Movers & Shakers Ep 4: Ryan Mundy of Alkeme Health

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Welcome back to our 4-part miniseries, Movers and Shakers, where we highlight entrepreneurs and investors who are shaking up the way it's always been done. In our final installment of the miniseries, we sat down with Ryan Mundy, founder and CEO of Alchemy Health. You may recognize Ryan's name from his previous line of work as a Super Bowl-winning safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Through 8 seasons in the NFL, playing across 3 teams, Ryan built a personal foundation of grit, endurance, and character. After retiring at 31, Ryan embarked on a self-discovery journey to learn about his identity outside of football. This led him to spending time both on the investing side at TechLead Ventures and starting his first company, Swizzle, a sustainable CPG brand. Outside of the professional context, Ryan and his family faced an unfortunate number of personal health crises that year that shed light on the healthcare inequalities facing millions of Black Americans today. It was through this lived experience that Alchemy Health was born. Alchemy is a digital health platform that features content from Black practitioners and respected experts in wellness. Including psychology and mindfulness to tackle the issues that are historically unaddressed by health tech, such as intergenerational trauma, systemic racism, anxiety, and microaggressions. Alchemy is slated to launch January 2022. In today's conversation with Ryan, we explore insights and themes such as endurance on and off the field, building an ecosystem of culturally competent care, and healthcare's future in America. Let's open the door.

Ryan, thank you so much for joining us in the room today.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to talk a little bit more about my story.

We're excited to share it and dive in. So, you definitely have a more untraditional start to your career in tech than most of our guests. After graduating from college, you joined the world of pro football. I have to say, sorry up front that I am a Seahawks fan, Seattle girl through and through. You got your start at the Pittsburgh Steelers, where you actually played in the Super Bowl and then went on to the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears. What were some of the learnings that you had through this really unique experience and period of your life that ultimately has informed who you've become, which is an entrepreneur?

[Speaker:JASON] Really great question. And I've been blessed and fortunate, as you mentioned that, to play in the NFL for 8 seasons. And my life has really been built around football, 24 years in total. So it took a lot of hard work, endurance, and so forth just to make it to that point. And then having the understanding, the fortitude, the hard work, the endurance to play 8 seasons. There's a lot of life lessons that come with that. And my job was literally to run into people for a living, to make a living. That builds some things up in you. And I had to strip away the physical act and really understand who I am as a person. What allowed me to do that for such a long time at a very high level with some great organizations? And it's like grit, determination, hard work, endurance, integrity, so on and so forth. Those all sound like really great characteristics for a business person as well. And I spent a lot of time in introspection thinking about how to transfer intrinsics, taking them from the football field into the world of business.

The first time when I first moved to the US, the first time I played like a flag football in like PE class, I got pushed and skidded knees and ended up in tears. Having to do that as a pro football player for 8 seasons is like really quite the feat. Could you tell us how you deal with some of the mental side of playing football, like the fear and the anticipation, having to deal with like actual, like physical hardship on the field?

Literally, you have to take it head on. And particularly, no pun intended there, but especially when playing defense, there's something about playing defense that you have to have a different mindset on the field. Instead of trying to avoid contact, your job is to go towards the contact. And so that mindset of, like, attack and really being aggressive and pursuing is, like, the mental landscape and a foundation that kind of really set the stage for me. But then also too, just thinking about the game of football overall, like, mistakes are made multiple times throughout the practice, the game, so on and so forth. And there's a saying we said throughout the game or around, "Play the next play." Good, bad, or indifferent, you gotta shake it off, get back up, and play the next play. Until the game is over. And I really, I've been relying on those principles and concepts to carry over into the world of business.

[Speaker:MADISON_MCILWAIN] I'm also really intrigued about just that lack of control you have as a football player. I don't know if there's any other industry where so much is decided for you, who drafts you, like how you work with your agents, you know, where you're gonna go next, getting sent to another team, getting injured. Personally, as a self-proclaimed control freak, that feels like the hardest part. How did you deal with that part of the job where there's just so much going on around you, but you just have to control you?

To bring another saying that was commonly said throughout the game, you have to control what you can control. Understanding that, like, again, a lot of the decisions that you laid out or scenarios that you laid out are beyond your control, but there is an element of you owning, taking ownership, responsibility, and accountability for the things that you can control. And that's around like your performance, your attitude, your effort, so on and so forth. So that's again, like a really important principle that was applicable for me throughout my entire football career because it wasn't a bed of roses. Everybody thinks that, "Hey, you're so lucky. You made it to the NFL. You played 8 seasons." I busted my ass to get there. And it was not always a straight line paved with roses, so on and so forth. There was a lot of failures. There was a lot of hardships. There was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears literally that were shed. That's what I preached to my team was right around like playing the next play and thinking about, you know, how we can just continue to grow and develop because those are really important principles.

There's quite a few nuggets of wisdom. The idea of playing the next play. A few of the other founders who have come on the podcast have mentioned, hey, as a founder, it's really important. Just pick a door and go through it. Just keep going, make a decision, continue to progress. —because resilience is one of the most important components of being a founder. And it seems that's incredibly applicable in the world of pro sports. Could you talk to us a little bit about how your time on the field has trained your muscle in being a resilient founder?

I love the word resilience. We had a saying— I'm just full of, like, football sayings today— but this one is from high school. We had a sign in our locker room that said, "To achieve, you must endure." And that was— that really meant, again, it's not going to be paved with roses. You got to fight through the adverse situations. Specifically as it relates to endurance, I think about top athletes. I think about Tom Brady, think about Michael Jordan, so on and so forth. Obviously they've been blessed with great skill, but what really separates them is their ability to exercise that skill longer than most. And what is that? That's endurance. That's staying power. That's conditioning. And not only on a physical level, but on a mental level too. And so the ability, whether we want to call it resilience, whether we want to call it endurance, that concept, just having that fortitude and that staying power is a particularly important as an athlete, but also as an entrepreneur because again, early-stage startups, startup life in general, it is not for the faint of heart and you will have to exercise that resilience and endurance.

[Speaker:MADISON McILWAIN] So, let's talk a little bit more about how you did in fact exercise that endurance as an entrepreneur. After you left pro sports, you had many roles from managing director at TechLead Ventures to being the co-founder of Swizzle. Tell us about your early days in venture and entrepreneurship.

It was all over the place. I'll be 100% honest with you. The backstory there is around like I retired in, retired in 2015 and I had just got my MBA from the University of Miami and I was highly determined not to be another statistic around substance abuse, bankruptcy, divorce, whatever it was. And so I didn't know how to really apply that MBA or like what I was going to do next. I just knew I had one and I had tried a few things before, but somebody had told me about the world of just like startups and entrepreneurship. And around like Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, all these folks were angel investors in the companies. And I was like, okay, that's cool. I don't have as much money as those guys, but I need to figure out what this looks like for me. And so really just took a dive headfirst into venture and started cold reaching out to a bunch of people and saying, hey, and the subject line literally said, Ryan Mundy, Chicago Bears. I knew it would get people to open it and my hit rate was like 90%. It was crazy. But yeah, I was just shooting a bunch of shots trying to figure it out. And I knew that I could get in front of a lot of people. But I say all that to say I was looking for to find my flow. Like, what was the thing that I was going to find that passion, that feeling, that, that again, flow that I had for such a long period of time playing football. That's what I was searching for. And so it was a very windy road from investing in startups, getting on the other side of the table to starting Swizzle, which is a lifestyle company because I was with TechLead. I did the angel investor thing for about 18 months, but got burnt out because I was doing it by myself and I was using my own money. Not a sustainable or scalable strategy. And so I wanted to get on the other side of the table and just see what was available or get some experience in sitting in the operator's seat. And with a Petri dish type opportunity, I started Swizzle in the summer of 2018 when the world was— well, when straws or plastic straws were the antichrist, no sustainable solution in the marketplace. And a business partner, we just started a lifestyle company, CPG product, reusable straw for $9. And it did pretty well. And we ran that business for 2.5 years and sold it last year. Around this time last year as I prepared to focus in, dive in on Alchemy. But, and also in between that time I was doing like Bitcoin and crypto during that like 2018 wave. It was crazy back then, day trading, the whole nine there. But I say all that to say, like I was trying a bunch of things, learning as I was going, developing my network, so on and so forth, and really found my passion. All that winding road took me to where I am today with Alchemy, and I wouldn't trade that for the world.

Tell us about the moment where you were like, you know what, I'm going to become an entrepreneur. Like, this is who I am now.

I didn't know. I had no idea. I didn't even know what startups were until I retired from the NFL at the age of 31. That's my— that was my first time learning about venture capital, these apps and things like that. But you don't know. You don't know, like the backstory, how the business is built, finance, so on and so forth. It just shows up on your phone. Oh, all right, this is cool. I had no idea I was going to become an entrepreneur. Just fell in love with The concept of ideas, making those ideas a reality. The risk profile was attractive to me too. Just thinking about what I did for such a long period of my life playing football, most would call that like high risk, if you will. Like running into people over and over and over again for a very long period of time, I would call it high risk. But that was my normal. In so many words, like those types of scenarios and just like levels of performance, that's what I was looking for. And that's how I think I found entrepreneurship.

So it's 2020 and you sell Swizzle successfully.

You're playing around in the crypto market.

The world is your oyster and you decide to start Alchemy. Walk us through the decision to go into really a relatively new field of healthcare and mental health for you to launch what has become Alchemy.

Yeah, so there was two paths as it relates to me retiring and, and walking away from the NFL. I talked a little bit about the professional path, tech leads, Wizzle, crypto, so on and so forth. But there was like a personal path as well. And that personal path was lined with anxiety, depression, identity issues, trying to figure out who and what I was when I was no longer tackling somebody. It ended up being a positive, but I think there was definitely some searching, trying to find my thing that was correlated with the personal path there. And, you know, when I went into the marketplace, this was like 2016, to quote, "go see a therapist," I knew I needed to to talk to somebody and try to work through these issues. Because I left the game of football, like, emotionally hurt and also physically hurt. It was not a happy ending with the Chicago Bears when I walked away in 2015. That's the case for most athletes. Everybody thinks that you retire and you have your press conference and who'd you retire with. It don't work like that. They say, "Your services are no longer needed. Goodbye." And it is not a pat on the back and thank you. It's not that. And so I was emotionally and physically hurt and knew that I needed to work through those issues, so on and so forth. And when I went into the marketplace to get help, had a really rough experience. Went through at least 5 different professionals who were speaking to me directly as Ryan Mundy the athlete. And I was really forward-looking, saying like, "Look, think I'm done with football. I don't need more context on that. I need help as figuring myself out. Ryan Mundy the man, the Black man, the husband, the father." And just wasn't getting that. Sometimes people would be— 'cause I was trying to figure out if I was even gonna go back to play football. They're talking to me about how much money I can make and all this. I'm like, I don't give a fuck about any of that. Sorry, can I cuss? All right, cool. I was like, "Man, I don't give a fuck about any of that right now. Like, I need, like, real help and support." And eventually found somebody, but that's where the concept around therapeutic alliance and the importance of cultural competency really showed up on my radar. My personal experience with mental health started as a retiring athlete, but also during this time, like, my family was going through a laundry list of chronic disease and illness. Type 2 diabetes, amputation. My grandfather passed away on my birthday from Alzheimer's and dementia. My father-in-law passed away from a heart attack had a heart attack, my grandmother had a stroke. A lot of things were happening health-wise in my family. And so like I was going through what I was going through, my family was going through what they were going through, and it didn't feel like there was anybody really focused on addressing these issues through the lens of like cultural competency. Now professionally, like I was in the startup world, was seeing a lot of ideas and all these other things. And I was like, all right, healthcare seems to be verticalized. Where it's moving in that way. There's platforms for men, there's platforms for women, there's platforms for the LGBTQ community, but there's no platform specifically focused on what we believe is the most influential community globally. And we are also one of the most at-risk and sickest communities globally. So there's a huge imbalance there. And so with that imbalance and having that professional experience in the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem, I said, this is a really interesting and big problem to go after. And I got to work on Alchemy.

Thank you so much for sharing that lived experience with us. And it's incredible that you had the mindset of, this is a problem I see in the world, I'm going to solve it. And just taking a step back, we talk a lot about opportunity and access and what you do with that as an individual. And particularly, I'm just shocked by the fact that you're playing on primetime television for 8 years. I can't imagine someone who would be, in theory, better equipped to get the care that they deserve and that their family deserves. But for you to have this experience at probably one of the more extreme spectrums of access is just—

we need to do better. That was my exact thought. I'm like, man, I'm going through this and I've been blessed and fortunate to have resources and I'm still having a really hard time getting the care and support that I need as it specifically relates to my mental health. I can go out and get whatever I need to get except for that. And then with that thought is, okay, well, what's happening on the South and West Side of Chicago? Or the north side of Pittsburgh or the east side of Detroit. If I'm having a hard time, then yeah, that— those communities are really suffering. Yeah.

I'm glad Alchemy Health exists to get started on solving this problem. You've touched on it, but tell us a little bit more about what Alchemy Health is as a company and then the mission behind it. For sure.

With all that backstory now in mind, I was like, all right, I'm going to go out and start this company, but I didn't know where to start. I always had the vision and the mission to become what's now, as a stated mission, the universal healthcare provider for the Black community. I knew I saw just a massive gap there and I wanted to do— but with that, like, where do you start? Because the healthcare system has holes in abundance, and specifically for our target audience, it's unfortunate, but in some circumstance you could put a blindfold on, throw a dart at the board and say, "This would be an interesting starting point because it's messed up from A to Z." But really wanted to have a really strong foundation and starting point and thought long and hard about what that looked like. And just given the climate and the context of the past year, mental health just jumped out off of the screen. And that's where I really took a double-click on my experience and really started to unpack it even more. And I said, there's definitely something here. Our mission at Alchemy, again, is to become the universal healthcare provider for the Black community. That mission is rooted in mental health. Currently, you could think about our platform as like Peloton for Black mental health. We make livestream and on-demand therapist-led content videos, which we call Labs, that function like a masterclass, if you will. And again, so these are led by clinical, culturally competent clinical professionals from across the country who cover different subject areas and their subject matter expertise in these areas. So everything from generational trauma to being Black in the workplace, love and relationships, so on and so forth. We have experts who have a vertical and they deliver Labs in that vertical. And again, those are both in livestream and on-demand format. And then we also have audio-first product, which we call Waves. And that shows up as guided meditation, sound bath exercises, affirmations, body scans, so on and so forth. But they're all again led by culturally competent practitioners. We wrap all of this into a monthly, well, subscription-based model that comes in both for a monthly and annual price. Monthly, we're coming in at $14 a month, annual, $70 a year. And so it's all rooted in access because the spectrum is again really messed up. And specifically as it relates to mental health, it's like stigma is a big deal. And then once you get over your stigma, you're talking to yourself or your group of friends, you'll start to get some content on Instagram. And then it's a big-ass jump that says, "Go see a therapist." And there's nothing in between. We're building a platform to fill that gap in between.

You've been busy this past year, Ryan.

Yeah, we've been hustling hard.

My own experience with mental health, I really wanted to find a provider that shared my faith and something that I couldn't— it was— there was no way to filter on that, both through just like a database online or through my own like healthcare to say, hey, this is the kind of therapist I'm looking for. I want them to have this lived experience. There wasn't the database and access. So I can only imagine when you're looking for someone who, whether they share your race or can speak to your particular life experience, there actually just is no way to search right now online. It's pretty tough, slim pickings.

And again, when we talk about specifically like our target audience and We know that statistically less than 4% of all clinical professionals are Black or of color. And that makes it really hard because the starting point for our community is just to say, I'm looking for somebody who looks like me because I'm hoping that they understand my experience. That's not always a one-to-one correlation there. But again, that's the starting point. And so there's a huge supply and demand imbalance. And that's why, like, our one-to-many model paired with the format is like a great starting point. And so it was all around like thinking about like, how do we immediately get people onto a palatable on-ramp towards being more proactive as it relates to their mental health? Because, quote, "Going to see a therapist is really hard to do." Really hard to do. It's time-consuming. It's expensive. Like time-consuming to find one. The access barrier around cost, like one in-person therapy session will cost you $100. That's inaccessible for most Americans, but, you know, particularly compounded for our community. Time constraints, geographic constraints, so on and so forth, make it really hard for people to, again, quote, "see a therapist." Absolutely.

I was going to ask about the supply and demand question because I've heard similar statistics around the number of Black providers. How is Alchemy thinking about building up both sides of the market?

Great question. I think about a lot in this company, but right now, like, we're one-sided, one-to-many model. And the great thing about that, we're looking for the best of the best to come onto the platform and democratize access. But like, where can you go to find access to the leading expert, culturally competent expert for generational trauma? Like you couldn't get on that person's schedule, but on our platform, you can have access to our content. So that's been like a, a really strong positioning for us so far. But we do know that there is a, a really interesting opportunity to build up the community of Black and Brown therapists as a whole and think about future opportunities around like marketplaces, so on and so forth.

Love to have you come back on to talk about that in a few years. We'll get there. But this year was an exciting one. 2021, you announced your seed round with Forerunner Ventures and our friend KJ over there. Congratulations on getting that over the finish line.

It's amazing when I think about the journey and where I've come and what we're building and the opportunity moving forward. I'm extremely thankful, but this round and all of our stakeholders are, are amazing and super thankful to be aligned with the Forerunner team. They've been a part of our story pretty much since day one. We raised around a capital previous, uh, to this round and they participated in that round, which we closed our pre-seed round around almost a year ago to the date, and they participated in that round. They were big believers in a guy with a dream, let's go out and change the world. And I'm super, super thankful to be aligned with them so early because obviously, like, they have an amazing track record and such a massive boost of confidence and a vote of confidence to say, we see that in you. So, uh, my job is to make them right.

That's amazing. I just want to touch a little bit on being a Black entrepreneur. Excitingly, investment in Black entrepreneurs in America was up almost fourfold in the first half of this year, what I found on Crunchbase is that it was about $1.8 billion venture capital dollars invested, which is incredible on the surface. However, when you take that individually exciting number in the context of the year we've had, which has been quote, the biggest deployment of capital in the first half of a year in venture capital's history at $288 billion, that number doesn't look as exciting. So with less than 1% of venture dollars, even after the conversation that was prompted through the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020, what would be your personal call to action for this ecosystem to do better?

[Speaker:JASON] It's a problem that I've seen on both sides of the table now. So reflecting back to the days where I was investing in startups and that granted me a lot of access into how the other side of the table thinks, operates. When I go into places and conferences, I'm the only person that looks like me. And so I started joining and understanding like my level of access and opportunity just given based off of my previous career, started to show up in a bunch of rooms as the voice and the representative for like Black entrepreneurs and how to think about democratizing the flow of capital. On that side of the table, one, I think the dynamics of just like how hiring practices of VCs— now the hiring practices and starting to fish in other pools is critically important, but even just thinking about like the hiring structure or dynamic of like venture, right? There's 5 people managing a shit ton of money. So it's not like a 100-person company where you get more shots to. So I think that constraint, that inherent constraint on how it's set up, makes it even more challenging. It's a massive conversation. Sometimes there's a belief around like Black and brown entrepreneurs only creating Black and brown businesses. I think there's a big stigma around that. But I started a Black-focused business. And so I could speak to— there's two sides to it. One, don't put Black and brown founders in that box. But if we do so happen to create a business around that, understand that's still a big fucking opportunity. That does not mean because I started a Black mental health company or a Black health digital health company, that's a small opportunity. That's a massive opportunity if you understand it. But the thing is, most of them don't understand it. And so there's some things to be addressed and tackled there too.

I recognize that it's not your role to teach us how to do better in this ecosystem. So I appreciate you giving us your perspective so that we might learn and just for our listeners to just hear a little bit from someone who has been through multiple iterations of their career as a Black man in America and has found a way to now be in a position of power to amplify the stories that you've seen and heard. So, I just wanna say thank you for sharing sharing that perspective with us here. No problem.

Thank you for the platform to do so.

We've chatted about the future for the industry and your mission and vision for what you're solving. I'd love to zoom in a little bit and just ask, what's next for Alchemy?

Uh, we gotta launch. That is what's next for us. But in all seriousness, we, we're fully focused on preparing for our official public launch of our mobile app, which will be iOS only on January 4th, 4th, 2022. I'm putting a hard date out there to make sure we get it done. Yep, check in on that. But now we feel really good about where we're headed. We have a lot of fun stuff planned for the top of the year. It's an optimal time for us and our product and our audience. Heads down on that, thinking about the future. We're hiring, which is never not a thing, but it's just been such a, uh, a real joy. And I, I think one of the, the better parts of the process so far, because again, given our mission and our vision I think I get to experience another side of people in a more vulnerable way. People are like, there's some meaning to this company, right? And that comes across the table because, as you guys probably know, a lot of people hate their fucking jobs and they don't feel connected or they don't feel like there's a purpose in their work. And that rings true every time that I have an interview across the table. And that's probably been one of the most rewarding feelings, knowing creating something that makes people feel that way and can— they could see themselves finding their flow here.

We're so excited for that. And then also, congratulations. As a seed stage founder myself, I know how important it is to celebrate that launch and how much of a massive milestone it is because there's just so much kind of blood, sweat, and tears that goes into that moment. Even though it feels, oh, you've launched, that's the beginning, there's just been so much that has led up to that. So huge congratulations. Talking about the wellness and health ecosystem overall, we chatted about what's next imminently for Alchemy, but how do you see the overall wellness ecosystem evolving over the next couple of years?

Yeah, that's a great question. We'll continue to see more in-home care. We'll continue to see more decentralized care. And also as well, we'll start to continue to see more segmentation around like target audiences and really like more specialized care, if you will, specialized programs, specialized X, whatever it is. I think that just overall, like healthcare, elderly care will continue to be a thing. We are an aging country. There will be a lot of focus on that end of the spectrum as well. My high-level thoughts. And then Alchemy just becoming like a world-class mental health company.

We're excited for that prognosis. We're talking to our amazing group of listeners who are often aspiring entrepreneurs, but often don't have like your traditional tech founder background. What advice would you have for an aspiring entrepreneur who's really passionate about solving a specific problem that they see and identify with, but might not have software engineering background or have grown up in, you know, the venture capital ecosystem?

A few things. Go for it. Do not let that stop you in any way, shape, or form. But when going for it, there's another component to it. Know thyself. And so, understanding where you are deficient and where you'll need that help and support. And then the third part is surrounding yourself with that support to go out and build something, to put an idea into the world, to form an entity. Like, you can center yourself there and then having that understanding of yourself and then going out and building around yourself, that's the skill set that matters most, not necessarily whether or not you can code.

Totally. Not only are you providing impact with Alchemy, but you're also involved in quite a few other causes outside of your day job. You're on the board of the Alzheimer's Association, Chicago The Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, and the NFL Players Association. Tell us more about how you got involved with those organizations and also what advice you would give young entrepreneurs who might be interested in joining a board to support a cause that they're really passionate about.

This was all happening during that time period where I was running Tech Lead, running Swizzle, day trading. It was a lot. It was a whole lot. It was a whole lot. That all just stems from like capacity. I'm always looking to grow, develop, learn, and make an impact. But how I got connected to those, so like, the NFLPA. I've always had a heart for player, player wellbeing. I was a player while I was an active player. And so like the business side of football as it relates to our union has always been important to me. And I still do a lot of work with them to this day. I've talked a little bit about being a voice for Black and brown entrepreneurs and also investors. So that's what ILGIF is. ILGIF is the Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, which is like a state pot of money allocated to investment managers, and they have this specific carve-out for like Black and brown managers as well, and providing strategic advisory there. Chicago Blend is a really great initiative in which we're thinking really hard around like, how can we democratize and make a more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem for Chicago-based entrepreneurs and also investors? So really excited about that. And then the last one, the Alzheimer's Association. So my grandfather passed away from Alzheimer's on my birthday in 2017, and I just sent out a tweet acknowledging him and him passing away from Alzheimer's, and they actually found him. And it was— he was a really important part of my life, and it was a great way to honor him. And it is a great way to honor him, but also making a massive impact for a really important cause and disease. So I really enjoyed my time there so far.

That's awesome. We chatted a little bit about the kind of the causes that you're really passionate about, and we're coming up on the holidays. It's a great time for reflection.

So what's next for you personally outside of work?

There's life outside of work? I'm joking. That was a joke. Bad joke. No, my family. I have two daughters, you know, so I spend as much time as I can with them, my wife, our dog. Definitely family time is always important for me. Personally, I've been doing a better job of just like being a fan. Again, there was a time where I was very anti-sports. Don't talk to me about it. So I'm really leaning back into being a fan of like my former teams, going to games, stuff like that. So that's been like a I think on a personal side of things, just something that I've been really enjoying doing. And hopefully I can start to travel a little bit more.

If Claudia and I are still doing this in 20 to 30 years, we'd love to see what your daughters are up to and potentially have them on the pod sharing their founding stories.

That would be great because they should be able to found— they're on Roblox all the damn time. There you go. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, you guys. All right, let's go. Let's figure it out. Start them young.

Our closing question that we ask all of our guests is something that is near and dear to our heart because we've had incredible mentors and sponsors in our lives who have uplifted us. And it is, who is a woman in your life that has had a profound impact on you?

That personal path and professional path that I laid out in that 4 to 5 year period of transition, when we talked about it, I was doing a lot, a whole lot, making progress. And we talked about some of the, the most positive things that have happened during that time period. But I bumped my head quite a bit too. And my wife gave me that space space and agency to allow me to have that agency to go out and find that and to make those mistakes and to learn and grow and pursue. And I was very thankful for that because I understand that probably wasn't easy for her, but I'm super, super thankful and appreciative and understand how that time period could not be— that could be hard to work through. I'm trying to find myself, so on and so forth. So very thankful for her and her patience during that time period.

Thank you so much for sharing all of your many journeys and experiences, Ryan, that have made you who you are today and have built the mission and vision behind what Alchemy is going to become, which I have no doubt is going to have an impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals in America and beyond. Let's not think small. So thank you for taking the time to chat with us and share with us vulnerably about your journey into that.

Thank Thank you so much. I appreciate you both.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Room Podcast. If you're new here, please subscribe, follow, write us a review, or DM us on social. We'd love to say hi.

See you in the room. All opinions expressed by Claudia Madison and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of the 5EC. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

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