This content was created by Scott Duffy. This content was uploaded by Scott Duffy. This is a YouTube video titled "Matt Theriault: Moving from 'Wantrapreneur' to Entrepreneur" featuring a conversation between Alan Taylor, Scott Duffy, and Matt Theriault. The discussion, recorded on December 11, 2025, focuses on entrepreneurship, transitioning from corporate jobs, and the impact of digital changes on the music industry, with insights from Matt Theriault's personal journey.
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Hi, everybody. I'm Alan Taylor. This is the Microsoft Launch program. We're celebrating National Entrepreneur Week presented by Microsoft. Also check out msftlaunch if you want to follow what we've been doing. Scott Duffy, the author of Launch the book, and you've been bringing some great people here to the show today. I'm so glad to be a part of this. I'm learning a lot. I hope that you at home or. Or wherever you might be are learning also. That's what it's all about. These stories are very inspirational. So far, so good. I've learned a lot this week.
Well, I'm so fired up about our next guest, Matt Theriault. And Matt and I go back. We're good friends. And one of the things that I love to talk to you about, Matt, to kick things off is you started in a big company in a big industry before kind of moving out of that life and shifting into entrepreneurship. There's a lot of entrepreneurs out there today. Like, they have a vision, they have an idea for a product or service they want to take to market, but they're afraid to take that first step.
So those are wantrepreneurs. They want to be an entrepreneur, but they're stuck maybe in a corporate job or in a dead end job. And maybe you can help.
What advice could you give to them?
So when I got out of the Marine Corps, I did spend the next 15 years of my life in the music business and living my dream. Pursuing the passion life came very easy. I would hardly even call it work. Did very well for myself. And then this thing called the digital download came along. You might have heard of it. Yeah. And basically turned the whole music industry upside down.
Oh, yeah. I have some friends that were, I mean, devastated, right? Yeah.
Yeah. And every music store went out of business. And, you know, when you're in the business of selling CDs and your distribution channel shut down, it's really tough to stay in business.
What did you call those things? CDs.
Oh, yeah. Come back in. And of all people, the grocery store manager, who we happened to be the exact same age, and he had noticed something was definitely wrong with me. And he put his arm around me and kind of told him just what I told you. And he said, come up to my office. And we went up to his office and he said, you know, Matt, if you want your money back, you got to do it in real estate. Real estate is the final frontier where the average person has a legitimate shot at creating real wealth.
Wow.
And I was just like, ding, ding. That's what I was waiting for. But another thing I realized at that point was, I'm here. This is. This is what life is for me unless I do something about it.
And you were going to do it for me fresh out of the military at that point.
Or you had for a while, probably 10 years out by that point.
Okay, wow.
Working in a big industry, the music industry, and then something. And this happens to a lot of us. We're in a business and we're doing well, and something completely outside of our control knocks everything sideways. And that's what happened to that industry.
And it happens all the time.
Yeah, it does.
That night I grabbed a bottle of wine from the shelf and I went home. And it was just the wine, Google and myself. And I just started tapping in everything, real estate. And I came across a really interesting figure. Was that from. I was on the Department of Health and Human Services website and they had identified the 1% of the wealthy and how they got there. And 74% of that 1% got there either through business ownership or real estate. Either they made their money in real estate or.
