, so let me take a year and just, you know, figure it out, basically. I did not figure it out, by the way.

Okay, how did you get to your. Your first adventure? You kind of rattled through those. Those first things. Were they just things to try or you started to figure out? I Want to run my own thing? Were you making contacts? Were you observing other people? And how did you get. How did you migrate over? I don't want to be just working for somebody else doing these things. I want to get and run my own thing.

Yeah. So the first business idea I got because I was studying in Antwerp, and then it was at the end of the year, there was people leaving, like, mostly Spanish students who were leaving and they had to sell the furniture very quickly because they graduated. Had to leave like seven days later. And I was like, oh, there's an opportunity of buying it at a cheap. And I was like, oh, let me just rent this thing out. So I used. I had 500 bucks in my account. I bought 450 bucks of, like, furniture. I spent 50 bucks to get, like, you know, a van to drive around it. And so my mom actually had to help me because I didn't have a driver's license. So I actually had to. So I spent 500 bucks on inventory. And I was like, oh, now I'll just, you know, be able to sell it easily. So I started developing a Shopify website, took pictures of it, and then I started uploading the picture. The chair was actually like this. I was like, how do I get it there? And then I started talking to Shopify developers. They're like, yeah, that's going to cost you $15 per day, per month, per hour. I'm like, it's too expensive. So I ended up having 500 bucks worth of furniture still right now to the day in my mother's basements is still there as, I guess, a memory to the quotes. But, yeah, I just saw this opportunity and was like, what's the worst thing that can happen? Burn through all the money and then, you know, I'll just make that back some. Some way. So, yeah, I. I just tried it, I think, for three months. Just like I called it the stud dream, because it's a student dream that you can rent the furniture because you don't have to buy it up front. You know, all this thing, it completely failed. And I think the biggest lesson I take away from that is that I've been there talking about my, you know, my business because I really thought that. I'm not sure if you have in the States ikea, but it's a very large manufacturer. I thought IKEA was going to steal my idea, was so stubborn. I was 20 years old, you know, with 500 bucks in inventory, I thought IKEA was going to steal my idea. So I told nobody until the point, you Realize that's like the worst thing that you can do. Unless you're developing some really high tech whatever thing, it doesn't really matter. What cares is the numbers, the growth, the business you build around. It's the distribution network. That is what really matters. The ID is worth nothing except if you actually action upon it. So yeah, that's my first lesson I learned there.

Well, the thing is, it was, you know, you got a $500 souvenir there of furniture. But you know, do you know that? And I'm sure you do know. People go out there and make the same stupid mistake and fundraising hundreds of millions of dollars because they get excited about an idea and they have contacts and they have people who will. They're good enough to sell it, but they don't know how to do the business. And they haven't thought it through any more than you did your deal. And it's usually in software development. Software development is like a bottomless pit of money. And so it was in the past. Now with AI, all that's changed. But the thing is that that was a good lesson. Even though it cost you five, it was very, very good lesson. Now let's talk about how you got up to seismic, which is your first big success and that you just exited from.

Yeah, so I guess like when I was doing so I did this, I had cocktail box, so I did a coffee bar in between. I lost all my money. I actually sold cocktail boxes and that actually sold for the exact amount that I lost. I was stubborn enough to I just want to sell it for the exact same thing. It was just my stubbornness and it actually worked out. And so when I sold it, I was like, okay, what do I do now? And there was people reaching out. I was like, hey, you know this website you created and this marketing and the branding around it was super cool. Can you like do that for me? I was like, I started economics, not really marketing, but I mean, if you want to pay me for it, I'm happy to do so. So I started building newsletters and all that stuff. This is really tech years ago, like the first mailchimp campaigns. And so that kind of grew into to an agency because suddenly we were servicing, you know, big clients. So we had some of the biggest clients in Belgium here. So I was like, okay, that's great. Now I can actually do this, that. And so we, we sold it the first time without like, it was just a client deal. So they just bought the clients, I think about two years ago or no, five years ago. Then I joined an agency that was then around 10 people. We grew that to about 130 people. And I was like, okay, that is a little bit too much. This is too corporate for me. I need to get out. And so then I started SASB again and I think we sold it about nine days ago is when the official signature was done and you know, the money transfer was done. So that was about nine days ago. So it's been an interesting journey, I would say. But yeah, we were basically, for the last, I would say eight years, I've been servicing software clients in the marketing, which back in the days everybody wanted to do E commerce. I was like, what's this new thing, software? I don't understand anything from this. Let me just do that first. So yeah, we started very rational in that sense.

You bootstrapped that thing, which is, it's an incredible thing to be able to bootstrap your own company and not have people sticking their nose in your investors sticking their nose in your business. And it's, you know, very rewarding when you can build it up to seven figures. How did you learn the idea of going from one person to where you have 130 people? There's a lot of skills, management skills in there. A lot of, you know, there's a lot of steps, a lot of moving parts. How did you navigate that? How did you put that together?

I don't think there's like a book for it. I mean, there's books for management, yes, but I think once you're in the field, you kind of just swing it. And I think some people do have a natural talent for it and some don't. And I think what you need to understand in life for yourself is like, what type of person are you? Are you like the solopreneur? And are you like, I just want to do everything myself. I don't want to have to talk to anybody. And for me, I just realized that I'm very interested in a lot of things and I'm very bad at a lot of things. And so I have this very broad vision, but I'm not really particularly good at anything. So I knew that from the get go. I need to build a team in order to operate much better. And I think when I graduated, somebody told me I was like, you're a very good starter in things, but once that is faded out, you need a team to support you. That. And that always stuck with me. I was like, okay, if I ever build things, it's not going to be solo. Like, I'm not The solo guy to operate. I am the team guy to operate. And this is also when we started. Better pick. So, no, I think, Larry, for me, I've always, you know, thought about it, like, what type of person do I really want to be? Is it the solo guy or is it the team guy? I think you need to figure it out for yourself as well as, like, am I the person that wants to build, like a solo company, you know, not have too much responsibility? Because once you start growing, you have responsibility over other people. And so I think for me, I early on realized that I'm just very bad at a lot of things, but I'm very good at a lot of things as well. So I just didn't want to be the same specialist. I wanted to be the generalist. And if you want to become the generalist, well, you kind of need to have a team for that. So. And anything we've done, I've always tried to build a Rockstar team. And I think now I, you know, looking back, that holds a tremendous value. And I'll give you a comparison. So I started the company. So better pick December 2024, 2023. And a little bit earlier than that was another company called Multiverse that started the same company that was AI headshots. We did AI headshots. We were doing 1.5k. They were doing 1.5k back then as well. And so they were able to grow until in August, like six months later, to around 30K. And we were doing about 5 to 6K. We were, like, looking up to them. It's like, oh, wow, they've done it with three people, three co founders. They already started way earlier, but they had that advantage. But we, like, from the moment we start the company, we say we're going to beat them easy. And the reasons why we're going to beat them. I also jumped on a call with the founder and say, we're going to beat you. It's just a matter of time. And the reason why is because we're actually building Rockstar Team around what we're building. You guys are keeping it bootstrapped. Three founders, not hiring anybody, trying to make a living, a living from it, and just saying, okay, we're just going to cash out a little bit, have some fun for us. We said, we're going to be the number one. We're going to beat you. We're going to have a Rockstar team. And that's why we're going to win, basically. And that's also what happens. They actually went From, I think 30k now down to 5k per month. And we basically skyrocketed all the way to 7k just because we build a Rockstar team around the product, which I think holds huge amount of value. If you can do that right, that's basically. That's basically building a company, I would say. So, Yeah. I just realized I just needed to have a team to rock in that sense.

Yeah, that's really, really on point. And it's great to take the mystery. The purpose of doing this thing is to help people on the way up and also refresh in our own minds. Ricardo, what we did right and what I like to do with people like yourself is kind of. Cause a lot of times you don't even realize, well aware of what we're not good at and what we don't do, right? But a lot of times we don't really realize that when we do something right, that it's something that most people don't do. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, like, people will follow you. I'm sure if you had people follow you around right now for a day, they would say, wow, how do you get all this stuff done? It's just amazing to see how you move through life. And you'd look around, what am I doing? You know, it's just. I'm just, you know, I'm just working. And that's how, like, Mr. Beast has he. He trains his CEOs by half. He's young, so he could still put up with us, but he has. He has them live with him for like three years. You know, he's got three people around him and they just, like, live with him, go everywhere, and they see how he does everything. And eventually they become, you know, clones of him. They know how he thinks, how he acts. And the thing with you, what you did there, when you bootstrap it, you have to do everything yourself. And so that really trains you. I'm pointing this out to take the mystery out for people who think they're overwhelmed by. How can you go from managing hundreds people or traying, you know, it's because you've done the job yourself and you're not bringing in a hundred people all at once. You're bringing them in one or two at a time. And what they're doing is they wind up helping you and you wind up offloading onto them things that you're doing to make your life easier. And pretty soon it frees you up to do other things and to train somebody else on Something else. And over time, because you know what they should be doing, you can train them to be really good. And so that's an advantage folks you're gonna have. If you are bootstrapping and you are kind of a one man bandit right now, or one woman bandit out there having to do everything yourself, it can change as you succeed. You're gonna grow and you're gonna run out of hours and then you'll add people on and then you'll get them to help you out on the thing that takes the most of your time. And then step by step, you can build a team if you get your fundamentals right. But I rarely hear people say this because it was the way I looked at it. It's like I didn't want to build a team, I wanted to build an all star team or like you said, a rock star team. I think people that are running businesses, leaders could elevate instantly elevate their efforts and their results by changing their attitude towards the kind of team they're trying to build. If your group knows that you're trying to build an all star team, a rock star team, they're going to want to play to that level. They're going to have pride in that rather than, well, we built a company and we have a management team, but the idea of doing great things, you gotta have a rock star team if you're going. If you're gonna have rockstar results. And where did you get that idea?

I mean even to add to that is that it's not just to. I think people don't leave companies. People leave managers, teams or like people in that sense. So I've always learned that from, from the get go is like, you know, when people leave or left the company, it was never like, yeah, the company just, you know, doesn't understand me, was the manager doesn't understand me or my teammate just sucks. And I think that is a very important thing and that is a huge benefit when you get it right. And I think I read this from the book from, from Netflix. He, he calls it talent density. And I love that word because it basically says I don't need 50 people, I just need very good five people. And that is a lot more worth than having 50 average people. And that comes with huge benefits. And I'd always think about it every single month is like, do we still need this person? Is he still like a rock star or not? Because if he's not, then we need to rethink this strategy. Because people like, I see this now when we're hiring talent. They're like, oh, wow, this guy is on the team. That guy is on the team. It's like a football team, right? He's like, wait, that Rockstar is on the team and this one is on the team. I want to be part of that team, not the other team. I don't care about the compensation. Like, of course you care about at some point. But once you have your average needs met, that's not really what you care about anymore. You care about, am I learning? Am I in a Rockstar team? Are they playing that game? Wow. I need to step up my game. So I think that has huge amount of value when you can build a company and you look at these people as these guys are playing on the same team. Wow. And that you know you're going to win. Not just because you maybe haven't figured out the right channel. I mean, we have now a company, Better Big, which is growing, but now we have two other things that we're doing and not growing yet, but we know that we've built a Rockstar team. And then from there we'll figure it out. We'll figure out going left, am I going right? We put the right people on the bus and we'll make them drive the bus. They'll figure out where to drive the bus. We'll just have to provide the needs to make that happen. And that's exactly what we're doing right now as well.

Well, we're getting ready to wrap up this part of the interview and I'm going to ask you to stay around for a few minutes and after we finish this section, because I always film an extra behind the scenes segment for my big hitter community. And I always like to give the guests the final word. But before we do that, in terms of better pick, talk about why people would want to do business with you on Better Pick. What's so great about better pick?

I guess the simple word is we care. And if you read the reviews, that's actually what people say. And you know, the funny thing is we have one thing. So AI technology is something that evolves quite fast, but it's not perfect. And we realized that one and a half years ago. And so when you read the reviews, why people pick us, they, they'll mention like, it wasn't great at the beginning, but man, I got response in 15 seconds about an issue and it was solved in eight minutes. That's insane. So we're the only company, I believe almost in the world that has actual 24 support of humans helping you out on the product that isn't that, you know, cost heavy. But we believe that if we can help you with your issue, you go and you're super satisfied. You're going to tell everybody that's what we bank on. And so I think that is the reasons why we're winning is because even if it's not done the right one first, we're going to help you 247 around the globe with humans actually helping you out to get your headshots. And I don't think you see that everywhere. Like, I don't think if you go to any website in the world, you can actually have 24. 7 support happening.

And so you're. The business is primarily headshots, right?

Yes. The first business a better pick is headshots first.

Unbelievable. And everybody's needing headshots right now and always have. And so what a great, great service because before if you wanted to really get a professional thing, you had to go look all over town, if you were in a big town to find out, you know, everybody does headshots, who does the good one? And you know, you go in and they got camera, you know, so, you know, it just expedites the process using AI. You don't have to get on a plane and go to New York and deal with some of my friends up there that are pros in the headshot business. And so in fact, I've got to check back in with them and see how they're using AI because, you know, they're very clever, I know they're probably finding a way to adapt, but you've really got to, you're using. Here's what I liked about your profile, is that you're on the way up and you found something, a cutting edge technology and found a practical, usable, sustainable type application which is getting headshots. And you built a functioning, super profitable business around that. It's just the role model for. We should not be running from technology, we should be running to technology to see how can we use it. It should not be intimidated because like you said, you don't have a big degree in computer science. And this, you know, you didn't come out of Silicon Valley and this, that and the other. But you're right in the middle of using AI to create a whole new business. And so I really admire you for that, Ricardo. And so I am going to ask you to hang around for another couple of minutes. But before to wrap this segment up, what would you. I always like to give my guests the final words. What would you give to people who've been listening to this final takeaway line that you've learned that you think right now in your heart that this could mean something to the people out there that are listening?

Well, I was just having a walk with my partner. We're just going around. We live in the middle of nowhere. And so I believe I told her. And I love this quote that I've been using in every single decision I make is what's the worst thing that can really happen by making that decision? And that puts everything in perspective. When I, for example, when I started the coffee bar, I invested 10k. I actually took a loan of 9.5k. I had 500k. I took a loan to make that investment into the coffee mart business. And I thought about what's the worst thing could happen is losing all the 10k. And then I still have like 50 to 60 years to repay a 10k thing. Probably I can charge a little bit more extra when I get a job and I have this experience, so I'll be able to repay that quicker. So what's the worst thing that can happen? It's exactly what we did for better pick. We did for everything that we do is like, if you're thinking about an important life decision, think about what's the worst thing that can happen and just do it.

Thanks so much. That's very, very useful information and thought to leave people with because we have to be talking to ourselves as we go through these things. And, you know, if we can't sell ourselves on jumping into this stuff, you know, we never make the move. So thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Thank you very much, Larry.