Ep#22: Founders, Build Your Startup in Public with Cory Blumenfeld

That's when an investor is investing and they literally. That's what you'll always hear, right? I'm investing in you. I'm not investing in this business, I'm investing in you.

Right.

So I think if you apply that and you think about what storytelling is, it's telling your story, why people should believe in you, buy from you, invest in you. There's nothing more powerful than a good story and a good brand, an individual brand.

Welcome to Startups Decoded, where we uncover what it really takes to build and scale startups. Hi, I'm Andy Walsh, founder and strategist. Each week we will bring you actionable insights and real stories. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to Startups Decoded. My name is Andy Walsh and today we'll be looking at building in public. It's a topic that has become very popular in 2025 of people look to get creative with how they build their businesses. And to help me unpack this, today, I've got Corey Blumenfeld. Corey, welcome to the show.

Matt, thanks for having me. Andy, excited to talk about this topic. Every founder I interact with, all we talk about is, okay, well, how do you build in 2025? And I think it really comes down to using your brand to build in public. So excited to chat about this with you.

Yeah, it seems to be the constant. People are trying various platforms, various ways of selling primarily, and investment probably comes alongside that. But as the ability to be consistent in market and tell your story and do that authentically in a world where AI is creating a whole bunch of generic same, same content that everyone seems to be pushing out together en masse to give people some context. I'd love to hear a little bit as far as your journey into venture and some of the things that you've been a part of historically.

Yeah, for sure. And just to add on to that, I'm all about selling without selling. Right. I think today is the, you know, it doesn't mean you're not selling, but today you have this opportunity to really deliver value to people without having to push something to them by just having a channel to them every single day. And I guess, you know, starting there. I've been in venture for, for the last 10 years, don't have a formal business training. So when I got into the business world, it was just like listening to mentors doing what everyone told us to do. Like, this is how you do business. This is what entrepreneurship looks like. So anyways, I'll flash back to the past. I was taking a Course entrepreneurship for sc. I thought I was always going to be a doctor, and I guess that wasn't my path. I had this professor that was like, to me, cory, do you really want to be a doctor? And there's a lot going on in my life at that point, but I knew it was always creative. I had a business before I was in this course, but it wasn't a business. It was just like making money, going door to door. So I was just doing something. Apparently it was a business, and that's what he was telling me in the course. Around that time, I started to believe I'm a very creative person. I'm a little all over the place sometimes. And entrepreneurship, this word that I never heard in my house, became really felt like it connected with me. So, you know, at that point I knew that I wanted to start something, but I didn't know what it was. But at that point, I was still following everything by the book. Find the team, get the idea in place. I don't know, build out all like a business plan, all this proposal before actually doing flash forward a couple years, wound up finding the team, started working on the business in the healthcare space. And, you know, there was a lot of lessons from that, right? It was just follow the book, do what the mentors are saying, listen to everyone else that has more experience. And you know, those are, those are really good experience. I called them my MBA because I learned a lot. Wound up selling that years later. But as I was leaving that business, I was just like, oh my God, if only I could do this all over again. I've learned so much. So the entrepreneurial bug really did bite me. So I started another business where we were selling or we were helping people analyze their health insurance in the US And I brought a lot of those principles like quick iteration, testing. Still really focused on doing what was right, the right way of building a business, where it was just like, put the business plan in place, but quick testing, don't build it until you know that you have some validation. And that was a really, really great experience. You know, during that experience too, I learned that, you know, you can't rely on folks. You have to be able to build something on your own and make decisions on your own. So anyways, I guess we were working on that for three years. Business is still going strong, but I decided to exit and now I'm here. I started building my profile on social media and putting myself out there and talking about my story and my journey. And that made all the difference because I wasn't doing that before, I wasn't putting myself out there. I was just behind the scenes thinking that if you build something, if you follow the plan, if you do what the business books say to do, that's how a business is built. Those books, a lot of them were written years and years ago, not in today's world. And, you know, since I've started creating, since I've started writing on LinkedIn, since I've started putting myself out there, since I've started to do, you know, go against what the books have said, things have started to take off. I started making connections, building relationships with folks, and accidentally, it led me to finding a new business to work on, which is still under wraps, but super exciting because it was all accidental. And it was started from just doing what, you know, going against everything I've learned in the past, which is kind of cool.

It's framing up the conversation today perfectly with what you've just set up. And the thing within that, that I'm hearing is that the ability to trust yourself to a certain degree, from an early stage, from early sales into various forms of. And that was more through immersion and mentorship rather than traditional education, but also looking at, I guess, back of success and being pragmatic about the things that worked for you and didn't. And ultimately, it sounds like that all the things that you've learned, you started sharing and realized that there's a level of commonality or empathy that comes from other founders, and it starts to build connections, really, I think natively, because we all feel that same pain, that same excitement the dopamine hits that you get as well. So it makes sense that you've grown it, because when we first met, I was just so fascinated, like, there's so many things that I could have asked you. And I think everyone has a story to tell, but most people don't either have the confidence or think that others will care. So if you're thinking about starting to tell your story and you don't think that you've done much or your story is uninteresting, is there anything that you'd suggest that people could do to try and overcome that?

Well, yeah, I just want to highlight on this point because I think that you've hit the nail on the head here. I think with all my previous businesses, everything that I did, I thought I needed to do more. I needed someone to help me unlock my potential or join me on this journey.

Right.

And I always knew that I wanted to be a leader. I wanted to lead a team. I wanted to bring ideas to this world. But I was always taking a backseat because I thought I relied on, you know, if you're an venture, you're relying on capital, you're relying on a business partner, you're relying on your team to do things. And so I was always in a back seat. And when you're. You're driving from the backseat, you're just a backseat driver, right? Like, you can't steer the automobile. And, you know, I really started to put myself out there. That's really when it all changed, when I just did, right? Going back to your question of, like, what was it it was just doing for 10 years? I knew I needed to put myself out there. I just didn't have the confidence to do it. When I started just throwing a, pardon my French, a shitty post onto LinkedIn, just, here's what I think, right? It didn't matter if anyone read it. It was kind of like a signal to me that you can do this, you can be in the front seat, you can share your ideas with the world. It wasn't about the engagement, it wasn't about people taking notice. It was just about doing, you know, and initially I was just like, let's just do this once a week. Let's just put myself out there once a week. Because, you know, you have this dream, right? Like, for the question you're asking, it's someone has this dream, they have this ambition, they want to do something right? Yet what's holding them back? In a lot of cases, it's themselves, right? So it was just the act of doing, realizing that it didn't have to be perfect, that it didn't need that whole plan in place, that I didn't need a strategy for posting every single day for the next year. It was just about doing. And it felt so good. I did it again. I did it again. And it became a habit. And I started to build my confidence that what I thought, what I believed in, my opinions really mattered. And it wasn't much, so much to matter to other people.

It's.

It mattered to me. And then I started having that confidence to put myself out there. You know, I think the, the most important thing is just not having everything figured out, not having the whole plan, but just starting that one time. It's just doing right. And, you know, when I look at all the businesses that I've started with my partners, on a side note, it's. We just did, right? Like, I know experience in my first business was a driveway ceiling business. I never done that before. We just did we learned on YouTube. My second business never built a mobile app. We just did. And we built in the healthcare space. The next thing that we worked on the US Health insurance app. I'm Canadian. I am not American. I didn't grow up in the US health system. But we became the experts by just doing so. You know, if my one. My one takeaway from all of these experiences has always been just doing right, the plan will come. But it's really about forming the habit first of just doing and figuring it out as you go.

Great advice, and I can definitely relate. I started my first business in 2012. I was part of someone else's startup the three years prior to that. And just the exposure was great, but I didn't go in at all with anything that was fully formed as far as a plan. It was very much. We had one client that we kind of knew in advance, they would probably come with us if we started it. And we just backed ourselves to do it, bootstrapped the whole thing. And I think back now, I have a playbook now that I've written, but I feel like in 2025, I'm just probably gonna throw most of that out the window because it's changing so fast, but my knowledge is still relevant, right? So I can have authority and give feedback on something. And I think being able to share that is what I'm passionate about, which is what I'm hearing from you, is that people relate to it. And I've got a work now. And it wasn't because of my ego. It was because I want to form deep relationships with people that are either doing the same thing, we can collaborate, we can help each other, whatever that looks like. And I think that that larger community is what keeps founders going to a certain degree.

I completely agree. And this is why, coming back to what I was saying, it's like selling without selling. It's all about the power of relationships, right? The more you put yourself out there, the more likely you are to find people that relate to you, right? Where you can build these deep connections, these deep relationships. And I think, you know, whether we're thinking about selling, building networks, finding your business partners, finding your team. It really comes down to putting yourself out there. You know, so many people are scared to do it. And the ones that really put themselves out there, they. They attract what they need, right? It's like you send that energy out to the universe. It should come back right the way that it needs to come back. So, yeah, no, I completely agree. Like you building that playbook Right. And sharing those learnings, those findings, things will change. But people still want to hear from you because they're probably thinking about it.

Right?

They're asking these questions. They just don't have the courage yet to put themselves out there. But maybe by sharing, you're helping them build the courage, but also you are building that confidence. You're also growing.

Right.

And adapting to the changing environment.

Yeah, absolutely. And when I started the podcast, it was to simplify that at scale. But I find myself still learning, and I say this all the time. If I ever stop learning or stop being curious, then I'm going to tap out and I'll go and live like a hermit somewhere because it's one, it fuels me. But two, I'm never going to know everything. And doing these one on ones, every person I speak to, I'm learning from. And I think that's how we need to treat any kind of relationship, whether it's listening to a podcast, having a coffee, one on one, having a larger team meeting. Like those human relationships, I think are going to help define us into the future in a world that becomes more automated.

Yeah, I love that. And like, that's really something I believe in. Like, people ask me, you know, what's my, what's my biggest takeaway from a specific person? Or like, you know, if I'm talking to someone with years of experience, you know, am I, what am I learning from them? But the truth is you can learn from every single person. If you're talking to someone that doesn't have any experience and you're talking about what's holding them back, there's no, I learned so much about myself through anyone that I have a conversation with. Because if you start to understand what's driving them, what's holding them back, or maybe you're talking about what success looks like to them.

Right.

You can build off of that. Like, these are the things I want to incorporate into my life. This is what's holding this person back. And it's not in a judgmental way. It's that for me personally, kind of sounds like you. I'm hungry for growth. Every day I want to be 1% better. And I'm still in that from atomic habits, but I'm striving to be better in the areas where I have potential, where I can be good. And so, you know, going back to what I was saying before with the writing, I always wanted to be this leader. I just didn't have the confidence unlocked. And still every day I'm working on it. But I'm working to be better. And the only way to do that is by having conversations with people, by learning every single day, even when with individuals that maybe don't define what society says is successful.

Right.

Because you can learn from everyone.

Absolutely. And I think it's quite important to double click on that a little bit as far as LinkedIn and the ability now, which is obviously the main channel from a startup world as far as people sharing and what they're doing. But if you were to listen to everything that everyone said, you would not be successful in a startup. Right. There's a lot of people now with opinions that I don't think are earned. I think they're regurgitated a little bit. So having that level of vulnerability and earning people's trust with your own story, I think today is going to resonate a lot more. And I naturally gravitate to people on LinkedIn that are very human and you can tell with the style of writing and the content how true they are to themselves versus just trying to work the algorithm.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. The people that I follow, the people that I talk to, the people that have a voice on the platform, yes, there's all, there's all the BS on the platform that gets the likes, the follows, the engagement. But then the folks that really are successful behind the scenes, they're the ones that are vulnerable, that are true to themselves, that have a story to tell.

Right.

It's easy to kind of game the system. You know, we see how many followers, how many people are liking something, but. But it doesn't actually mean much behind the scenes.

Right.

So I find that the folks that are quiet, they're vulnerable, they have the lessons, the stories to share, those are the ones that are really, really making an impact and that really have something you can learn when you are able to get time with them.

Yeah, agree. And it's that, that I think in today that will allow you to succeed in a world where people can create competing businesses quickly and much easier than ever before. So, like personal relationship and that community and network goes a long way to strategic partnerships, to customers, to investors, whatever that looks like. Having that ability to have a public profile can override and not quite create a moat, but definitely creates a bit of a channel around your business.

100% that, that's why one of the reasons I started doing this when I was first writing on LinkedIn, I was saying to myself, like, you put yourself out there, you don't need to know what you're working on today. But having that network, having that reach, it attracts the people you need into your life. So my whole goal with, I don't know what the business is going to be, but having this network is going to make it so much easier. And you see this with a lot of founders that are building in public. You see the strategy, right? They're sharing their story, people are listening to that story, they want to be a part of it. And then when they have something to announce, people want to be part of it because they weren't selling when they had nothing to sell. They were just telling their story that they were sharing what they were going through. And people want to support them. So building those relationships too, you want, you feel compelled to support someone, you know, initially when there was nothing. That's, that's my theory was just like, well, I have this time. Maybe now is the best time to start really putting myself out there building those relationships. So when I have something to offer that creates value, people want to join in and they want to be a part of it because they've been a part of this journey the whole time.

And it's something that has changed a lot. I've seen the whole notion of building in public versus stealth, and I think the stealth trend is definitely started to decline is my observation. And people are sharing more publicly because I think one they acknowledge what you've just said is the value that goes in that. And building in stealth today kind of almost feels a little bit redundant. Obviously some exceptions within that. If it's a very long development cycle, like maybe pharma, deep tech, there's things that just naturally take a lot longer to do. But it feels like that the two side by side, that, that shifted. And for you today, building in public and you're thinking about even pre idea or idea where stage you're at, how transparent do you need to be as far as your idea to do, lessons, failures, all those things. Are there any rules of engagement, do you think?

Yeah, this is a great question. And I think about it all the time because, you know, I'll tell my parents things or team members things and they're like, oh, we can't share that with anyone. There are competitors or our competitors might find out or, you know, you can't give them the keys to the house. And you know, I think back to what a mentor said to me maybe seven, ten years ago now, where, you know, we were talking about sharing ideas and he was like, the ideas you probably have, there are a thousand other people in this world that have them. The One difference is, is how you execute on them.

Right.

So I don't think there are many novel ideas out there. Yes, there are some. And kind of like we were talking about, there probably are some industries, drug discovery, deep tech, maybe you want to be in stealth mode with those. But for the majority of technology ideas that you're relying on different tool systems that aren't novel, there's probably a thousand people, 100 people that have that idea. And it really comes down to how you execute on that. The people, the networks you have, how fast you're able to move. And by not sharing that to the world, you might not meet that individual or tap into that network or get that information. You need to actually build it out. So, you know, I always laugh when folks will be like, should we share this information with them? Because in my mind, it's share it with them. They're not going to execute like me. They're not going to execute like us as a team. It's okay. That's okay. Because at the end of the day, what? They're a competitor. This, this information isn't new. What's new is how we execute. And that's something that no one can share with them.

Yeah. So good. And I always use the analogy of it's much easier to tell the truth than it is to lie, because if you tell the truth, you just need to recall what actually happened rather than the story you made up at the time. And I think that human beings respect that from a business sense is that we're not all perfect. And I see major global brands who are publicly traded talking about failures that they've had and making, you know, apologies with a very genuine tone and not because the press person told them that they needed to, to mitigate the share price. It was driven by that. We're human beings, right. It's something that we do. And being open with that is really important. And to throw it back to you a little bit on that, you're a fan of testing fast and making progress. So we're at a point where we're able to test fast and get results quickly, and it's something that you're a big advoc for. They're the kind of things that I think if you're telling at a B2B scale, like within your corporate network, investors, et cetera, there's one narrative, and for consumers, there's probably a different narrative. Right? Because the consumer really wants to just know that your 100% of your time is focused on solving their problem. The easier it is for them to solve their problem. That is a thorn in their side, the happier they're going to be. So they just want to know that, that you're making progress. Whereas someone else may be more fascinated to read the manual, so to speak, of the test and learn. So within your validation process of what you're building, do you do consumer alongside other peers? Like, what kind of things are you looking at in that validation phase?

Yeah, that's a great question for me. So quick test, iteration, testing. I think, you know, with all the tools out there, with everything available to us, it's, it's. It's never been easier to just test.

Right.

What am I looking for? Like, are people seeing value? Like, I think one of the misconceptions. So the first product that I like, built, Co Health, we had a freemium model and we thought, okay, we build this awesome tech that's going to help people. That's great. We'll find a business model after. I think for me, one of my biggest priorities now, if I'm building something, is how quickly can we get people to pay for it or at least open their wallets? I think that that is a really big indicator. Not because money is the most important thing, because it's a sign of value, that it also represents the sustainability of the business.

Right.

It's really hard to build something without knowing that you can sustain it. And there are, there are a lot of ways to do this, right, to bring in capital early on. But I think having that validation that there is a business very, very important, like, the quicker you can do that, even if you don't have, you don't have to build anything to validate that someone's going to pay for it.

Right.

If the idea makes sense, if you really understand the problem, kind of like what you were saying, if you understand the problem, you can clearly communicate. You understand the problem, it comes back. Then you can clearly communicate how you're going to execute on that product or solving that individual's problem. It's not easy, but you can get validation that someone is willing to pay. So I think that's really important. You know, for me, the light bulb moment is having a conversation with a business owner or someone that is an ideal customer, and they're, they're like, that is a huge problem. I would pay for someone to solve this problem. And then pitching the idea to them and saying, well, you know, if I could do this for you in this amount of time, would you pay for that?

Right.

Like, and there's quick tests that you can do. Right. Like you don't have to build out the whole thing. You can find a very small little. In the tech world, they call it an mvp. In the service world, it's probably like you find a little chunk, a little piece and say, okay, I will do this for you and it's not going to be pretty, but if I can do this for you, will you pay for it? I think that's a big important validator for me, at least today compared to where I was before.

Yeah. And I think that we've seen that the platforms you can use to build products now, you can get to market super fast with a prototype. But even before that, just getting some validation, it could be 10, 20 people in your ICP who acknowledge the problem. The thing within that too, that I think it's worth talking about and going off tangent a little bit here, but as far as the noise that goes around that versus the truth, because sometimes you can get people that are just excited for you or give you positive feedback to encourage you, and it may not be the thing that is actually true. So distinguishing between both noise and actual fact is a real buyer beware situation.

Yeah. I think that a lot of new entrepreneurs, we put on, like when I was like doing it for the first time, we put on the blinders. It's all gut feel. It's like it's all idea. It's wow. I have this amazing idea, People are going to love it. And I hear it all the time. Like, I have this amazing idea versus what is the data you can get to quickly.

Right.

That's what you're doing these tests for. What data can you get? And really identifying that early on, what is the data going to look like that validates this idea that there's something there. I think another piece is really defining what does sustainability mean. I know that not every business model is going to have a reoccurring piece, but the more that I like speak to founders, the more that I have these conversations with folks that are building businesses. It's that sustainability piece, that reoccurring piece that is important for scale. Not everyone's building a scalable business. Scale is very different depending on the business you're building. But I think that reoccurring piece is super important. I think setting those hypotheses before you actually get to work is important.

Right.

Like you don't need the full business plan, but what is it that's going to validate the idea or the tests you're running? And hypothesis testing doesn't stop Once you validate the first idea of the business. Right. Like getting started is a hypothesis. Right. You need to constantly be writing, like, running hypothesis tests to continue to validate the business and to grow the business.

Right.

So just constantly taking that iterative approach, not just to the product, but how you think about the operations within the business, how you think about what it means for you to actually have a business. As markets adapt, as technologies adapt, you're going to continuously run tests. You see that with the big companies. The big companies will have these big product launches, spend millions of dollars, then they'll act something super quickly, and you're like, what the hell? They just put all this money into it. Yeah, but they have a little more money to put towards hypothesis testing. Early on, you need to be a little more scrappy. But, you know, it's clear that whether you're a big business, you're a small business, a solopreneur, hypothesis testing for me is the way to go.

The advice I would give is to think like, excuse me, think like a scientist, which is very much that test. Learn, grow. And learning can be a failure. It can be a success, but a failure can help you get closer to the thing that actually makes a difference, which is a constant for me with that process. And it's iterative and it's ongoing. It never stops. And I think the closer you are to that feedback, I think that the more nimble and effective you can be in making decisions ongoing too. So really important advice on that, going back to storytelling and thinking about that. Has there been instances? And whether it's one example or maybe it's just a theme you've observed where sharing in public has helped you either get feedback or insights on the product or something that opens up an opportunity for you. Like, what are some of the things that you've seen as an upside for telling your story in public?

Yeah. So for the first 10 years, so the two, like two tech products that I was working on used to have to put, like, I would have to pull teeth for people to take time. I had to convince them to meet with me. But over the last couple years, you know, last year, since I started putting myself out there, telling my story, adding value, right? That's sharing your story is meant to act as a value. Just hopefully someone else, if they see it as value when you ask for their time, they're going to be more likely to take you up on it. So as soon as I started putting myself out there, telling my story, providing advice, creating different graphics with, you know, my Thoughts, my opinions and the advice. When I'd reach out to an individual, they were like they would. It was a better response rate. People wanted to meet with me, people that never. I could never get the attention of people proactively reached out to me and would. I really learned a lot from this. I was really vibing with it. People started giving me the opportunities to speak on podcasts, right. To get my message out there to more people. That didn't happen in the past. People weren't inviting me. I was always asking. And I think that's the difference, right? Like you are offering value to people, whether you realize it or not. If someone resonates with something and they learn something from it, that is. That is value. So I think that, you know, when we put ourselves out there, when we build in public, when someone learns from it, you're adding value to individuals instead of just always asking. You are giving, you are giving to the world, you're giving to people. It makes it a lot easier to have an ask when you are giving and leading with value.

So true. I see that myself. And quite often it comes back and seems to pay you back in a time when you least expect it, but maybe when you need it the most. And I love that ability. And I had an amazing mentor last year, Jeremy Barr, and. And he's part of Super Founders, and he's very public in sharing his story. And he gave me some really good advice around public communication generally, which was that the focus on the ICP is critical, but behind that is that you don't need vanity metrics getting reached and scale. It might be good for the dopamine or the ego, but it's quite often the silent people. It's the one that follow you, taking everything that you're saying and will approach you or will be approachable at the right time, where it's mutually beneficial. So, like not being deterred if you're not getting high engagement. It can actually be sometimes just being out there that lets people to build trust and establish who you are.

Yeah, no, I love hearing that. Because, you know, something that I tell myself every single day is one. I'm not putting myself out there for other people.

Right.

Like, that is not the number one reason for this. Right. I'm not trying to force it. I'm doing it for myself. I have all these things that I believe in, all these things that I've learned, all these things that I want to incorporate, to be a better leader, to be a better team member, to build stuff better, faster, offer more value by putting that out there to the world, it allows me to act on it. Yes, it may create value for other people. And we were just talking about why do it. The value you create. I think the number one reason to do it is the value you are creating for yourself. Right? Like you are growing.

Right.

By putting yourself out there. Ideally it should help you grow. Ideally, it should help you act on all these things that you believe in. Sometimes we get lost, Sometimes we forget who we are. And by putting that out there and reminding ourselves every single day, it allows us to act and be better leaders. At least that's what I believe. So number one priority is I'm putting it out there for myself. If no one read it, what I was putting out there, I'd still be okay with it because it's really, for me, the fact that people see value in it is a value add and allows me to get the attention of more individuals. But I think because, because, you know, I'm doing it for myself, it allows me to be more authentic.

Right?

It's.

I would, I would continue doing it if I didn't get any attention from it. I would, I wouldn't stop if I wasn't making money off of it. I'd continue doing it because I'm still getting value myself.

I use it as a two, two lane approach of content being hopper funnel, if you want to think in the sales landscape, it's building relationships. And, and I think I've got over 50 guests confirmed for the podcast and I think that I wouldn't have even been able to get started if I didn't have those relationships. Like, getting the first 30 was so much easier than I anticipated. And that was just because I'm an active contributor. I have a voice. I'm happy to connect anyone in my network to anyone else in my network. That kind of trust in me allowed me to do what I'm doing. It wasn't immediate, but now it's. It's really beneficial to what I'm doing. And I think that if I'm hearing you correctly there, that pays off long term. And it sounds like that over your time that you've really seen the upside of that now play out over a few years plainly.

Agree, right?

Like, you know, I don't promote this much, but accidentally, like a business came to me by putting myself out there because I had conversations with people, I started understanding what business owners were struggling with. They were struggling with building out their team, they were struggling with delegating. At the same time, I built out my own System. My own team of virtual assistants and being an operator, being a generalist, I realized when working with a team to help people succeed, they had to have good process, good instructions in place to succeed in their role. One thing led to another and having these conversations, people would tell me like, I haven't been able to find a va. I haven't been able to delegate. I haven't been able to deal with operations to scale the business. And my expertise is in the operations space. But I started discussing, well, this is what I'm doing with my team, this is how I'm helping them succeed. And the entrepreneur in me, you know, the light bulb went off. Oh, what if, what if I, if I offer my team because they had extra hours to, to other people and you know, I got a couple hits. Yeah, I, I've been looking for a virtual assistant. I've been looking for help with operations. One thing led to another and, and you, you know, we have no, there's no public facing website, there's no marketing done. We were able to scale this within the last a little bit.

Pretty big.

You know, it just came through relationships, referrals, people saying, wow, Corey and his team are really on the ball. Cory and his team are leading with value. Like, we're not focused on marketing, we're not focused on selling. We're focused on delivering exceptional work. So all of our mental capacity is just deliver, deliver, deliver an exceptional service.

Right.

Help people delegate, help people get back their time. And you know, accidentally, you know, we've grown to something really special.

So good. I love hearing stories like that. And the word that floats to the top for me is trust is what you've created is 100% trust in folks. And you're just having conversations and you learn things that you otherwise wouldn't. You create relationships that you wouldn't have had and you're creating future opportunity for yourself as well. So it's an investment now that I think pays off long term and that's coming back. So it's great to hear that that had a very positive effect for you.

Yeah, trust, it's something I think about every single day. Trust is so important. And I think that there's a big gap with who we trust. A lot of us feel like we can't hand anything off. It's hard to trust people. I've been there. I think that was my big takeaway from the last 10 years. I have to do this, I have to do this. Nobody else can do this. And you start realizing that, well, I mean, if you're the only one that can do it. You'll never really scale something. It will be hard to continue to deliver. You'll burn out fast. It comes down to building a process to earn, like gain the trust of others.

Right.

So it's like give and take. People have to trust me. I have to trust them. What can I do? What systems can I put in place to start helping people trust me and me helping people, like build trust in them. But trust, Yeah, I think about this every single day. I think that's one of my biggest takeaways. My word of 2025 is delegation. But what is delegation? To trust other people. So I think that it's a really powerful word and something that I work on every single day to trust myself and trust others.

I love it. And I think it's one being human that we've talked about a lot today. But also what you're doing from a communication perspective is creating your own language as well. Like whether it's a process, whether it's terms, things that you can operationalize and automate and things that you're able to get in dove step with someone else. It's another human being. And the more that they're empowered, the more they're going to be happy and feel that sense of reward that you would get. If they're just doing part of that project. They're never going to fill that full sort of purpose that you would have by doing that. Either the final step or being the more senior person in that project that that builds a culture within your team as well, that empowers people, drives retention. And there's so much research that I've read on the HR side about the upside that you have by trust and vulnerability internally and externally.

Exactly. I think that's, you know, when you say that, it makes. I like to do a lot of reflection. I like to reflect in the moment too. And you think about, okay, well, why has this all worked? And I think being vulnerable and putting myself out there right. With my team, with the clients, it's like they get a real sense of who I am. The team learns to trust me and to learn to see the value and appreciate what it is that I'm saying. There's no like second guessing what it is. Right. It's Corey's clear with his communication. He says what he means, he's not lying to us. And then, you know, the trust factor, people like, the more you trust, the more authority people, maybe that's not the right word. Maybe the, you know, they feel ownership, accountability, to something because they feel like they have the ability to make decisions that they're not going to be shut down when they bring something to the table, like they actually matter. So trust, vulnerability, very important, very, very important concepts.

It's so fascinating if we were to have this conversation even 10 years ago, if we use the word trust, vulnerability, empathy, you'd be frowned upon, right? The old corporate world was so cutthroat and everything's a competition. It's all around success and progress. And having that human connection was something that wasn't even considered in culture. And I think today it's actually part of the core of a foundation of a company to have success. And if I was looking to invest in a company, it's something that I would be interrogating a lot. How do different people at different levels describe how they work and what they're doing? Because it's a real huge sign. Even an original employee versus someone that started three months ago, they'll have very different points of view of how they describe the company and what it does.

I completely agree. I think that this, like there are success stories from what, like 10 years ago in terms of, you know, work, work, like environments where it's just all, all work, work, work. I think though, today the cool thing is we can move so much faster.

Right?

I think trust, empathy, vulnerability, all of these things. Emotionally driven leadership traits, they build a team, they bring a team closer together. Yes, there is the cutthroat nature of business. I think that being respect, like assertive, but I like to frame it. Being respectfully assertive, you need to be respectfully assertive, you need to be direct, you need to clearly communicate. But it doesn't mean you can't lead without trust, empathy, vulnerability, you can still be assertive, you can still get stuff done. I think people are more receptive to it, they're less likely to burn out. And when you have a team moving, aligned on all cylinders, you cut down the noise, you cut down the drama that comes with it. You move so much faster.

Right.

And I'm seeing this firsthand every single day, the speed at which I can move because I have this amazing team that's just firing off on all cylinders and working as one. Yeah, we have to make some cutthroat decisions. And I won't even call them cutthroat, just very good business decisions that are for the, you know, the long term sustainability of the business. But we are respectful with how we do it. We are vulnerable, we show empathy, we try to understand the other side of the decision we're making.

People are listening to this because it resonates with me so much and I did it in my first business and I've got many stories of success of how that sort of helped us on so many fronts from retention to clients to exits. Ultimately there's a lot of things there that were great benefit to continue that as far as that intention around vulnerability, etc. I'd love to wrap up today a little bit looking at investment and storytelling to investors from angels at the early stage to late stage series C, series D. The ability to be able to get investors engaged through being public and storytelling versus thinking about the perfect pitch deck and then setting up the right investor meeting at the right time with the right narrative. Like if that were two ends of the scale, where would you recommend that founders focus their attention to be able to optimize that experience?

You know, I'm a little biased on this now, but you know, if we're looking back to the prior days when I was, I was looking into more of the VC angel investment space. Telling your story, you're sharing all the, what investors want to see is how you make, make decisions, right? Like especially early on, they need to know you can make logical, good business decisions and you can show that through telling your story, how you think, right? That's the, that's what an investor is gauging. It's like does. Is this person going to make the right decisions? Because as a business owner you are making so many decisions. Another mentor had told me in the past, right? What, what's the difference between someone who's running a business versus someone who's working in a business? It's the number of decisions they make make day to day, right? So investors want to see that by documenting and telling your story, you are sharing the decisions you're making. I think in today's world, you know, looking at where I've come. Telling your story is a path to revenue, a path to new customers. You generate revenue depending on the business, right? If you're, if you're a solopreneur, your service based business, maybe you're kind of a technology that is a cash flow business. The path to generating revenue is your key to not needing to take on investment, right? You take on investment when, when there's, it's for the most part it's, it's not a quick path to revenue. You have to build something to sustain like the growth, right? Investment isn't for everyone. I think a lot of young founders, they think I need to get an investor because it's a validation point. But is your business a hyper growth business? That's the first thing that you need to say, right? You tell your story. At least you can get people to believe in the vision. Whether it's an investor, whether it's a customer, whether it's potential team members in the future. Sharing that story is the quickest path to all of that, right? So investment, revenue, building your team, growing yourself as a, as a leader, getting advice, understanding markets. There's. I don't think there's, there's anything more powerful now than in telling your story and building your brand in today's world. Because I think what people buy from, an investor's buying into your vision, right? So what they buy from is they're buying, they're buying from, from a founder, they're buying from an individual. The days of pitching your business are long gone, right. Like we are in the era of selling a brand, selling an individual. They want to be part of that journey.

Right.

And something I've started to adopt, right. It's like when I think about what the competitive advantage is. You are the competitive advantage, right. Like that's when an investor is investing and they literally, that's what you'll always hear, right? I'm investing in you. I'm not investing in this business, I'm investing in you.

Right?

So I think if you apply that and you think about what storytelling is, it's telling your story, why people should believe in you, buy from you, invest in you, you, right? So there's nothing more powerful than a good story and a good brand, an individual brand. Then the next goal is to figure out how to not become reliant on that. But that's another story.

Yeah, that's. I feel like that's a part two for our episode. But to play that back, I think that, like I was going to say, it's a win win, but I feel like that that multiplied and there's a lot of wins. So the public story one allows you to get revenue from a sales point of view. Finding the right partners to grow, it can open up conversations for investment. If you want to choose that path or if you need capital, there's no downsides. And to your point, then I think there's. Obviously once you get momentum, scaling is a whole different thing. You can't scale off creating content to tell your story. That doesn't grow a business to that level. But it's foundational.

I think there's some good examples, like the ClickUp guys. If you've ever seen what they've done.

Yeah, true. Yep.

I really believe like the future of selling, the future of scale is finding a way to use content to scale to, you know, many different. That's the cool thing about these platforms that I'm learning. It's a very cheap way to. To get that skill. And so I maybe right now traditional methods work or you need an omnichannel approach, like you need many of these different channels to reach people. But I think that content can be used to scale a business and we're just waiting for people to unlock that.

Amazing. Yeah. And I feel like I'm going to get some, a little bit of stick from saying that you can't scale a business through that platform because I know I've just had a thought of actually know people that are doing it today. So. But I. But I think as far as your point there makes a lot of sense and resonates to sort of close out today. Corey, I'd love to hear from you. Like, what are you looking at at the moment and what should people reach out to you for?

Yeah, like I think for me, I'm really focused on helping business owners find their voice.

Right.

Using content to grow, to build their business, helping them build out their operations and outsource their team to grow faster. That's my real focus these days. I like to think of myself as a business generalist or a startup generalist. So if you have any questions regarding delegation, how to work with virtual assistants, how to outsource your team, how to build out. Good process so the business isn't reliant on you. Part two, we can have that conversation one day and reach out to me and if you just want to read my content, follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram and X. But yeah, it was great chatting and excited to connect with all of you on a personal level because that's what creating content's about.

Fantastic. And this is why I do this is to be able to hear someone else's story and add my interpretation on that and. And all my channels will obviously share details. For Corey, his social channels show notes will have more information as well. It will be easy to get a hold of him. He and I met on LinkedIn and now we're sitting having this podcast so it works and it was all around building trust is what I want to carry for that theme today. So Corey, thank you for joining and making the time. It was a real treat.

Thanks Andy. I really, really appreciate the time. And I end every call with a fist bump. So I need one from you.

We're going to fist pump. Boom. So good. I love it. It feels like the COVID days of trying to have human contact on video calls.

That's where it came from. Because my life is a video call these days. So one thing to build trust and build relationship, I give everyone a fist bump. Virtually.

Good. It adds a bit of joy. I love it. I just immediately felt positivity at the end.

I love it.

It's so nice. All right. You're listening to Startups Decoded. My name is Andy Walsh. Join us, subscribe Follow Share with your friends. We're growing and we love your feedback. I'll see you next week. And thanks again.