In Paris for our Investor AGM - Comparison to £300m revenue, £250m exits and perspective - Doc Ep 93

Yo, we're in Paris. Short video. I just got stopped in the street by three Parisian guys I guess or three guys in Paris who are French. Always fucking amazed by the ratio of like subscribers I seem to have versus like in real life encounters. I feel every place I go in Europe are pretty much the world without sounding ridiculously exaggerative, if that's a word. Seem to get stopped by someone that watches the pod. I did watch the pod and always blows my mind like Barcelona recently, Bali before that, Dubai recently and Paris today. I'm like oh I love your I'm like what do you mean love my shit. Oh my videos. Because I must Forget I make YouTube videos now and then. But anyway didn't film today when I meant to. I'm in Paris for three nights. We had the FSV five season ventures through our main investor AGM today where I spoke well presented me and David rmd. I always get super fucking nervous about speaking. It was a lot of their LPs to their investors what that means limit partner their investors and them and other portfolio businesses. Some that are way fucking bigger than us. Some that have gone from like our scale to 300 million plus in a few years which is super inspiring and also scary and some that are younger than us, that are recent investments that are fucking bigger than us. Which I guess instinctively makes me feel like a idiot because I'm like well why am I not that big? But different categories etc. But it's always good to hang around with people, businesses, etc groups that are levels above you and that was definitely the case today. So yeah, super interesting group. Founders of smaller not many smaller but founders of brands, LPs, investors, acquirers met the M and a guy from Nestle for example. Stuff that you just couldn't I guess in the room if people you wouldn't be in otherwise. So it's definitely one of the big benefits of having I guess tier one venture investors. And who else? I guess everyone that's at the fund today. It was a good day. We send it a bit. Is that a word? At some rooftop with a beautiful view tomorrow. It's like some workshop thing. This is like an annual thing which I've not been to before. But yeah, nice to get away from the usual routine and actually realize that I guess what we're doing is pretty decent and at least a lot of other people think it's cool. So yeah, presented. I get super fucking nervous presenting in public or like public speaking for some reason there's only like 20 minutes but I always find I'm super calm and prepared, but when I get up on stage or in front of people, I suddenly get mega heart rate. Both. Super high heart rate. I've had about seven drinks tonight, by the way, so apologies. I'm not the most coherent and articulate, but yeah, usually get super nervous and then end up thinking that I sound worse and look worse than I actually do. But when I come away, people say it was pretty good. So that's what happened. It's a good skill. I want to get better at doing that. Just talking in public in general, speaking in public in general, presenting in public. But yeah, it was 32 degrees today in Paris. What the fuck? It's never been that hot in my experience, like ever in the uk. Well, probably has, but it's very, very, very hot day. June 19th. It's Friday tomorrow. Feels like a Friday today, but it's not Saturday. I need to work tomorrow. But there's a few things going on that I'm running a relay marathon randomly on Sunday as part of this event. Said I'd stay for three nights rather than one. Change of scene relay. And yeah, I was meant to train today but didn't because I'm on a program with the coach right now. But this is the problem when sometimes you have to make sacrifice. Yeah. The other cool thing that happened was I met a guy that was from the portfolio he was in, I guess, ultimately similar position to me a few years ago. And he sold his business for 250 million in 2022. He didn't own all of it, but he made, you know, fuck you money from that. Which is very inspiring because he told me that he remembers feeling like me about looking at other brands. And I said to him, after that he came as just a friend of the fund, I guess, and he said. And I said to him, well, you know, thought went pretty well. But then this other brand I'm not gonna name, you know, younger than us, and they're in the fund, they've been invested in by the fund and they are much bigger than us already and this brand are much bigger than us. And I've. I just told him I don't feel that confident all the time about this stuff. And he was like, well, I was. I felt the same. And I actually, if I felt the same when I was in your position. And we ended up exiting for 250 million a few years later. So I don't know, it's a small thing, but like, not many people have done that and not many people were less People. Not many people have done that any. Sorry about fucking. I ate drinks tonight. Not many people have done that. And even less people have done that and can share that perspective on particularly how I'm feeling and said that they relate. They remember relating to it. So yeah, I thought it was cool. And it just reinforces the point of if you can meet people that have done similar shit, which is very rare, which is again one of the benefits of having a tier one investor that have invested in people that have actually got good track records and had exits and then you get to meet them, then you should meet them because gives perspective to things, makes me think differently, makes me think more positively about all the challenges I'm going through. So anyway, yeah, that's enough for tonight. I'll catch up tomorrow. I will take you on the next few days. Should have filmed earlier. Didn't. Didn't feel appropriate filming in the agm, the meeting and the presentations and so on. But yeah, we'll catch up in a bit. Bosch.

Work session in the hotel room.

Trying to lock in often hard.

I need to go to a co.

Work cafe but I've yet to find.

One that's nearby and I had no charge.

So we're dialing in here for like an hour. Get caught up in a bunch of which I'm very behind on after two days at this agm and yeah, I'll get dialed in.

Hell, it's hot in Paris. I haven't vlogged like this since I was like 21 on my old channel actually, which disappeared on YouTube. So if you've not seen that and you want to see it, someone help me get it back. But yeah, it's 32 degrees, been out in co work space, a Starbucks and now back at the hotel room. It's very strange. There's actually two doors. I'm clearly showing my lack of YouTube skills here. I do love a very cold hotel room, which this is because the UK right now is mafting. Obviously no one in the UK has got aircon, but yeah, pretty cozy here for three days. As I said, I think on my rather tipsy clip the other night, which I don't know if I'm going to post all of it or even any of it. So been here for three days for the five seasons who are leading Buster who are based in Paris, their AGM never been before, came here, had to pitch. Well, not pitch presentation to their LPs like people like Nestle etc who are investors in their funds, the investors in our investors. And yeah, I'm not very good at public speaking. I think I might have had a clip of that, but I didn't film on this camera, so I was here. Pure sport were here. Coro.

Who else?

Tallow and Ash air up a bunch of businesses between like, you know, smallest being like 5 mil, rev, biggest being like 800, not 800, 300 million. Revolution only. I then spent a day yesterday on Friday in their office just doing like a marketing thing. And it's kind of one of those things you often think, oh, it's just another marketing workshop. But actually when it's brands of that scale that you can relate to and actually learn from, it was very fucking inspiring, to be fair. Yeah, I just think often I don't really mix with founders as much as I used to and I think mixing with ones that ultimately got the same investors and are on a similar path to really build a category leader and try and sell. Sell it one day and exit it. It is a bit different to just like Chad scaling bootstrapping stuff. There's pros and cons to that. Maybe I'll make separate video on that, which I've kind of always spoken about before, but shied away from that subject a bit because I don't want to say the wrong thing or, you know, give my opinion and people don't agree with it. And I just feel like it's quite a sub, a topic open for a lot of debate and I don't know if it's the most productive one to put on YouTube. But yeah, anyway, I mean, it's super interesting. Sharing the room. There was a big send on Thursday night with investors and so on, which is always good as well, with Beautiful view. But sharing the room yesterday with particularly probably Talo and Ash, I don't want to blow smoke up their ass. The numbers they're doing in the second year is just crazy. And for me, I probably always think, I mean, you can probably tell from this channel. I always look at myself and think I'm doing pretty shit. And speaking to them made me feel like I was doing pretty shit. But also just because they're so humble and nice, relatable and normal. Yeah, it's kind of just like, fuck. Just need to take away what I can from brands that are crushing it like that and maybe apply a different mindset to certain things. And yeah, we're not going to too much detail, but very valuable. Inspiring just to see people that have gone through similar shit and actually reached the numbers and there was like a guy from another brand that sold for 250 million previously a Five Seasons brand. And he came up to me and said, I think I made a point in the presentation that, you know, I felt sometimes felt pretty underconfident because there's a lot of people crushing it in the room and kind of said it flippantly. But I think he could tell that I was being serious. And he related to me and he said, but we went through a really fucking tough time for a few years. And I think he was nine years from launch to exit and 250 million exit, which is, yeah, very much fuck you money and exactly where I want to get to. So that was cool. He's like 10 years older than me and I think that gives you perspective because often I'm chasing like, I don't know, like I'm 30 next year. And I used to always think, I don't know, I'll have 50 million by 30. And if I haven't done that, then I've fucking failed. But firstly, I'm not gonna have 50 million by 30. That's just the reality. But secondly, I could have it by 33, 35, etc. And yeah, meeting people that have actually been through that and relate to that mindset and then I've actually achieved the thing I want to achieve, not just spoken about it and flexed on Twitter like a lot of people is super, super valuable and inspirational. And I don't use those words lightly because I'm very cynical of a lot of things, but when you know someone is genuine, it's just fucking powerful. So, anyway, I'm rambling. I'm doing a 5k leg of a marathon relay thing tomorrow, so that's going to be like a 5k road PB attempt, at least for this year. Not going to get close to my 2022 PB of 1730, I think it was, but that was with the rucksack on. Probably could have gone quicker, but I can go like 1830 sub 19 at least would be nice, given it's 32 degrees. Yeah, Fuck me, it's hot outside and it's bright in it. But yeah, I was slightly hungover the other day. Did a 20k run with Dan from Puresport.

That was cool.

I should have filmed that. It was beautiful. Views, like sunset. Didn't bring the camera, but yeah, it's been a good trip and I will catch you in a bit.

At the Paris group marathon with Mr. PureSport and others. I just ran a horrendously slow 5k, but I was rather hungover from last night. Was fet de la musique or something street festival. But I thought I'd rock it anyway and got pretty rugged. But back to London today. Hopefully redeem myself in the next one. Pure Sport run Club Best will never have decent space kids merch, so I'm now a pure Sport fan even.