Why This Young Person Left Child and Youth Care To Work in Tech - Bits & Bytes with Samson Li

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to our season finale. And just as we always do, we are wrapping it up with a challenge for one of our launch team members. So today we actually have Samson here. Unfortunately, our counterpart Sam is on vacation, so we have replaced him with our duck Nana. Is that what it's called?

Yeah, I think it's still called a duck nana.

Duck Nana. So now this is a very hot commodity, but, yes, we have.

Is it still? I don't know if it's still.

I feel that maybe we'll give it like a year or two and then you'll find the bids on ebay.

Yep.

Stocks, Stocks.

We know a thing or two about that for sure.

All right, so as I mentioned, we have Samson here today. And of course, because he is part of the team, we, we are ramping up the food challenge aspect and are going to take a little bit more of a fun spin on today's episode. So for those of you that are just listening in, I would recommend to actually check out the full video on YouTube when you get a chance, as you do not want to miss out on this.

I heard the questions Gene asked me yesterday were like, are you lactose intolerant? And what's your spice level?

I think it's something around that, yes. So actually, before we get into it, how about Samson? Let's just talk a little bit about yourself. First off, who are you? What do you do for Launch? And, yeah, just a couple fun facts about yourself.

Sure. Okay. Yes, hello, my name is Samson. For those who don't know me, I am the community manager here at Launch Academy. I started really, like, about a year ago, I guess in January of this year, 2022, but it might be next year by the time you listen to this.

Yes.

But, yeah, my name is Samson. I'm currently the community manager. So as a community manager, I try to connect people and build events and try to help people build relationships with one another. And we'll get into my history around that later. But, yeah, that's what I do for work, outside of work, my interests. I love playing video games. Like, love trying a little bit of everything. I mostly play shooters on PC. I like to click heads, as they say. I like to go to the gym a lot, I guess try to stay healthy. But at the same time, I also like to eat, so it kind of negates me.

It's a balance.

Yeah, exactly. And, yeah, I just try to be an optimist about most things. I try not to be too negative. I like to try to see the positive side of everyone, everything. And that's how I live my life, day by day.

Awesome. Well, Samson, it's great to have you on the team.

Thanks.

Samson is one of our. I guess you are the latest addition that we have to our team now.

So I guess so. Yeah.

You can still call him the newbie, even though it's been a year.

So I'm still always learning. Always learning every day.

Exactly. All right, so let's get into the kind of more challenging questions here.

Oh, really?

No, I'm just kidding. No, we're not going to do the trivia yet. We are going to be testing your knowledge on Launch Academy as well as some trivia around Ray. Of course. This will really test SAMHSA's knowledge of how well he really knows Launch and the team here.

Okay, Good thing I'm doing this now.

After I'm hired, before exactly your probationary period's gone. So we're good.

We're good, everybody.

But yeah, let's just talk a little bit more then about, like, how you came to launch. So, like, what were you doing before you came to launch and kind of, like what got you interested in applying at launch in the first place?

Yeah, so my background's actually not in business and tech at all. Like, I always grew up loving or interested in business and technology. Like, I think my earliest memory of this. Do you know the Scholastic Book Fairs?

Oh, yes.

In elementary school, so there were these book fairs, which is like a catalog where you can go and buy books. But I didn't care about the books. The only thing I cared about was this thing called a pda. Personal. No. Yeah, Personal Device Assistant. It basically looked like a smartphone, but before they were all sleek and cool. It had, like, buttons on the bottom and it was a touchscreen, but you can type in all that. So I really loved that. And I think that was kind of my first realization that technology is something I'm really interested in now. The story goes a completely different way because as I grew older, I graduated and I actually first went into sound design for visual media. So working in sound in, like, movies and video games. Went to vfs for that, and I did the course and I worked for about a year or two in that industry, and I found out that I actually didn't really like it at all. I didn't like sitting in an office all day, which is kind of ironic. Sorry. Not sitting in an office, maybe sitting in, like, a lonely studio.

Like, almost like a cubicle, but like, in a different environment.

Yeah, but my cubicle is a Movie theater, kind of.

I see, I see.

But I didn't like doing that every day where you would do a little task, send it out to somebody that's not in the same building as you, maybe across the country, and then you get notes back and you just back and forth and fix the entire time. And I didn't really like that. Like my body physically ate from sitting so long. So I kind of took a step back and reevaluated what other interests I have. And at that time, well, it's still now I really like psychology and working with kids. So then I went into a child and youth care counseling program and I got my bachelor's there. And then I started working with kids. And I worked with kids from like as young as, like 3 years old all the way to 18, so kind of the whole spectrum. And I worked in schools and summer camps, alternative schools, respite homes, and I mostly worked with kids that have either behavioral needs or like they have special needs. And I did that for a long time. And I enjoy it, I still do. But I think because of COVID I got burnt out. Part of that journey was that during COVID I was still going into my school sites and doing hands on work with kids. Like we had masks on and there were extra safety precautions. But compared to everyone else that got to work from home, I thought that was like pretty unfair. On top of that, the wage for child and youth care stuff is not great at all. Like, I'll flat out say it like, I've only made 30,000 a year, 30k a year in Vancouver, which is not, not good at all. So that made me take a step back and be like, okay, am I able to do this for the rest of my life? And I pretty much came conclusion that it's not really something sustainable here in Vancouver. And I don't want to get too ranty about it because it's kind of sad that the people or the people that are in charge of the next generation and having to lift them up, they get paid so little to not even be able to live in Vancouver. So from that experience I started looking at other avenues and launch caught my eye because they were looking for a community manager, someone who was good at building relationships. That's pretty much all I did with kids was teach them how to make friends, how to control their emotions and how to be a good person. So I knew how to build relationships, I knew how to organize events that help build relationships as well as I had a lot of technical knowledge from my time at VFS and from my time doing, like, Twitch streaming on the side and just general computer interest things. So I checked a lot of boxes, I applied and then went through a couple interviews and I got in and so far it's been great. Like, this is super cool. I get to be super flexible, and this set I got to play around with as much as I want. And yeah, now I'm one year in and having a good time. Yeah.

But one year in, he still gets confused for Sam and Samson, you know.

Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of similarly named people here.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it's. I think it kind of gets confusing because, you know, when you start typing out like a message and you write Sam, then the first thing you want to write is like, Sam. Or maybe it's Samson. So anyways. But yeah, no, like, I do think that you did touch upon, obviously a very sensitive touch, or I wouldn't say sensitive, but it is a point where I think a lot of countries are. North America especially, I think, has a problem where the education system is kind of failing their workers. Like, I think especially in the US as well. And like, Canada feels this quite prominently as well. Like, our teachers, our childcare workers, all of them are being so underpaid and they're literally taking care of the next generation. But, you know, it's. It's a tough situation. Like.

Yeah, because. Because I do genuinely care for all my kids that I've worked with. A lot of the kids I work with are good people. They just had a really. Are we allowed to swear on this? A really. A really bad hand at life. They had a lot of unfortunate life things happen to them, and they are trying their best. Same with all the families. Like parents, they're always trying their best to. To be good people and do what they need to do to survive. But that kind of work earns you so little and the commitment is so high that for my own, like, mental health and physical health and all that and like, just being able to afford a place in Vancouver, like, I couldn't see myself doing that anymore. Would I go back to it? I 100% would if they paid, like, just a living wage. I think. I think the breaking point was. Yeah, like, that 30,000 was like, that was that. Well, that was after taxes and I had to pay for my transportation to get down to work every day. And I calculated how much I'd be saving. I'd be saving like 20 years for a down payment. Like, anywhere in Vancouver. Yeah, yeah. But I do still love the work. Like I still do it on the side, but now I'm more picky and choosy about who I get to work with and what families. Because, yeah, organized is just not enough.

And I think you also touched really a good point on, you know, putting your own, like, health first. Like, I think that is something that fortunately, either you don't have the luxury of or. Because, yeah, actually most of us might not even have that luxury. Especially if you're living in a city with super high living wages. I mean, sorry, super high living cost and unlivable wages. Yeah, it's. It's extremely tough. Like, you really have to kind of choose how to balance your life. And not everyone has that luxury to be able to choose in the first place. And especially when you're working. I know in, like, the childcare system or education system, it's really just driven by your passion and love for working with children and trying to make an impact on their development and growth. But it can only really go so far.

Yeah, definitely. And like, like, what did we learn in school? When you're on the plane, when the oxygen masks drop down, what do you take care of first? You put your own one on first to be able to help your child or the person next to you. So I was kind of at that point where it was like, hey, I have to take care of myself first to be able to help the next person. And I don't want to get too, too personal, but I don't have the hardest life in the world. I have stable house and food and transportation, but if I ever want to go farther than that, I had to make some hard calls.

Yeah, of course. And like, you know, honestly, I don't think anyone should feel ashamed for, you know, choosing yourself first because I think, you know, it is a tough thing, especially if you're so used to putting other people first that when you do transition to being like, oh, wait, no, like, I realized, no, like, I have to take a step back here and protect my own health, my own mental first, before I can take care of anyone else. And, you know, it is kind of rough to make that transition sometimes. Yeah, a lot of courage. And even then when you do make that step, it can still, obviously.

Yeah, yeah, no, it is. It is tricky because I remember when I think it was, yeah, around this time last year was when I, like, made the hard cut to be to say, like, I can't do this anymore. Like, like, well, I think I switched school boards. And the way the school boards work in Vancouver is like, they don't really talk to each other, but they share a lot of similar structures. But I basically jumped from one school district to another and my two, three years of seniority in the first one, and that's a whole other thing. Seniority in the first one, I pretty much went back to zero. So I had to reset from the start. It reset and I had to start all the way from the bottom. And that was kind of the. That was kind of the breaking point.

Well, I'm glad that you decided to make a call for yourself. And now you're here with us at Launch Academy for one year. And there you go, you're on your own episode. Now you can share your story about what's going on and also be at the whim of some pre experimental challenges.

Okay, sounds good. I mean, yeah, give and take. You know, I want to see that. I feel like I've been through more challenging situations. But we'll see after this.

We'll see about this. We'll get into what's going to be happening soon. But yeah, so another question I guess for you is since you mentioned that you came from a childcare education background and you've also worked in media, so how was it, I guess, coming into tech but also working within a tech startup? Because I think there is quite a significant change when you're going from working with school boards to working within a very small team within a startup environment.

Yeah, that's a great question.

Oh, yeah, of course.

I'm also the producer on these episodes, so if the audio is a little meh, let me know. Let's see. So how was the transition coming over? Yeah, I think the first thing that really struck me the first week was that I got this handy computer right here, provided for me a beautiful MacBook. And like, I still got a computer at my other job at the school district, but it wasn't like, nice, like. And on top of that, a lot of the tools I got were provided for me through the company. I never really had to spend my own money on anything, which is something that happens in childcare a lot or child and youth care is that you spend a lot of your own money with either it's like food or toys and stuff. And I would say 50% of the time you'd probably never get reimbursed or it's not worth reimbursing. So that's always been kind of surprising for me. Let's see, what else? Oh, I know the first thing that I noticed was how quiet everything is, is like when you're In a school or when you're in like just any like child and youth care context, it's always like, go, go, go. Is there something happening here? Something happening there? There's always someone to talk to. There's always someone to take care of. There's always something to do or like repair or whatnot. And I'm not saying like we don't do, we do stuff at Lodge Academy. We just sit around and wait for stuff to come in. But compared to the speed of it all, it was a little slower. So I had time to breathe and evaluate what to do. And at the beginning that felt very wrong. Sometimes it still kind of feels wrong because we get these really busy periods and then low periods. So at the beginning that felt really wrong and I felt like I was doing something wrong for not being busy all the time. When in reality my work in those moments was like, oh, I had to read and teach myself some aspects about the job. I could be doing some caretaking stuff on like the digital side, which is not physical. So that, so it's like harder to conceptualize. I don't know. But yeah, like it felt wrong to, to be so. So we're like low key or like.

To have more, I guess like free time. I think I know what you're getting at and I'd love to also like adding here. Like I understand because when I first came to Launch Academy, it's almost actually four years now, I'm approaching it quite soon.

You're a program manager?

Yeah, and I remember I went from working as an office manager at one of the busiest cactus locations. And yeah, every day was kind of just like go, go, go. I had my list of responsibilities and the day would just kind of fly by. But yes, coming to Launch Academy was definitely a shift in perspective because while we still had our day to day work and day to day responsibilities, there was a lot more, I guess like downtime to put it. But what I learned as well is that, you know, in that downtime was a really great opportunity to start taking on different ideas, pursuing them, different projects, figuring out different ways that you want to improve on. And the really nice thing that I found about working at Launch Academy or just this is my first startup, so I don't know if this applies for other startups but like I just really enjoyed the freedom it has in being able to kind of take lead on what you want to create and what you want to build out. And it's like. And because we are kind of surrounded by entrepreneurs and then Ray, of course Is also a serial entrepreneur himself. It's kind of like. It's very encouraged and is encouraged that, you know what, sometimes your product may fail, sometimes they may never see the day of light. I know there's been a couple initiatives that we've tried and didn't work out, so we scrapped that. But it's just that we have that freedom, really, to just kind of, like, build out things, give it a try, experiment with it. And it's nice to know that it's like, hey, you created this thing, or you were an essential part of building out this project. Like, for example, Bits and Bytes. Samson's our producer. He's the one that kind of elevated the whole, like, you know, the whole production. The whole production side of everything. I hope it looks good.

A lot of it is self talk.

Yeah, exactly. Like before this, like, Sam and I were just, like, sitting in, like, a office. We don't have any of the background or really nice mics or anything, so, you know, elevated the experience here. So sweet.

Well, yeah, no, it's good. And that's one thing I'm, like, really thankful for, for sure, is that. That I was given the room. Even coming in, like someone not from the industry at all. I was given the room and time to grow and learn and experiment. And I was given feedback when it was, like, necessary. And I was given, like, all the supports I felt like I needed to be able to do all my projects. Yeah, yeah. No, and going back a little bit to why we feel like we're doing something wrong or it feels off. There's like a nerdy reason that I learned. It's like the polyvagal theory. Some people are so used to being so heightened all the time that when they do come down and are able to socialize and think and do those projects, it feels wrong and off. And that's kind of like, that's. That. That's something that everyone's able to learn because our brains are all plastic. Like, we can remold and shape in different ways. But it was something that I definitely had to learn. And sounds like you did a bit, too.

Yeah, no, for sure. The initial transition was that. Yeah. Because, like, I guess, like, the. I think most of us can kind of relate to this, but I think we've all kind of gone through some form of job where it was just like, constant go, go, go. Especially if you work in, like, corporate or maybe you worked in hospitality or you worked in childcare. I know child care especially is going to just be like, there's going to be a disaster waiting.

Yeah, well, not always. Like, there's lots of fun times too. I'm like, they're really throwing it under the bus. But. But there is like, there's a lot of great times. But yeah, like in a fast paced school setting, school is only like what, five hours a day out of the whole day? Yeah, there's a lot to cram in those five hours.

Yeah. So you're always on your toes, I guess is the best way to frame it.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah. Well, all right, so I guess I have one last question for you then. So, you know, on the whole topic of, you know, working in a tech startup for the first time, what are some things then that you're looking forward to in the next year? Whether it's related to directly with launch, whether it's looking forward to maybe, you know, working with more entrepreneurs or just kind of like, you know, what are some things that you're excited about in the new year?

Well, really excited to play the new Legend of Zelda. I'm really excited to play Diablo 4. Excited for Overwatch League to come back.

No, I'm joking.

I think a year in, I've gotten the hang of what the routine is here at launch. Even though it took a year to be fair, at the beginning of the year when we started, we were still work from home and then a couple months later was when people started coming in. So I felt like the job changed a quarter of the way through my job. But I think for next year at launch, I think I'm ready to start utilizing the network we have here. We have so many VCs, other founders that have huge exits, so lots of experience from all over the world. I think I'm personally ready to take advantage Is the wrong word. Well, maybe it's the right word. I'm ready to use it for my ideas and what I can bring to either the startup space or to the world. Yeah, in a different way. So, yeah, really looking forward to doing that as well as the Vancouver tech community. And then unrelated to tech, I think I'm also ready to go back to do some child and youth care work. Like I have still been doing youth work and working with kids on the side, but definitely not like, not even part time hours. I think I'm ready to like start doing that again to keep my skills fresh. And it's always good to give back to the world, do some volunteering or something.

Of course, I think it's always important to keep a bit of the passion spread out accordingly to how you want it for me too, on the side as well. I like to keep a little bit of a hustle that brings in a little bit more of my other creativity juices in. So. Yeah, I totally get that. Sometimes you just need a little bit of spread.

What is it? You need three hobbies. One to make you money, one to keep you creative, and some other third one.

Yeah, exactly. You know, there's gotta be a balance in everything.

Yeah. Gotta get, gotta get something going.

Exactly.

Creative. But yeah, no, so far, like, launch has been really good to me. I've met lots of cool people from all over the world. I'm happy that I'm getting along with a lot of people from all over the world and connecting people online.

And.

Yeah, I just enjoy connecting people. Oh, I want to bring up one thing.

Yeah, of course.

A lot of people, and I know this might come up later, is like, how does child and youth care relate to community management or tech? I'm kind of going back to a point I made quickly earlier. But for the record, a lot of what I do in child and youth care isn't like, play some games or change your diaper. It's a lot about emotional co regulation, which is helping them find, understand, give them the tools like breathing to control their emotions so they keep in that, in that ventral vagal state, that calm. I'm ready to socialize, I'm ready to talk and be productive and participate in the classroom, play a game with some friends. A lot of what child and youth care is, is through that. And before you can even do that, you have to be able to be their friend. And that's where the relationship stuff comes in. So that's like knowing how to talk to kids or people, knowing what kind of interests they have, doing their interests when like you don't really want to, jumping on the playground and just like playing in a positive manner. That's a lot of what child and youth care is. It's all about your relationship. So because I know how to make relationships and community, I was able to bring that over here. Although, like kids and founders kind of different. But a lot of those relationship, relationship stuff does carry over, like those counseling skills, those active listening skills, being accountable and all that.

It's kind of like you have the building blocks essentially, or, sorry, the blueprint. And the blueprint still applies no matter what stage in life you are, what profession you're in or you know, where you're from. Like, it's all kind of the same blueprint. It's just a matter of Tweaking it a little bit accordingly.

Yeah, no, definitely. Like, I had to take a counseling class when I was in. When I was in school. And like, I remember sitting back and being like, I feel like everyone should take this class. It's literally about how to talk to people and how to listen to people.

Yeah.

So.

And I think that we kind of touched upon this on one of our other previous episodes, but it is kind of becoming a lot more important now, especially within, like when you're hiring on new employees or you're fostering, you know, scaling up your teams. Having soft skills is just equally as important as hard skills. And so I think it is really important to, you know, continue to work and develop, especially if you are in a management position. It is even more important and essential that those soft skills are constantly being improved and worked on.

Yeah. One thing I've been hearing, I don't know if I've been noticing a lot more nice like hearing and noticing. But a lot of the experts in the industry tell me if you're looking for funding, for example, most of the people doing angel investing or even VCs, they'll make sure that you're a good person first or you're a person that they would trust giving money first. They're not going to just give you money because you have a great idea. They might, but that's not always a guarantee. But a lot of the time people want to make sure that you are someone that could also be like their friend or someone that they can trust with a lot of this money to be able to build up whatever project you're working on. So, yeah, those people skills, those soft skills, how to talk, how to be kind to another person, the quality of the relationship, not just your quantity, not just the quantity of relationships like that all still applies here as well.

Well, for sure.

Part of being human.

Exactly. Maybe we should start some course. Awesome. Well, just trying to be mindful of time here. So I do want to get into the second half of this episode. So as I mentioned, this is a little bit of a more devious special episode segment since we do have Samson from the team here. Since he is part of the launch team, I do have a little bit more freedom in how challenging our food can be. So just want to give a quick shout out to Lucifer's House of Heat. They have two locations now, actually. One in downtown and the second location is now in New Westminster. So Lucifer's House of Heat, as you may tell, is a pretty much has all of the different various hot sauces spices and spicy goods, foods, candies that you can think of. They have everything that is hot. So I did a little bit of shopping, and we happened upon the. What is called the Death Nut Challenge.

What?

Yeah. So as you can see here, it is called the Death Nut Challenge 2.0.

There's a skull on the box.

Yes. And these are the world's hottest peanuts. And each of them have at least a Carolina Reaper powder on them, along with just based on, you know, the different levels, it goes from. I may be pronouncing this wrong, but chocolate Bhutla peppers all the way up to Moruga Scorpion, as well as 13 million Scoville cap. Oh, no, I'm gonna pronounce this very Capsaicin. Capsaicin.

Yes.

Capsaicin crystals at the very most extreme spice level. Okay. So I don't know if we're gonna go through all of these because, you know, I don't want to be liable for any harm or injury.

We don't have a WorkSafe DC filing.

A report today, but here is what it looks like.

It's like medicine. It's, like, packaged like medicine.

Yeah. It has an old pill pocket. There are the different levels on here as well.

Okay.

So there's getting started, warming up. It's getting real. The pain sets in. And then, of course, the death nut, the sales associate there as well, made sure that I got the ones that had the most powder on them, so that I'm getting the most bang for my buck.

Okay.

He also did mention that he was gonna pray for you. Cool.

Cool.

Thank you.

From Lucifer. I got a prayer from.

So how is this gonna work? All right, so I have a series of questions for Samson. We're gonna put him on the spot here. All of these are kind of like different trivia facts or things you may or may not know about Launch Academy. Most of these should be fairly easy. Some of them will be a little bit more challenging. It will really test your knowledge of how well you know Launch.

Okay, cool.

So let's just say every wrong answer, wrong answer, you will need to eat a peanut. Okay, so we will do two wrong answers per level. So this won't, you know, if you happen to get five wrong, you're not going to go right away to the death nut. However, if you do get all of them wrong, then you will end up at the Death Nuts.

All right, sounds good. I'm ready.

So we got 13. We got 12 questions here with a 13 bonus question. Cool.

What do I get if I win? What if I get everything. Right.

I actually did not think of a prize. Maybe if anyone has a prize suggestion to get 100% score on this, then send them in the comments and then we will make sure Samson gets onto it.

Yeah.

Alrighty. So I'm just opening up the package here. So the first level is getting started. So it's Carolina reaper peppers, chocolate bootleg peppers as well. So that is the first level now. Oh wow. I have just opened that and it is. I just got a whiff of that. It is very spicy. I am myself not really a. Oh, okay.

Well, so, so, so like here if.

You like to give it a sniff.

Yeah, it's a little spicy. So one fun fact about me, I have a terrible sense of smell.

Ah.

So. So hopefully I don't smell. But like that's unrelated. But. But yeah, I think that's why like I. I can handle some spicy things is because I can't smell it. So like that smells okay for now.

But you can still feel the pain I'm assuming. Right. Okay. All right, so first question. So this one is the multiple choice one.

Okay.

What date was launch Academy established? A, June 1, 2012. B, January 1, 2012. C, April 1, 2012 or D September 1, 2012.

Okay, well, we had our party in April, so my first guess is to do April, but I feel like that's a trick. I might be right. Okay, I'm going to actually say January. January 1, 2012.

And that is incorrect. No.

Okay, good start, Good start.

The real, the True answer is April 1, 2012. No. So you were correct. We were actually officially opened on April Fool's Day.

Oh, well.

Dang it. All right, so Samson is going to be taking one of the level one getting started. Peanuts.

This one?

Yes.

Okay. I can kind of smell it. It smells kind of funky.

They do say that you must chew the entire contents of each level for 15 seconds.

15. Okay. I shouldn't have drank so much water during the thing. Run out and grab some more later. Okay. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. This is level one.

So how's it taste like? Does it actually taste like anything?

I definitely tasted the nut. Immediately. My mouth is like watering already.

Yeah, you can kind of hear it.

Yeah, it's like coming. So I definitely taste the nut. It didn't really taste too spicy, but it feels hot and it feels like not painful, but it feels hot. I think that's what. Okay, so my mouth is like hot and I tasted some nut.

Nice.

All right, level one.

That is a level one. All right, so I think, I think.

The panic is, like, getting to me too, so getting even warmer.

All right, that was actually one of our easier questions, so. All right, question number two.

Okay.

How many original co founders were part of the original founding team of Launch Academy? Or in other words, how many members or how many entrepreneurs banded together to find Found Launch Academy? A1, B2, C3, or D4.

According to our front door video? Is it 3?

That is correct.

Okay, good. We have a looping video at the front. Make sure to watch it every day when I come in.

Actually, Samson was also the one updating our slides.

Thanks for the gimme.

Thanks for the gimme. All right, our next question. So true or false, Alex Chuang was part of the original three founders that found Launch Academy back on April 1, 2012.

True.

And the correct answer is false. No, Alex actually joined us in September to be a part of the Launch Academy.

Wait, so who is the third person? Or it's like three people founded it and then he wasn't the original two that found it?

No. So there is three founders. I didn't actually write their names.

Don't worry about it. So you have to eat one now.

But yes, we will go back to that later once I have that detail.

If you know in the comments, you can write it in the comments.

All right, so this one's gonna be a little bit tricky one. This is. How well do you know our Walia?

Oh, because I got one wrong.

Yes, that is correct. Oh, my gosh. You could have gotten away with this. But thank you for reminding me.

I have to be. I have to be honest.

Yes.

Okay. Number two or number one?

No. So we got one more. One more one. And then we will move on to number two on your next wrong answer.

Cool. So when do you eat the nuts?

I never eat the nuts.

All right, so not as bad the second time. It's actually getting kind of tasty.

Oh, okay. How would you describe the taste?

It just tastes like a nut with heat. That comes after. I think I actually tasted a little bit of like, maybe like chocolate. Ish.

Okay, so you do taste a bit of the chocolate?

Oh, yeah, yeah, maybe. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Okay.

All right.

But you can, as you can tell, like, the saliva's gobby.

Mm. All right, so this is actually a multiple selection question, so I will give you a hint here. There are three correct answers. So actually to better word, this, which is incorrect, is the best way to describe this. So out of the following work, previous work experiences or professions of our CEO Ray Walia, which is incorrect, A accountant, B, CEO of Razer Technology, Inc. D Owner of multiple Dairy Queen franchises. D Director of operations at Microsoft.

Oh, okay. I say the CEO of Razer, like the gaming brand or a razor brand.

That is incorrect.

What?

Razer Technology was not the same Razer Gaming Interactive that I believe you're thinking about.

Yeah, you know me too well. You knew I was going to think.

That was the incorrect answer. Actually was director of Operations at Microsoft.

Of course we would know if he was at Microsoft.

Yeah. But also, just a little fun fact. Ray was actually the owner of two Dairy Queen franchises before he came to and founded Launch Academy.

Nice. I wonder if he knows how to make ice cream.

Oh, I feel like he might definitely do. Also, Ray, if you're watching this and I'm getting any of these facts wrong, please, I did try to fact check with Sam here, so. All right, all right. So we are now moving on to level two, then. It is called Warming up. This one is a Carolina Reaper as well as Ghost pepper powder.

Okay, I can feel it. It's starting to creep to the back of my throat.

I did see a little bit of flinching here, so I'm assuming that this one.