This episode features Interact’s CEO, Josh Haynam, Customer Success Manager, Damaris Pacheco, Growth Manager, Jackie Aguglia, and Social Content Manager, Jesy Nelson.
In this episode we will cover:
- What are some of the key differences working at a bootstrapped company?
- What are the drawbacks for being bootstrapped?
- What are the positives of being bootstrapped?
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Hi everyone. Welcome to the Grow Podcast from Interact. Today I’ll be hosting. I’m Josh, I’m co-founder at Interact, and I am joined by Jesy, Damaris, and Jackie. Hey everybody. Thanks for jumping on today. Hello. Hello. Loving us. So today we have an interesting concept that was Jess’s idea, where we’re gonna talk about the pros and cons of bootstrapping.
So for reference, bootstrapping means we don’t have external funding at Interact, which is extremely rare in the software world. Like almost every software you use probably has external funding and there’s pros and cons to it. So, You know, I’ve, I’ve done a bunch of interviews about this, so I’m not gonna be talking much today.
I’m more curious about the experience from the three of you about what it’s like to be here versus being at larger organizations or, or big companies or funded companies. I mean, even large organizations were probably funded at some point. So we can jump right in. The first question that I have is, what is.
About being at a bootstrap company as compared to your other experiences. And anybody can jump in. I guess I’ll start. I would say, oh, go, go, girl. Okay. I was gonna say, let’s start with the fact that we are all in different departments and here we are sitting on a podcast with our C E O, like I would say.
Would never have happened in my previous roles. Just doing things like this is probably a perfect example that this would never happen in a bigger, different type of company, and we’re doing it here and we do it every week. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that’s just a specific example of what I was gonna say is the day to day is unique because sometimes we literally wake up and there’s like a message like, Hey everybody, this is totally gonna change.
Like Josh you just said before, right? Like, everybody jump on to Interact AI because we’re gonna test this thing out. And so every day can be different. We’re in control of what happens to the business, right? Like we all get to make the decisions of what’s going to happen. There aren’t people that we have to answer to our goals that we have to, or like quotas, right?
That we have to, KPIs the big word in corporate that we have to achieve. So it’s just like, what, what do we need to do today so that’s going to be the best for our business and for our customers? And that changes every day.
Yeah, I mean, I can probably talk about this all day for everybody here and there, but for me personally, coming from a very different role from in the bigger, larger industries, right from a, I moved now to an individual role, contributor role or IC role versus that being different before The biggest takeaway so far has just been being able to have.
A conversation with our CEO, Josh, just being very honest and upfront about certain things that maybe I feel very strongly about, and actually him being open to the feedback and understanding my perspective versus. I feel like in other settings it would probably be, oh yeah, push back maybe next quarter.
I don’t know. We’ll see. Let me put it down the pipeline. I don’t know if this is a good idea. So that has been a huge, huge, huge difference and I appreciate that so much. But I’ll just stick to one since we just got started and then we can continue. I was also gonna say that I feel like in my last job, I was doing the same thing for three years, and the goal was to increase my output or do it faster or do it better, but I was working on the same thing.
For those three years, that was just, you know, can I do more in the time that I’m working? And here it’s like we get to work on different things all the time and optimize them a little and then see are they actually working and make a choice if we’re gonna move forward with it. And at a bigger company, they’re less likely to make these jumps or switches and actually pull this like trigger and be like, this isn’t working.
Let’s switch. They’ll keep pushing it because it’s what they’ve always done, and here we definitely don’t do that. If it’s not working, we’re like, okay, let’s try something new. Hmm. Yeah. Can I just add the uniqueness of my, like my role specifically and I guess like, and what I did before, I worked at a big corporate company before, and so I was hired for a specific job on a specific team in a specific department.
Right. And then after a couple years, just like Jesy doing the same thing, I got bored. I was ready to try something else. So I had to apply to, I worked for the company, but I had to apply to a different role, like three interviews of people who already knew me and who knew my bosses, right? I had to apply to that job.
But And if you wanted to move around, if you wanna move up, right, like that’s, you’re constantly reapplying to to the same company. And here at Interact, I was hired for, I don’t even know what the official role title was. I still don’t even know sometimes what to call myself because my role has changed so much since I started.
So I like started with one-on-one. I guess you could call it like, I don’t know, one-on-one coaching with people specifically in health and wellness. That lasted, I don’t know, maybe 3, 4, 5, 6 months. Then I went into group coaching because it was just a better thing to do. We could help more people that way.
Then I built a community, and then we did strategy called sort of back to the one-on-one. Then I was moved into the affiliate program, and I don’t mean like I was moved around like unwillingly. This was so exciting for me because it was not boring. It was constantly me challenging myself, figuring new things out.
But I guess that’s the unique part of working in a company like this, is that you don’t have to apply for and be accepted into a new role or be able to try something new. You’re just given the opportunity to do so. So I absolutely love that part of it about it. Hmm. It’s interesting here you all talk about that.
My next follow up question that’s not scripted is, do you think. This type of environment good for any person, like most people? Or do you think it’s a particular type of person that enjoys being in this environment? Because what I’m hearing you all say is like, you know, things that change a lot.
You do have a lot of autonomy, but. I guess the potential negative of that is like, you know, to like what Damer was saying, like, you have to also speak up, right? Which is not necessarily something people might want to do. So do you think that it’s kind of like a, I don’t know, chicken and egg thing where it’s like, One comes before the other, you know, you are the type of person that’s best suited for this environment, or do you think that this is like what most people would want or something in between or any of the above?
Ooh, that’s an interesting question. I can start that off. If you guys are okay with that for everybody hearing out there. I, I don’t believe that just anybody can do this type of role. It’s a very specific person. And the reason I say that is because I think you have to be sort of in my perspective, sort of structured and proactive in a lot of different things and build a schedule out for you.
Because if you’re coming from an environment that you know, you’re micromanaged or you have a certain structure of how things run every single day, or you’re based off a schedule you know where you have your lunch breaks. Time to clock out sort of situation. This may not be a good fit for you, right?
It just depends. There’s certain, what we call actionable items in my old industry where you have to do certain things here at your job, but you have the autonomy to do so, right? What works for your schedule? As long as you get this done, make it fit while you’re multitasking and doing other things, and some, some personalities are not very good.
Multitasking. Maybe they don’t have direction. Right. So that’s sort of my take on it, but I don’t know what everybody else thinks. Yeah, I would totally agree. I think there’s a certain comfortability that comes with knowing what you’re waking up to or like coming into work to face every single day. Right.
Funny story, I used to work with a girl who was so good at her job and like she could manipulate the system to show that she was hitting these KPIs that she would literally come to work and do her home. She wouldn’t work like the system was showing that she was like a top performer. She literally won a reward.
Oh, an award at the end of the year. And she, we all knew she came into work every single day and she would work on not all day, but like for a good chunk of the day, she would do her homework because her job got so easy for her that. She had the time to do that, which was good for her. Right. But that’s just what I mean, like if, if that’s what you’re looking for in a job of like, let me just get this thing done as quickly as possible so that I can go, I don’t know, work on this other stuff that I wanna do, then no, this, this job here in Star.
Startups are not for you. You want the comfortability of knowing what you’re up against every day, and you don’t have that here because things change so frequently. So I think there is a certain, I think there’s a glamor to the fact that, you know, we are sort of like running our own departments and doing our own things, and we’re autonomous in our role and making our own decisions.
That’s definitely glamorous, but it’s not for everybody. And I think the wrong people that get into this will quickly find that out and want to go back. The comfortable way of knowing what their day-to-day looks like, maybe being advised on what to do. Maybe people like, I think there are definitely people out there that like being micromanaged and so this is not the type of role for them.
Hmm. I would say coming from, for me, I got outta college, got my first job, and after that I was there for like three years. Then I came to Interact and as usually the youngest or one of the younger employees in a place. At first when I joined Interact, I didn’t feel like I had the confidence to make the calls that people were telling me like, you know, you own this.
And in the beginning I was always unsure and I was like, I’m not equipped to do this. I don’t know if I’m making the right decision, but they’re saying it’s fine. Like when you’re used to always being told what’s right and what’s wrong and like what to do and how to. Moving into that, I think builds so much confidence.
So while I may not have started out as that type of employee that could do it, I feel like I’ve built up so much confidence in joining a team like this that you can do this stuff. Hmm. Yeah. 100%. I completely agree with that, Jesy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s awesome. Yeah, I mean, I think that the, you know, the quote that comes to mind is you’re saying that is, You know, the, the, the worst decision is no decision.
And so that’s, that’s really cool to hear. The thought that I is in my head as You’all are answering that question is, what do you think makes work like meaningful or enjoyable or fulfilling? Because I feel like what I’m hearing from, from y’all is like, reasons why, you know, it is enjoyable. So I guess if we could, you know, double click on that as they like to say, like what, what is it that makes work enjoyable for, for in your definition?
Hmm. For me? Mm-hmm. Go, Jack, go. For me, it’s, yeah, for me it’s the P people and in this specific role, like working with Interact customers, we get to work, I get to meet people who started businesses, but I never even would have. Could be a business, right? Like they are doing the coolest things to help people in all different kinds of ways that you would never expect.
Like we got an, I’m gonna, Jesy got this request from the Interact AI, but it was like backyard chickens, like growing, like raising your own chickens. Like who would’ve thought that that, I mean, yes, now that I’m thinking about it, right? Like of course that’s a business because people raise chickens and they grow eggs and they eat the meat or yada whatever.
Need chickens for, but I mean, and then there’s just, well, people in wellness and who, there was somebody her name is Janine. She, I did, she’s been to tons of office hours where she helps, how do, I don’t even know how to say this, but basically an, an ovary can twist inside of you, and that’s the thing that causes, like all of these other ailments that, or like things that could go wrong, paint.
There’s the, the. Anyways that’s the thing that can cause like all of these other ailments, but you’ve been going to doctors for years trying to figure out and to solve, and she knows that it’s because of this one thing, because it’s something that happened to her and then she turned it into an entire business.
So for me, it’s getting to meet the people that use our tool and hearing and seeing what they do with quizzes, but just within their own business. And I guess I’m a people person, so being able to help somebody, help somebody else is just the most rewarding thing out there I think.
Yeah, I was gonna add, and I think getting to work one-on-one with customers in like whatever department you’re in here is so cool. Like, and back to what Jackie said, getting the chance to help people and help people that are essentially helping other people, whether it’s a product or service, they provide like it, it’s like unmatched.
Yeah. I guess I have, I see it in two different ways now. I’m gonna get all complex with it for all of you guys hear me, my apologies. But I wanna sort of break it down as an employee and then as my role, right? Those are two different things for me. I think the reason that I find Interact. Like, I’m excited to come to work.
I wanna do my best. I try to be super proactive, is one. I do feel appreciated as an employee. I think that Josh, Matt, Annie, everybody that’s involved in creating what you’ve ha you guys have created ha does a great job making us feel like we’re important, like we are appre, we appreciate us, that our, our input is important.
That was huge for me coming from the environment that I came. And also just the support. I mean, shout out to Jared. He’s not on this podcast, but I mean, he helped me tremendously get on board switching industries and just everybody that I reached out to Jackie, Jesy, everybody was super helpful. They just opened the doors and welcoming Meyn and they were like, what do you wanna learn?
I’ll teach you. You know? And that’s like amazing, amazing, amazing. In my role, I think it’s. It goes back to customer service, right? I mean, if you genuinely like helping people you sort of become interested in, oh, like, oh, what do you like to do? What do you do? What’s your business like? Let me help you.
Let’s try to figure out a way. Or it just becomes this sort of community in a way, and you, you become, I don’t wanna say entranced by it, but you do really like it, you know, you enjoy it. So that’s kind of my take on it. Yeah, I really like that you separated. That’s Samari. I just wanna add another thing I think that brings fulfillment in this type of role is that you are responsible for figuring out your own challenges, right?
So like Joshua, you were like, okay, we’re gonna build a community. I never built a community before, so like, Getting the opportunity to just do that on my own and meet new people who have and ask questions to people that have already built communities and best practices and meeting everybody at the, on the, at the team, on circle and like customers of Circle in their own community.
It, it’s really fulfilling to. Be given a project that you know nothing about, and then be able to, on your own, figure it, you get the space to figure it out and then turn it into actually something. So I think that’s another piece of this job that you don’t get elsewhere because you’re, you’re sort of, you can be, I mean, like Damari said, the, the whole team is there to support you.
So if you. Ever need anything, just reach out and that you’ll get the help that you need. But also you, you get to sort of like create these little babies all the time of the different projects that you create. And I really enjoy the challenges that come with that and the learning opportunities and the growth that comes with all of that.
Hmm. Yeah. That’s really cool. Yeah, I think all of you are quite good at that. And I think it’s part of I mean it’s part of what we look for when we’re bringing people on too, is like just the ability to take anything and go. Do some research on it, figure it out and, you know, see how it goes. So that’s, that’s part of, I think, what makes our team tick.
And I agree. We have, you know, just the best people across the board. Like, you know, I’ll shout out Jared as well. Like, he helps me with stuff. All the engineers help me with stuff. Like, all of you helped me with. Like, everybody helps everybody. And I think that’s kind of the part of, part of. You know, I think makes it really enjoyable to, to come in.
You’re not gonna like ask somebody for something and they’re like, oh, that’s not part of my kpi, so I’m not doing that. Yes. Like, it’s the worst. But I think also the fact, the fact that we also get to all be virtual, right? Like we’re all from different places and different backgrounds. When you do have a question or you wanna like run an idea by somebody, you can get a very different perspective that you might not other.
Get right. Like when I, when I was living in Boston before everybody was living in Boston, so like we were all in the same environment all of the time, but you guys are on the other side of the country. Right? I remember at our first offsite, I said, I said, I think I said Inground pools. And everybody was like, what are you talking about?
What is that? And so it’s just like, it’s really fun to get to meet. People from different experiences, backgrounds, but also I think that’s so good for business because we’re not one minded. We’re looking at things from all different angles, all different perspectives, and that’s what our customers need.
So I think that’s another really fun part of it, and that’s another part of what makes the team so awesome is that we can connect like we do, but we’re also so different from each other at the same time, which I think it’s so funny that there’s like times. Something will come up that I need to handle.
And I think to myself like, this is not something that I wanna do, but obviously I’m gonna do it. But I’m like, wow, you know who would love to do this is Jackie. Like Jackie would have a ball doing this. And occasionally I’m like, you know what? Let’s see if she’s available and she does wanna do it and see if there’s anything I can take off her plate, which I think like editing.
Yeah. Oh my God. Like you wanna go on a podcast, Jackie? There you go. Mm. Yeah, that’s very true. You just brought me to an example that happened a few weeks ago. I think by the way, for those listening, you know, I’m, I, I’m the one that helps you guys in support and chat all day long. So, hi, for everybody that’s listening out there.
There’s times where there’s certain questions that I don’t fully understand that are super tacky, right? So usually my go-to is, Hey, Jared, Jerry’s another team member on the Interact team. He’s great at everything that he does. He happened to be off this day, so I was like, who can I reach out? I reached out to Graham, which is one of our developers.
I mean, in what other company would you be like, Hey, can I speak to the developer so you can like, sort of tell me what’s going on with this question? That’s like unheard of. So just things like that make it make it so much easier to do our job here. So just a quick example. Yeah, no, no, no. Corporate roadblocks of like, eh, let me roll that up and see, see if I can do.
So I think that’s, that’s really cool. And then the other thread that I wanted to, you know, follow up on from what you guys were saying about what makes your work enjoyable is, is working with the clients. I echo, you know, what everybody’s saying. It’s like, it’s just wild. Like the things that people do for work and kind of, you know, following up on Jackie’s point about like, Different perspectives.
It’s like makes you realize that there’s so many more things going on in the world outside of like, you know, even the businesses that exist in your town, even if there’s a lot of different businesses, it’s like in a different town there might be totally different businesses. Like there’s some overlap, but there’s some that are just totally unique.
There’s a whole business for backyard chickens or like whatever other random thing. And you know, there’s. This was a few years ago. There was 30,000 businesses in the US alone that do a million dollars a year. That’s probably more like 50,000 now. It’s like 50,000 businesses. Like those are not all like the things that you would typically think of, like the standard, like sandwich shops.
It’s like there’s probably so many things that, that we’ve never heard of. So, I think that’s really cool as well. As we start to, I think Josh, I have to say, I think our job is unique in itself. My parents do not understand. They’re like, they pay you to do this, make quizzes. Are you playing games all day?
Like they don’t understand. So just like finding Interact, I thought. Was a totally unique business in itself. Like I didn’t know quizzes could be so effective in marketing, but since I’ve had the chance of working here and meeting all of the customers and seeing how they use quizzes and the, the results that they’re getting, it’s fascinating.
I, if I, I mean, before I started here, I never would’ve thought somebody would be paying for a subscription to build a quiz for their website, for their. So true, so true. I, I don’t really talk much about what we do. I’m just like, ah, I work in software marketing. Yeah, it’s not worth it. Like, I don’t wanna spend the next hour trying to explain this.
But it’s fun. It is fun. To switch gears a little bit as we kind start to wind down here. What would you say are like the drawbacks or difficulties, right? Because like, at least from my view, right, some of these positives could also be potentially hard. Like, oh, we’re switching ’em all the time. Or you have to figure things out all the time.
Like ram, each of your perspectives, like what would you say are some of the key like. Difficult pieces of being at a company that’s bootstrapped less resources. You can’t just be like, oh, we will roll that up the chain or hire a contractor to do it, or whatever. That’s I, good question. Yeah, I think exactly what you just said.
You can’t hide behind a whole bunch of other people in red tape, right? Like at the end of the day, if there’s an email in my inbox that’s asking for an answer about something that I don’t know what to say to, I have. Have to answer it. There’s nobody I can blame it on or pass it to or, you know, something like that.
So you have to maybe be a little bit scrappy sometimes because you don’t have the resources to do certain things. Customers ask all the time for new features, right? We just, we, we can’t afford them. Sometimes they’re not, we don’t have enough coming in to spend the resources on building that feature out as much as we want to help you with it.
We just can’t. So we have to figure out different workarounds. And that can be challenging sometimes. And sometimes it’s, it upsets people. And we’re people, people, I’m a people person and so I don’t wanna upset anybody. And so having to figure out, you know how to help them or say no can be hard. And I think in other businesses, or rather in other funded companies, when you grow to the size of some of, I don’t know, my past experience where I was working before, you don’t come across that because.
They have the resources to invest a whole team to figure that one feature thing out, right? And so I think, I guess I would say that that’s a drawback, but for me, that’s fun. And I guess that goes back to the original question of is this role or is this type of business for everybody? And no, I don’t think it is because I think a lot of people wouldn’t want to have the pressure of having to figure so many different things out, so many different times.
I was just gonna say that I think that another part of it is, while it’s cool that we get to switch gears and pivot all the time, sometimes it’s hard not to see a project that you’ve been working on. You know, like go full term and like get to test it all the way. Like sometimes it feels like the testing time gets cut short, but, you know, we pivot because it’s better for the customer.
It’s better. Whatever. But I would say that sometimes that’s a part of it too, is that when you’ve been working on something, even like as a team, and we’re like, so we know that this, we like this is something we’re gonna do and we’re all excited about it and then we’re like, okay, we’re gonna switch gears a little bit.
That can be sometimes like, okay, but then. Josh, Annie, everyone always explained so well why we’re pivoting and what we’re switching to. And all of us kind of just have this like peaceful, like this completely makes sense and you know, we’re holding onto this and it’s ready to move on. And so it always like turns out good in the end, but in the moment it’s always like, oh my God, this again.
Like, no, like we put a lot of time into this and, but you learned rule what the punch is. Yeah. I wanna add to that because I’m Eastern time and mostly everybody else, if not everybody else is Pacific time, right? And if there is one thing not to Interact, but in general in the world that I hate doing, it’s repeating work that I’ve already done, right?
And so there has been some times where I am on my day, I’m three hours ahead of everybody and I do what I’m doing. And then everyone in California wakes up and we’re like, okay, we’re gonna change this thing. And I’m like, but I just spent my whole working day doing. Thing that now you guys don’t want anymore.
Right? And so that’s me venting. And that can be frustrating, but I totally agree, Jesy. It’s always for the better. And I think even when you’re in corporate, you do things, or I say corporate, but if you’re in a funded startup, same thing, right? Like you’re, there’s gonna be times where you have to do things where maybe the work gets repeated or you did something for no reason kind of thing.
So I guess, yeah, just to add to that point, I totally resonate. And the time difference doesn’t help. And that’s something that’s unique to our business, so that’s a good. Yeah, I was gonna say my turn. No, no, no, no. I was gonna add to Jackie’s that every time we switch a project, I’m like, oh, but we learned from this project that maybe we’re only like for a month if we were working on.
I’m like, okay, but, but we learned about it. We learned something and it really helps for the next project or down the line. We’re like, now we tried that. That didn’t work, so let’s not spend our time on that again. So it’s always better. Yes. Totally agree. Go ahead, Damaris. Sorry. No, that’s okay. I would like to, again, divide it between the role and being an employee For all of you listening, I, I, I just, I, the reason I hate to do that is because it’s, it’s different when, you know, when I, I call, consider myself front facing, customer facing with people.
So it’s a different sort of role versus how I feel as an employee and what I have to do. So, just for all of you listening this, this is why I’m doing this, but As an employee, I would say sometimes as being the newest employee of Interact. Starting off. Not anymore. Not anymore. Oh, that’s true. Nevermind.
Just kidding guys. Evan and Graham, you guys are ahead of me now. Adapting for sure 100%. You have to be able to adapt to changes fast. Sometimes, just as the lady said that, that’s challenging when you’re so concentrated in doing one thing a certain way and it’s like, oh, scrap that. We’re not doing that anymore.
You’re like, oh, okay. Just kidding. Let me change everything over. Right? So that’s kind of can be frustrating. But at the same time, you have to learn to adjust. You have to learn to adapt. You have to sort of do it quickly. So that could be a very, a challenge for some people. What is it if you, if you can’t take it, you can’t make it right.
But you, if you can take it, you can make it so, You guys will be okay. And then when it comes to the actual role, I’m more in a support sort of tech role currently. There’s certain things that sometimes I don’t fully understand and know, and so I have to go and research it. I’m like, all right, I have to spend 20, 30 minutes trying to really fully understand the concept.
If I really don’t understand them, then I’ll reach out to my peers and be like, Hey, can you just like say this in like just English words? Mm-hmm. Just basic English words, and then I’ll translate it into, you know, like techy terms or however the customer’s level of understanding. So those are sort of the, I wouldn’t say drawbacks, but challenges more, more so than anything.
Hmm. Yeah. I, I, I feel all those things I think Jesy, you put it really well with the switching gears where, you know, I have this recurring thought in my mind of like, I just wanna get really good at something one of these days. Like, I wish we didn’t have to switch gears so much because, you know, and, and from our perspective, right, like the reason why we do that right, is we, we have this intuitive model after 10 years of.
We just kind of know like, this thing’s not gonna work. Like this is not it. And sometimes we have data to back that up and sometimes we don’t. And then, you know, we do our very best to try to explain like, at least why we’re switching. Even if, and I think it’s actually a good thing, like if you all don’t necessarily agree that we should switch, it’s like, yeah, you know, You might actually be right.
Maybe we shouldn’t switch and then we will come back. But those are like the really hard calls that we have to make sometimes. And then what Jackie, you were saying about like, when people get upset, I think that’s the, the flip side of being like close to the customer. This is like an Obama quote, but you know, his, his view on leadership is you have to make the best choice for the most people at the, at this time.
Sometimes that means, you know, like we’ve even experienced it with the AI stuff. Like there’s some people that are not happy with it. They don’t, you know, like the AI for whatever reason, or they’re not happy with how we’re going about it. But the vast majority are really happy because it’s getting them to build their quizzes as soon as as possible.
And they don’t have to get stuck in like the nuances of like, how do I write this? Or how do I say this or that, or the other thing. So I think that’s a prime example in real time of like. It’s, it’s the drawback of what we all enjoy of working with customers is that sometimes they’re not happy with what we do, and sometimes we can’t even change the thing that they’re not happy about.
Like the feature thing. It’s like, yep, that’s, if we build that, then we couldn’t do all these other things that would, that were are really important to other people, so we have to make those tough choices. But yeah, I think that that kind of wraps up the thoughts that I had and the questions I wanted to ask.
Does anybody have any like lingering thoughts or closing statements of wisdom to add in? I was just thinking about how hard it must be for you guys, like as a CEO and like Matt and everything, to have all these employees who all feel like their department and what they’re working on is their baby, and they come to you guys like, we need to do this.
This is so important. But someone else is like, no, no, no. We need to do this. This is so important. We’re all like, no, this matters. More like that. Juggling that is pretty impressive. Yeah. I mean that’s, that’s I think the, the good thing about our team though is right, is like everyone does feel really strongly about, you know, their ideas and what’s gonna make the business grow.
Which, you know, to kind of flip it around, right? Like Matt and i’s number one thing, and Ethan feels this way too, our third co-founder. Is we always just wanted people to care about what we were working on, you know, the way that we did. And so I think, yeah, it’s, it is tough, right? Like to be able to balance, you know, oh, we should really do this thing or should really do that thing and you can’t please everybody.
That’s like the number one thing we’ve learned, but we’re more just really grateful that everybody cares as much as they do, cuz that’s what feels meaningful to us. So, No, I think I’ll just end it with, you know, I love the team. I love how everybody works together. I love how open the team is, the dialogue that we all have.
So it’s a very cohesive, amazing environment. Even though it’s virtual, we all work from home. We still try our very best to stay connected. So, and you guys do a great job. So, positives most of. Yeah, those are my lingering thoughts. I feel really good about the move that I made and working for this team, and I, I’m so happy waking up for work every day, and I could not say that two years ago in my last role.
And so I guess for anybody who’s listening, who is in a job, maybe specifically corporate, where they, this is just not it for them. Try a startup, like look around online for working, working for a. Or maybe start your own business. And I think we were talking about this earlier, you will quickly find out if you were made for this style of work or not.
But at least then you’ll know. And so I didn’t know how burnt out, like crispy, extra, extra deep fried I was until I started working in this job, honestly. And once I got away from it and I, we had this autonomy and I got to work with this team, that’s when I was like, This is what I was looking for, but I wouldn’t have known that other way.
So if you are feeling that way, give it a try because I, I think that you may be pleasantly surprised. Hmm. I’m gonna use that next time I’m feeling burnt out. I’m not gonna say I’m burnt out. I’m gonna say I’m feeling crispy, extra deep fry with no context. What the hell are you talking about? I’ll understand.
Someone asked us to do something and we’re just gonna apply. I’m feeling crispy, so. Yep. Probably not right now. This is, this is kind of unrelated, but I have to tell you because it relates to deep Frank. So I’m in Egypt right now. I’m in Cairo. And somebody was making, no, they eat camel here. Like there are people who eat camels and, but there’s also kfc.
So the Uber driver that I was with was making a joke. He was like, yeah, don’t you know what KFC stands for here? Kentucky Fried Camel. But no, it’s really chicken.
Actually, that’s my last thought. I didn’t know they ate camels. That’s interesting. I haven’t tried it. It’s like a horse apparently. The, yeah, apparently the younger, the camel, like the more tender the meat. The older the camel, the more tougher the meat. But I haven’t tried it, so I can’t, this is just a KFC joke that I heard the other day.
I haven’t actually tasted Camel. Let us know, have you tried it? Let us know if you tried. I will. I’ll You tried report a fact. Have you ever, any, has anyone tried Horse Sahimi? No, it’s not that good in my experience. But in Japan, they have raw horse meat that you can eat. Just really, oh, I dunno. I dunno.
Anyways. No, thank you. I guess that’s a good way to close it up. Yeah. Perfect. We’ll make that the intro and we’re done. No, I’m just kidding. All righty. Well, good chatting with everybody. Thanks for being open and sharing your experiences, and we will we’ll call it there. All right. Bye everybody. Bye. Bye.
Bye.