Are You Bankable? | Randall Crowder

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Episode Topics:

• What is AI actually doing?
• People are just figuring out technology
• If there is no demand, nobody will buy it
• If someone doesn’t invest it doesn’t mean people don’t like it
• Always think you can do it better

 

Randall Crowder  

Rick, what’s going on?

 

Rick Jordan  

Randall, what’s shakin’,? How you doin’?

 

Randall Crowder  

Living the dream one small nightmare at a time. What about you? You doing better than me. Are you in Florida?

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, sure. Yeah, man. That’s funny. I, yes, I am down here and in Florida and it’s making do rather than being in the studio I was down by like where they did one other today one other show today and I was down in this area where they show him like, like I need to rent a room because that’s normally what I do. I’ve been at this hotel many times and I’m an ambassador with Marriott, I’m like, I always rent another room just for a night to do my shows to go on TV, all that stuff. And like, Dude, we’re all sold out, but I got a quiet space for you, I’m gonna show you a quiet space. So he walks me down this escalator to like, where buses drop off. He’s like, nobody’s gonna be down here. Right? He’s like, the conference is at the other end to get down there today. And when he showed me it’s all quiet and everything’s with them down there. They also where the frickin employees come in, like the hotel employees back and forth. And then there’s this door where they go into like the back area of the hotel and it keeps slamming shut. So I’m actively muting on this thing. I’m like, son of a gun. I found a room that’s part of the conference area that there’s nobody in and the door was just cracked open just a little bit of like, I’m going in there.

 

Randall Crowder  

Just did this maybe several months ago, we had like an earnings call it it was the exact same thing. Would you like earnings was gonna publish on Thursday? So we always do the pre-record on Wednesdays, you’re reading a script, but it’s got to be like super quiet and Baldon. And like, you know, basically just saying, Go and then you read and each of our, you know, me, the three of us and like, each of our sections are like 20 minutes long, and so like 10 minutes, and all of a sudden, it’s like

 

Randall Crowder  

find some quiet place in the bowels of this hotel is like, Can we all just walk out, please?

 

Rick Jordan  

So here’s what we’re doing. We’re just starting into this already. We’re gonna use this. What’s shakin’, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. And we already are. You’re part of our conversation. Randall is back, everybody. And I’m so excited to have him back. We’ve been rescheduling and all this, but give you a little go back after this episode and listen to the first one that Randall came on with me because he’s the CEO of Phunware, which is a publicly-traded company in Austin, you know, has led over 40 angel investments deployed over 60 million across 14 companies, venture capitalists. And that’s actually what I think we’re talking about today, isn’t it? Because we didn’t even get into that. In the last episode.

 

Randall Crowder  

We put ourselves in a room we could talk about anything, you know, all day long, forever. So it’s like we can go wherever the conversation takes us. And first thing in Florida, all the rain. I mean, what did you get hit by any of that?

 

Rick Jordan  

Not really, no, there was just one day when it was raining maybe two hours. That’s about it. And then everything else has been just I mean, what you see behind you, if you’re on YouTube, you can see but it’s just frickin blue skies, gorgeous, great weather.

 

Randall Crowder  

Florida and Texas man, the pandemic, and we can talk about it. We were on Angel investing in the venture you know, it’s, it’s funny, you know, when I started angel investing, it was 2008 2009. And Austin has always been a pretty cool tech town. But it’s I call it a bootstrap city, you know, so and I’m not saying that for anybody who does this, whether entrepreneur or investor, I’m not saying that’s good or bad. The reality is, in Austin, people are not building the same kind of companies that are building in Silicon Valley, at least historically. And so I don’t always get asked, you know, wins Austin gonna become like Silicon Valley. I’m like, well, never. I mean, it’s impossible to replicate what made Silicon Valley Silicon Valley, you know, it was born out of this idea of the Gold Rush, you know, you have this, this city, and obviously, you know, besides the taxes, and I got my own reasons, I don’t wanna live in California. But I recognize that it’s an attractive state for a lot of people. Yeah, Silicon Valley, gold rush, kind of now growing into what happened with Stanford, all of these people, it was this receding effect. And so you had a couple of big companies and then the engineers from those companies didn’t want to move. So then they started companies, and then it kind of just grows exponentially from there. And that was before this kind of remote hybrid life, right? So everybody you kind of need to go there to be in the flow in the mix in state. And it just created this incredibly rich ecosystem and it’s I can’t Austin can’t compete with that nobody can. The pandemic changed a lot of stuff, man. It’s kind of interesting. And then I still think that that’s hard to compete with. But you know, we’re a global ecosystem now and you don’t have to Nessa Saralee Go where someone else is. And for the best entrepreneurs in the world, you go to them, you know, investors will go to you. And now there are all sorts of different kinds of fundraising that you can do. You can do Bootstrap, it’s still you can do crowdfunding, you can do angel investing, you can do organized angel investing, you can do venture capital, you can do you know, government loans, I mean, hell, now you can be an influencer or god forbid, jump on only fans and use that to fund your business, I mean, a million different ways to make money. Now, there are a million different ways to get money to invest in your business, the sky’s the limit. And so it’s really cool to see what’s happening with both Texas and Florida, because I think so much talent is now moving to those states, whether it’s tax reasons whether it was because of the pandemic, whether it’s good politics doesn’t really matter. Good people find good people. And now those good people can live where they want and still, you know, really swing for the fences. And so I’m excited about, you know, where Texas and Florida have headed politics aside,

 

Rick Jordan  

places to live. No doubt Me too. And, you know, this gets into one of the topics I wanted to talk about today, especially about angel investing, and really in the investing world, anyways, because we’ve seen this transition right from, from pretty much money was everywhere, to them the pandemic, to then there was even more money everywhere because everybody was just dumping back in the economy, I mean, printing cash, right. And now, the belts have been tightened back up again. But there are still some ways like even with some of my acquisitions that I’m seeing, I’m getting into bed with the family office, right to help fund some of our acquisitions. And they’re excited, and they came up with this new way to where there are these companies out there that are leveraging data, to put the value of your data on your balance sheet as an asset, and then lend you cash on a pretty simple term loan, according to what that data is worth. You know, so now, I’ve never looked at I mean, as a cybersecurity services company, and IT services company, I’ve never even looked at our data as having a value to other people. And I’m not talking like personal information, because I mean, that’s what I’m in the business to protect, right? So that doesn’t leak, not my customer data, but machine-to-machine data. So how many times do computers check in how many times do computers talk to each other, when there is a breach, how that hacker can move from one computer to another computer, and how many endpoints it touches before it’s actually stopped? That’s all valuable. And it’s cool, because one, it has value, which means I can leverage it with acquisitions. So that there’s there’s value in the companies that didn’t even exist before to get the cash to even fund the acquisition, to begin with. But then second, it’s awesome. Because utilizing that data for those who had actually rented that data from me, can actually help provide better tools for this industry to stop this stuff from happening in the first place. Cool ecosystem, man,

 

Randall Crowder  

I love it. I love it. I love what you do. And we riff on this a lot last time. Yeah, there’s, it’s actually, you know, appropriate. So yesterday, we just had another patent get allowed. And it’s all about geofence prediction technology. And people were talking about an interview, just just before we got on with proactive in the chat. GPT is all the rage right now. And as human beings are inclined to do, we simplify things. And we don’t really like to dig too many layers, we just want our sound bite and we move on, you know, chat TPT is not sentient, it’s not in any danger of becoming sentient, you know, an AI is a marketing term, right? It’s an exciting marketing term, it gets people excited. What’s it really doing? I mean, it’s conversational AI, it’s machine learning, in my mind more than it is AI, if you put enough data together, and you have really good algorithms, and really good, you know, statistics on historical, you know, sentence structure, it can feel almost human, but it’s really just machine learning. It’s understanding how to predict the proper form of a sentence based on input. And so data, you know, you don’t have to know someone’s blood type to really know what they might need or what they might want. And so we’re doing basically experiments with exponential AI with our prediction technology, where it’s like, alright, if you’ve done this, and this, and this, you might do this next. And if you do this next, then these things need to probably happen as well. And so how do you think through customer engagement and customer journeys, based on you know, who you are, where you are, where you’ve been, what you’re doing, and what’s most important to you, so that it feels like it’s sentient, but it’s really not it’s just predicting behavior based on zeros and ones. And I think that’s, that’s a really cool space to be in because, you know, and you’re, you’re 100%, right? It’s not about I don’t care what your social security number is. I just want to know if I can sell you a car or if I can sell you a new toothbrush or a really cool sheet. It’s like, you know, the idea is not to You know, people aren’t willing to be wearing tinfoil hats and you know, throw their phone in a Faraday cage, right? It’s like, your data is still safe, and it should be. But what businesses really care about is just reaching. I just want to get to you, I want to tell you something, or, you know, to your point, I want insights from that data, you know, there was a breach? What’s my customer doing now? How can we get better? How can we optimize? And I think that’s a really cool space. It’s just emerging right now.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, it’s exciting, then I’m even thinking, you know, outside of the tech space, because even the show, as an example, right, I’m starting to get these ideas like there are 350 episodes of all in for those who have been with the beginning. Thank you for being here from the beginning four years ago, I’m sure there are a few that have stuck around, right? I mean, it’d be top 2% of the world. I appreciate you. But as I looked through the 350 episodes, right, when because you mentioned conversationally, that’s really what chat, GBT is, of course, we know that. So it helps you have these things that everyone’s like, putting in so little information to be like, hey, write me a sentence for whatever. And even I played around with it. A year ago. It’s like, write me 10 motivational quotes in the voice of Tony Robbins. Yeah, no, and it’ll spit them out. But now taking a look at like 350 episodes of the show, they can actually be trained because of my feted transcriptions. All of these shows, it can actually learn the way that I speak. And I phrase things so that I can then generate something, a predictive text of a predictive text nature, to write something in my own voice, not the voice of somebody else, because now I’ve trained it. And that training is so important for this. And that’s why we’ve just scratched the surface, man, because people are just figuring out how to use this stuff. Now.

 

Randall Crowder  

That’s exciting, too. I like you know, it’s, there’s a creative element to that, that I think, is cool. It’s a sub-bullet or a footnote, but I just think it’s funny, I love what people come up with, you know, summarize Romeo and Juliet, as if you were like a gangster rapper or something. And setting the prompts because like, you know, we’re only as powerful as our inputs, really. And so, you know, I, it’s interesting. I’ve got a couple of friends who play a little bit more with Chad GBT. And it’s, it’s nice to, you know, there’s problem-solving. There’s engineering that I see them doing, like, you know, they’ll work something one way and then be like, Well, that didn’t really get me the result I want. What if I worded it this way? And there’s still something to that, too, you know, you’re yes, you’re hacking something. But you’re still thinking through old school engineering, you know, what are my inputs? And then having a What is my hypothesis? And then what am I trying to get to? And how do I refine those inputs? I think that’ll be important, you know, as we think through, you know, how do we set these systems in play. And honestly, for those people that have a small side story, because it’s in the news, now, a lot of people don’t realize that Elon Musk founded you know, open AI, and I’ll write, analyze that. I mean, as if he hasn’t found enough, you know, massively successful things. He was only on the board for like three years, and then stepped away and had some disagreements, but he founded it. And it was born out of an argument with Larry Page on what AI should be. I mean, people don’t remember this. You know, Elon Musk said that you know, your true AI is just summoning the devil. And you know, there’s, it’s only human hubris that we think we’ll be able to control it and it will be able to, you know, put it in a box is designed to not be in a box can put a human in a box. I mean, you should, but you might go to jail. You know, at the end of the day, you know, this, I love what he did. And it’s as important maybe getting back to angel investing and entrepreneurship and venture capital and everything else, you know, you’re talking to another titan of tech, that titan of tech believes they are. And this is global, Larry Page said, because Larry Page is super cerebral and super creepy and socially awkward and very smart and very successful and can do it. Everyone sometimes might steal your girl. But you know, Larry Page wanted sentient AI. And Elon Musk is like, screw that. That’s a terrible idea. I’m gonna go compete with you. And I’m gonna go do it differently. You here are Google, you know, this massive company, who by all, by all measure would dominate this space dominate search has more data, more inputs than anyone else on the planet? And Elon says, nah, I can do this better. I’m gonna go over here. And does it better? Now Google’s freaking out because every attempt, it has tried to copy what Chad GPT has delivered has failed miserably. And, you know, it goes to show you that it doesn’t really matter how big a company is, it doesn’t really matter what it’s doing. Like if you’ve got a better idea, there’s a path for you. And it doesn’t you don’t have to find the white space where no one else is competing, most likely. That’s a terrible idea anyways because it doesn’t, it means there’s not a market, you know, find somebody doing something and say, I can do it better, and then go do it and then persevere and stick with it. And you know, you there are, you’ll find a way. And so I think it’s just super exciting to see when people kind of take on big dogs, and you see this kind of success that they’re having already. And then what do they do? They went out and got funding from other big dogs. And what did they do? They found the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And so you know, Microsoft, hey, let’s get some money from them. You know, they have a, they have a dog in this fight, they lost the phone wars, maybe the future is AI, and they’ll play heavily in that. So cool stuff.

 

Rick Jordan  

Dude, no joke that you probably gave one of the best pieces of advice to any entrepreneur right there. And it’s no joke because it’s if I could sum it up in one word, it’s really modeling is what you’re talking about, you know, because it’s important to see, there are very few opportunities that exist to where something hasn’t been tried before. So if there is that whitespace,, I’m with you that there’s probably no market for that. And when I say no market, it doesn’t mean that it’s a, it’s a bad idea. It just means that people generally are not looking for that type of solution right now. And that’s the definition that there’s no market is that there’s no demand for what you’re going to put out, it doesn’t mean there’s no need for what you want to put out, it just means there’s no demand for it right now. So nobody’s gonna buy it, which means nobody’s going to invest in it. So you shift into modeling and be like, What are other people doing this is all that I’ve done. This is the secret to how I’ve taken my company public is that I saw what others were doing. I’m like, same as Elon, you know, I’m grateful to be in that same circle as him. But you modeled people like them as I can do better. And then that’s when everyone is like, the family offices and investors like, okay, I can see how you could do it better. You’re taking what everybody else is doing right now. But you’re doing it in a way that’s more efficient, more profitable, something that is fun that people can catch on to that there’s a demand for there’s a market. All right, we’ll jump on this train.

 

Randall Crowder  

I gotta figure out what these names are. But I want to do what is looking up right now the SAM were brothers, which is a fascinating story in itself. And it’s exactly what we’re talking about modeling. If you’ve never, you know, learned about the Samar brothers, that was German, all three of them are billionaires now. And they are they founded something called Rocket Internet in Berlin. And all they do is copy American startups. And they get the company they copied by them. It’s nuts. They’ve copied Amazon, they’ve copied Pinterest, they copied Facebook. And all they did was they said loads working in the US. I bet that’ll work in Germany, and they start it. And you know that most people will be paralyzed by fear, oh, Facebook is gonna kill me. But they move so fast and so aggressively modeling after what worked in another country, that rather than getting this protracted legal battle, the people they were copying just bought them. And they’re now each billionaire, you know, many times over. And it’s just fascinating to me. How do entrepreneurs get so stuck in originality, Apple has never been original and its life in its existence, ever. That was never the secret sauce of Apple, Apple is still innovative, make no mistake. I mean, it is one that will go down in history as one of the most important companies, you know, that we have. Which, by the way, it wasn’t that important, you know, not that long ago, 25 years ago. But right now, it has become one of the most important companies, you know, in human history. But it doesn’t invent things. It understands network effects. It understands human psychology, it understands community. I mean, there are commercials, I mean, no matter how many commercials they make, which oh, by the way, they’re all awesome. Samsung will never figure out how to crack that code. Because Samsung will literally lay out a commercial saying everything about Apple is old and just copies everything that Android does. And you think it’s so awesome, because you’re in love with the iPhone, and people will go, I hear you. And that doesn’t make sense. And I wish I had a back button on my iPhone, but you know what, I got blue text bubbles. And that’s awesome. That’s all I cared about. And then my friends are gonna peer pressure me if I don’t, and it’s genius. It is literally, I don’t say to the negative. It’s just incredible because they understand the power of human psychology and human sociology and like we’re always trying to find ways to connect and be seen and be validated. And not just pay for validation, which is now a stupid trend. But, you know, there is, you know, these really interesting opportunities for entrepreneurs to model even their own behavior of success off of others. And, you know, there are so many great podcasts like yours there. So many great you know, go case studies and things to learn and you’re, you have so much information to help you truncate your journey. Take advantage of it. And don’t let it slow you down. And you know, I think engineers sometimes, you know, make the worst entrepreneurs, because they’re, they’re so purposeful if it one more feature one more thing, one thing, sometimes you just got to blow it wide open, and, you know, build the plane on the way down.

 

Rick Jordan  

Yeah, man, that linear thought process will keep you stuck. Yeah. And it’s

 

Randall Crowder  

because you’re like, This is gonna be so hard and who’s gonna want it who’s gonna do this? And, you know, I mean, you really stop and have these quiet moments where you think about these pain points and like, what’s going on, and, you know, how, you know, don’t be a solution searching for a problem, you know, really assess these kinds of pain points in your life and what you’re missing out on. And that’s where the innovation comes in. But kind of close a chapter on the modeling conversation. I always laugh about, like, Girls Gone Wild. And it was like, you know, I remember as a kid, you think like, what better, you know, entrepreneurial journey than like Hugh Hefner, like, how do we come up with this instead of genius, and then, you know, you missed out on that, because that was just a once in a lifetime, you know, opportunity to create a business around, you know, every man’s fantasy or woman’s fantasy for that matter. You know, then all of a sudden, you know, the dude comes up girls gonna well does it all over again, like, it wasn’t that that was like a unique idea. And time and place, he did it again. And then you know, how going one step further Pornhub. And only fans did it again, like, you know, you can find what you’re passionate about, whether it’s sex, or whether it’s been counting. And you know, there’s an opportunity for you to innovate in that space. I guarantee it.

 

Rick Jordan  

Right on, when it comes to Angel investing, is this something that you typically look for as well, as is a modeling component?

 

Randall Crowder  

That’s a great question. You know, this is anecdotal, but it’s anecdotal. Because it’s true. I look at the people first, I assume that whatever you tell me, is your pitch, or your strategy that you’re gonna have to pivot. And so my question is, in the back of my mind, when you’re pitching me, are you capable of pivoting? Like, are you capable of seeing this through lawsuits, you know, founder fights, you know, harassment complaints, and all the crap that every company goes through. And, you know, Steve Jobs talks about this all the time, you know, he was convinced that the only thing that separated successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful entrepreneurs, is the ability to persevere, it’s perseverance. And, you know, that is such an important component. So I really look at the people first, you know, what makes you special, and are you You know, you always hear this, you know, are, you know, leaders born or made. I do think leaders are born, you know, you are, there’s a reason I say born leaders, it doesn’t mean you can’t become a better leader. But I have never in my life, seen a manager, become a leader. And you know, unless you’ve been led, unless you’ve been a leader, you don’t understand the nuances there. But there is there’s something innate and natural and organic about born leadership, and you’re just, it’s just people will follow you to the ends of the earth. And sometimes they don’t even know why. And it’s very, you can’t learn that, like, it’s just you either are it or not. And when you’re in the presence of it, you know, it without even thinking about it. And so I

 

Rick Jordan  

had someone, this isn’t a pat on my back, man. But you’re, I had a key employee and my cybersecurity company quit the other day. And he mentioned and I do want to go back to what you’re saying. Because he’s so this is so important for people who are listening, you know, and I still think that he made the wrong choice. In the process of that, though, because it’s, you’re talking about the nuances between managers and leaders. And a lot of the companies that I look forward to are led by if you want to say lead, but they’re run by managers, the owners or managers know, and that’s, that was a case with how I inherited this dude, awesome individual. And he told me that because I, as a CEO, actually did, he wanted to, he requested an exit interview with me. And he was a brilliant guy. I mean, he could have been an officer in the public company, you know, but within six to 12 months from now, but frickin brilliant dude. But he comes to me and he goes, You know, I asked for this with you. And I even toyed around just saying, I have another job offer, rather than just doing what I did and saying, I’m leaving to go pursue another opportunity, not in a bad way. But it was just something that he was that he wanted. Because and the reason I didn’t just say hey, I have this offer is because I knew you would talk me into staying, and I wouldn’t know exactly why I was Hey. Like, thanks, I’m like, I’m happy you made the decision that you did because you were self-aware enough. Yeah, to understand that this is something that you truly wanted, you know, and that you have been in the presence of managers before. But now you, you’ve been in the presence for six months of a leader, and looking at how it shaped you to help make this decision that you’ve wanted to make for the last six years. Yeah, and I’m like, go after it, man. And then I’ll see you back in six months. Okay.

 

Randall Crowder  

I love it. It’s so funny. I’m so glad you said that story. Because like, I have an even simpler version to kind of, you know, if people can reflect on this and think about when they’ve been on the receiving end or done this themselves. You know, you’re the guy, you know, exit, you know, the guy who accident is also a leader, you know, don’t get wrapped around the axle with that label of a leader like a leader doesn’t mean you have to manage, you know, 1000 people, it doesn’t mean you have to be on the cover of Forbes, you know, you can be a leader, and you know, have nothing underneath you but two kids and you know, life by your side and a dog and you can still be a leader. So a leader is a label for behavior that sometimes you don’t even know you do. And I think that’s even more important that it’s just, you don’t think anything of it? Like I don’t I don’t think anything of it leading by example. I don’t think anything of it going all in. It’s just it’s in my DNA. I can’t exist any other way. And so people don’t ask about like leadership. Here’s a good example. You’re going to dinner, and you want to pay a manager, we’ll wait for the bill to come. And there might be a little hemming and hawing. And maybe they won’t credit for paying the bill at that moment. Maybe they’re still hoping that somebody will split it, you know, there’s this very uncomfortable nature. Once the bill comes to a leader, the bill doesn’t come is already handled it. You know, he or she excused themselves from the table, goes to the restroom, grabs the waiter, and says like, here’s my card, like I don’t even want there to be any conversation and discussion about the bill when it comes just bring me the chat when it’s done. Like, you know, just it’s already accounted for putting 20% on a card. It’s already done. So when you know when when when the meal is done. And the other people at the table are like alright, well, should we, you know, chop up the bill, like what should we do? Let me pay. It’s already done. Don’t worry about it. There’s no out there’s no there’s no renegotiation, there’s no hedging, it’s like you already took care of it. You’re a leader, like it’s a behavior. And so you know, there’s a there’s always these, like little examples where if you really cared, you would have done it, you would have just handled it, you’re not looking for accolades, you want definitive binary outcomes, like you either lead or you don’t you either pay for the check, or you don’t, oh, I was gonna pay. If you wanted to pay, you would have paid to shut and move on. My bed is like I probably forgot money, but I’ll teach you tomorrow. Your manager, boy,

 

Rick Jordan  

no joke, man. You’re talking about setting the actions in place. And it’s like developing the inertia ahead of time. So when that pivotal moment, this gets back to angel investing, too. So when the pivotal moment gets there, you already see and you know that you’re capable of pivoting in that moment, because you’ve already set the inertia in place to handle that situation. At times. I see what you look for that man, as you’re talking about this, you know because that’s it that there is no conversation. It’s like when you face that adversity at some point, it’s already taken care of. It’s already diffused before you even get there because of the inertia that you’ve developed ahead of time. I love it.

 

Randall Crowder  

I wanted one of the other things to product but like, you know, that was the original impetus of the question. The other thing with people is I call it your walkaway factor. You know, what is your walkaway factor like if I’m gonna invest in you, this is interesting because there are two different thoughts. If I’m investing in you, I want to invest in leaders, you said something that most people won’t pick up on if I’m acquiring you. I love finding companies that are run by managers because they haven’t realized their true potential. You know, they might in a lot of those companies end up you know, they might be a little bit distressed, especially during the pandemic, I can I know what they have, but they don’t know how to get what they have to the next level. Those make for great acquisition opportunities because you can get a lower price and then you can get a higher multiple once you give it the love that a real leader can give and the real resources that it deserves. But when I’m looking to invest, you know that that X factor that leadership, that ability to pivot the ability to be thought awful and self-aware? And then what’s your walkaway factor? What have you put into this that makes it hard for you to walk away, I want you to know, I want you to have maxed out some credit cards and you know cashed out your parent’s 401k. Like, you know, people will run through walls when they’ve got, you know, family members and friends looking at them going, Dude, I’m taking a risk with you, you better not fuck me. Sorry, pardon my French. But that’s, that’s the real world. And so you know, those people, they have a different gear. And you know, they’re there, those are leaders, those are leaders where, before you even approached me for money, you’ve already collected every dollar you can possibly find in your orbit because you come to me. And now I have one caveat to this if you can play with the house’s money, do it. So I’m going to tell you, I want you to have you know, a very, you know, hard walk away factor, and I want you to have cashed out your parent’s 401k. But if you are so good, and you have such an incredible opportunity, and you never had to touch any of your own nest egg and your own money, and people were throwing money at you like Mark Zuckerberg, good on you, that’s awesome. And that you should pat yourself on the back, that’s rare. But if you are that person don’t feel like you need to go, you know, cash out your, your savings, if you can get money from other people, because your your leaders are so compelling, and your opportunity is so big. But I just find that people, stuff gets hard. And people know, you hear all the time and podcasts now, you know, but there is something to it, you know, we are softer as a generation. You know, and as a generation, I don’t really care about Asians and right now, people are softer, they’re smarter, they have, you know, a lot more access to technology. But there’s just something about, like, you know, when it gets hard, people quit, and they go do something else. Or they complain and they whine and it’s just you know, there’s a guy had a stick witness, you gotta have a little chip on your shoulder that says, like, when shit gets hard, you’re like, I got this, like, you’re not going to tell me I can’t do this, like, let’s go. And so I looked for that. And people there was an investor, I know, but I won’t say who he is. He used to say, I invest in people with mommy and daddy issues, and that is likely on the spectrum. Because they will, they literally don’t care about money, they just care about winning. And if I’m putting my limited partner money into, you know, an entrepreneur, I want somebody who’s still driving, you know, their old beat up, you know, Honda Accord. And even though they’re worth billions of dollars, because they just want to win, and I don’t care about the awards, and they have, you know, Daddy never loved them, and Mommy beat them. And you know, they’re, you know, slightly autistic. And they’re just like, every time I’ve invested in people like that, the rewards are astronomical, and I’m not being rude in any way. I’m just saying, you know, that was how he thought about people. He’s like, I want somebody who just doesn’t see the world like everyone else. And that kind of person will have ice water in their veins. And they are singularly focused. I don’t want them dating my daughter, but I want them running my company. And so I always thought that was a very, like, aggressive perspective. I don’t know about going that far. But I always appreciate it. He was so honest about it. And so people matter how you present yourself, no matter how much you go all in the matter. And that’s what I look for even before I think about what are you doing. What’s your product? What’s your market size? You know, what’s your traction, all of that?

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s beautiful. Man. I want to wrap this up by touching on the current state of cash availability. in the marketplace today. Where do you see things are at right now? Where do you see them going in the next six to 12 months?

 

Randall Crowder  

Casts are no different than canceled culture. Let me tell you what I mean by that. If you are popular, and people like you, you will not be canceled. So if you find yourself being canceled, it means people don’t like you. The Rock could be canceled 10 times over for any number of tweets, videos, or comments. Do you know why nobody does because it dude prints money, even when he has failures like black Adam, and he’s kind of funny? It’s a kind of a likable guy, a couple of cute little kids, and he’s marketable as hell, and people like him. And so people choose to ignore all the crazy things he said. Cash is only tight for people Will who are not investable doesn’t mean you’re not investable forever. But in this period of time, you are investable. And so iterate your solution, iterate your approach, and bring in new partners, because there will always be cash for opportunities that matter. People will find ways to invest in people who they believe in, that are commercializing products and solutions that the world needs. So if you run into the situation where you’re going into meetings, and they’re like, hey, you know, we’re tightening the belt, like, we don’t have money for you, they don’t have money for you, they have money for somebody else because they are in the business of deploying capital. And a lot of these funds, get their management fees based on deployed capitalists or putting it somewhere, they’re just not putting it with you. So that shouldn’t dissuade you from what you’re doing. It should just make you think, how can I change my approach? How can I become more likable?

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s powerful, man. That’s the best clip that I think I’m ever gonna have on the show. From a business and entrepreneurship perspective, no joke that I’m going to come to you and I’m going to take you out for whatever kind of dinner you want because I need to bestow upon you like the entrepreneur clip of the Year Award

 

Randall Crowder  

for real and I appreciate the sentiment but I will absolutely take you up on breaking bread and having a drink. You’re a special guy.

 

Rick Jordan  

Thank you, my man. I appreciate you coming on again.

 

Randall Crowder  

Absolutely. We got to keep it we got to keep it going and then I will get out to Florida or you gotta come to Austin and we got to do that. We got to do the next one in person.