#513 No Excuses, Only Solutions: Derrick Girard on the Founder’s Mindset

[00:00:00] 

Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to an episode of the CT O Show with Mehmet today. I'm very pleased joining me, Derrick Girad, who is joining me from the us. Derrick, thank you very much for being here with me today. The way I love to do it, I keep it to my guests to [00:01:00] introduce themselves. So tell me a little more about you, your journey, what you're currently up to.

Uh, Derrick has a fantastic, uh, you know, uh, history, I would say in, in, in his career. And you know, the way. You know, he had his entrepreneurial experience also as well, but I don't like to take much from my guests, so I will, uh, pass it to you direct the floor is yours. 

Derrick: Yeah, I was just hoping you were just gonna keep going.

This was gonna be great. But, uh, uh, no, thanks for, thanks for giving me the opportunity. And this is, uh, this is exciting. I'm, I'm looking forward to this discussion. Um, you know, my background, you know, I don't have to go into too much detail, but, uh, got into the financial services industry after college. I did a, a number of different things within the financial services industry and leadership and being an advisor and all kinds of different things.

And that led me to a point, um, where I identified a problem and the solution was a piece of technology. And the technology didn't exist at that time. And I wasn't a technology person. I was probably the farthest thing from a technology person, but nonetheless, there was a problem that needed to [00:02:00] be solved.

And so I went down the path of building a tech company from the ground up. And, uh, and I did that and it worked really well. It was a lot of work, it was very difficult, learned a ton of things, uh, had to face some pretty significant fights along the way, and, uh, multiple lawsuits, um, that, uh, that certainly made it a lot more difficult that I think it needed to be.

But at the end of the day, uh, the journey was, was worth it and everything worked out well. And I ended up selling my technology company, uh, almost two years ago now. Um, it's September of 2023. 

Mehmet: Cool. And thank you again, Derrick, for being here with me today. Like we're gonna talk a lot, uh, about, you know, a little bit, you know, your entrepreneurial journey and you know, I know like there are like some, uh, lessons to be learned.

I would, I would call it this way. So, one thing while I was preparing for the episode, uh, so. You scaled your company, your previous company without a traditional [00:03:00] sales team. Yep. Which is rare. Usually, you know, like once you know, yeah, probably you start by yourself or maybe you have a co-founder with you, you try to sell it yourself.

But after, you know, at once you have what we call the product market fed and you know, you know like, yeah, now we are ready. So you want to scale, you start to hire sales team. Yep. So how did you. You know, how did you manage this? What kind of strategies did you see that, uh, uh, it was working for you? 

Derrick: Yeah.

Well, the interesting thing for me was because I came from the background in the financial services industry, I had seen this sort of trajectory of technology, uh, get, get created and get introduced, and then eventually get adopted. And so I kind of knew the trend line we were going to be on, and I shared that with my developer partner right off the bat.

And, and like, here's how this is going to go. It's gonna be very slow upfront. The financial services firm or industry is very slow to adopt new things. Nobody wants to be the first, and we're essentially [00:04:00] gonna create the market for something that doesn't exist. Um, and so I knew that right away, and so I started getting the word out there as much as I could.

I needed everybody to know what we were doing. What the problem was and more importantly, what the, the, uh, or what the solution was, but more importantly, what the problem was that we were solving. And I knew it would take some time. I did try to bring on a salesperson, um, I wouldn't say early on, but you know, within the first couple of years.

And I just realized nobody could sell this better than me. Nobody could explain it better than me. I was the one who was an advisor. I was the one who was a compliance officer, so I knew exactly. The audience I was talking to, I knew exactly how they thought. I knew exactly how they made decisions. I knew exactly what they were looking for, and so I just realized nobody could sell it better than me.

And so I just, I kind of changed everything. I got rid of the salesperson. And I just brought on relationship managers, is what I call them. And I just said, I'll go out and bring the business in [00:05:00] and I'm gonna hand it over to you to help me manage this relationship and build it and grow it. And, and I'll give you the support and the structure you need to do that.

But I just realized nobody could do that better than I could. And so I just took that as one of my major responsibilities within the company. 

Mehmet: That's great. Fantastic. You know, like especially, you know, in, in the lean startup model, we talk about being agile and you know Yep. Trying to, to change, uh, when things are not moving, uh, forward.

I want to take one step back though about, you know, you said like it was kind of a creating a new market. Mm-hmm. So, so probably the validating the idea was one of the key things, uh, that you've done very well. Now, the reason I'm asking you, Derrick, because. I spoke to a lot of founders both here on the show and outside also as well.

Yeah. And this is, you know, a topic that keeps coming again and again and uh, I'm a big believer then when we discuss the same topic with multiple people, like we have like this kind of [00:06:00] holistic point of view because each experience will teach us something. So for you, the validation when. Was the breaking point when you said, yeah, I know this is gonna work, but still I need to test waters out there.

Yeah. So what kind of strategies, what kind of, of, uh, methodologies, uh, you have utilized and you've seen that successful for you? To validate your idea will have a great market. Now of course, you said you have the background. Mm-hmm. But I know like matter of fact, I've seen people coming from let's say, specific vertical trying to do something and it didn't work for them.

But I, I'm sure you have some lessons to share about this. 

Derrick: Yeah. I mean, the most important thing to me, and I, and I say this to people all the time, is I was. Sort of in so focused on asking questions. And so one of the things that happened early on when I first started down this path with my engineering in my engineering partner was I [00:07:00] went to a conference, a financial services conference, and it was all about compliance.

And the tool that we created was addressing a compliance problem. It was allowing communication through text message. It just wasn't permitted back then. So clients would text us. It was against all these regulations. You couldn't respond. And so I was at this conference. And at this conference it was interesting 'cause we were building this and I knew there was a need.

I knew there was an opportunity. I didn't know yet if it was selfish just for me or for everybody. And at this conference, thousands of people and this, uh, compliance executive is standing on stage and I was watching as she was getting peppered with questions about being able to communicate through text and she didn't have an answer and she said, you just can't do it.

There's no way to meet all these regulations to allow this, and so you can't do it. I'm sorry. I'll let you know if anything changes. And there was a lot of frustration in the room. The same thing I felt, right? I mean, here we are at this point. It's 20 [00:08:00] 16, 20 17, and we can't communicate through text. It just seemed like we had come far enough along in technology that that should be possible.

And so after she was done speaking, I walked up to her when she came off the stage and I said, Hey, I wanna share something with you. I'm currently building something to solve this problem. I'd love to show it to you. And she said I was. She said, Derrick, I'm so excited I could hug you because she'd just been.

Hit so many times with this question, and so I don't know that I have an exact methodology or something. I would say, repeat this. Mm-hmm. Uh, but for me, the, the focus was I had to speak to as many people as I could. I just leveraged my massive network of people and just asked questions, do you run into this problem?

How do you address this problem? I went to compliance officers. What do you do if somebody brings this up to you? By the way, has anybody ever brought this up to you? Just overwhelmingly, it was like, yes, I get asked this all the time. The only answer I have is there is no answer. There is no solution. And then it was the next logical question if [00:09:00] one.

Was created, would you consider it of being allowed in your platform? And the answer was always, yeah. One was, sure. Great. I'm gonna keep your name and number. I'm working on something. I'd love to show it to you at some point. And then just basically building, um, this, this army of, of potential clients and prospects that I could reach out to later on.

And that's just what I did. 

Mehmet: Great. Like, you know, this is, uh, in line with, you know, a known, um, you know, way of validating any startup. So maybe I repeated the book and, and the author multiple times. So, Steve Blank, uh, you know, the, the professor at Stanford University, he wrote the book Crossing the Chasm, right?

Uh, sorry, the, the, the rot to epiphany. Sorry. Um, and you know, he talks about going. Out of the building and talking to people, right? Yep. So this is, it's, it's not like a playbook, as you said, Derrick, a hundred percent. It's not a playbook. Like no one can go and do the job on your [00:10:00] behalf, as you said. Yep.

Leverage your network, build your network if you don't have one, like, uh, yep. Like you can sell to people without building a network. So a hundred percent, uh, you know, spot on, on, on this one now. You'd mentioned at the, at your intro, but, uh, and also like I found some, some information myself and like, if we shouldn't go there, let me know.

Mm-hmm. Regarding the challenges you faced, like, you know, the lawsuits without like going into name or, you know, or anything. Yeah. But it's, it's a challenge, right? So, so already as a, an entrepreneur, as a founder, you have million things on your plate. Yeah. Uh. Making sure the product is coming in the form that you wanted, like, uh, finding good people to talk to that are like fit for what you're offering.

Plenty, plenty of things, right? So the founder have a lot of stress already, so you, and you face this, right? Yep. And that was. [00:11:00] Probably mentally. Very, very, I mean, draining. Draining, right? Draining. Yeah, draining. Exactly. Yeah. So how, how did you manage that? How did you navigate during this period? 

Derrick: Yeah, so it was interesting because.

It was right at the point in time where, um, things started to go well, and I, and I, I talk about this in, in the book where again, I knew the path we were gonna be on. I knew it was gonna be slow and, and it was just, it all sort of worked out the way I thought it would. Um. You know, you always want it to happen faster.

You always want it to happen sooner, but it just doesn't work that way. And so right when things started going well for us, right when we were landing, not the big fish in the pond, but the whales, like the biggest opportunities that existed, that's where we were. Things just sort of fell apart. Um, my business partner, who's my engineer, oh by the way, he also happened to be my uncle, um, you know, met, uh, an attorney that gave him very bad advice and said, Hey, since you [00:12:00] wrote the code, you own it, not the company you.

And I tried explaining to him, no, that's not how it works. We have all these documents, we have this, we've built this together. That doesn't make any sense. Well, it didn't matter. He was now being guided by somebody who had different intentions. That was really frustrating and heartbreaking. Um, and then at the same time, I had an investor who saw the trajectory, who had just borrowed us some money, um, who said, I don't want this to be a loan.

I want, I want equity. And I said, no, that, that's not the arrangement we have. And he said, well, I'll just sue you if you don't gimme what I want. I wasn't gonna back down from that, and then outta nowhere. While I'm dealing with those two silly things, I wake up one morning to see an email that says you're being sued in federal court for patent infringement by a competitor.

So all of that hit, you know, I got, I got hit with three lawsuits within a matter of two or three months. Um, and so to answer your question, how did you do it? Well, it was difficult, but the thing that I think really helps for [00:13:00] me is I just compartmentalized everything. It's one of those things, right? I, if I decided today I'm gonna go run a marathon, I can't just get out and run a marathon.

I have to do one step at a time and one thing at a time. And so I focused as much of my attention on one thing at a time. And so. The patent lawsuit I knew was gonna take a, a while, but the other ones I knew I could, you know, push forward on a little bit sooner and I could push harder. And I did. Um, and then, you know, I was, I, I talk about this all the time.

I didn't sleep very much, and so I focused on becoming a law student. I just taught myself everything I possibly could. But I was up at three o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the morning, learning and studying and preparing and, and sending emails to my attorneys and doing all these things so that when the workday started, I could focus on work.

I could be there for my team, I could be on the sales calls. I just became a different person. When the day started, and then I'd go back to being that law student when the time was, was right for it. And [00:14:00] so, um, the, the answer is, and what I share with everybody is compartmentalize. Try to find a way. Don't tackle it all at once.

You can't, it's impossible. Right? So, I mean, think about the beginning of 2020. That's when this was like right when COVID hit. Imagine the world's shutting down. Kids get told they can't go to school. I'm trying to land clients and I got three massive lawsuits. If you would've said, Derrick, I need you to win all of them.

No way. But I could do one at a time, and that's what I did. 

Mehmet: So tough. It's so tough. 

Derrick: It, it's mentally draining. Yeah. 

Mehmet: Yeah. So, so for me at least, what, what I, uh, I got also from, from your experience, Derrick, and this is for, for fellow, uh, startup founders and entrepreneurs. Yep. And I'm seeing like more founders, they are thinking about it because, you know, similar stories that we, we heard mainly about, you know, investors that misunderstood something.

Mm-hmm. Or maybe business partners that, you know, they, they screw things up. [00:15:00] So having, okay, so people ask me, should we hire a full-time lawyer? I tell them no, but have, you know, a lawyer or attorney? As you call it in the us, like have someone on your side as standby in case the, these things happen and work by paper.

So everything should be documented from day one. If you get a contract to someone, even if you, he's your brother, your sister. Yeah. You know, it doesn't matter. Like everything should be documented. You should have contracts, whoever that person is. The second thing. Yeah. So regarding investors, as you mentioned, like I've heard like.

Horrible stories. Uh, and I, by the way I understand this, Derrick, I'm not sure if it's the same experience for you, but what I have seen, if you are super excited about what you're building and someone like, maybe an investor comes and say, Hey, like you're building something interesting and I want to be part of it.

So we get excited, we get emotional, and then we forget maybe about these parts and then we skip it and we. [00:16:00] We delay it to a later stage, which I, I think it shouldn't happen. Like I tell people, even if I don't know, like richest person in the world currently is, is Elon Musk. Even if he comes and say, I want to invest, like document it.

Like don't, don't keep it like this. So, and yeah, your mind, your mindset is really outstanding, Derrick, I would say, because you need also this mindset and how much, you know. If you can elaborate more how much that vision that you had, like where you want to go with this, how this also played a role in letting you, you know, um, pass these hard times and, and, you know.

Reach to, to the place where you wanted to be? 

Derrick: Well, I mean, I, I knew there was an opportunity with the business. Real quick, lemme just take a quick step back. Sure. I've been asked many times before by people you know, would you do it again? Would you still partner with your uncle? Would you still partner with family?

My answer is always yes. Right? If I didn't have him that I could lean on [00:17:00] to help from the engineering and development standpoint, I never would've done it. I wouldn't have known where to start. So it, it, that was so valuable to me, but exactly to your point, we didn't do the greatest job documenting things that we needed to document.

We always, you know, that's the thing I think that gets most people in trouble when it's a family or a friend, is you always assume the other person has your best intentions in mind and they won't hurt you or harm you. Um, and the reality is when there's money on the line. Things change and uh, and that's exactly what happened.

And unfortunately it happens a lot. So I would say don't avoid it. I would just say always approach it as if it's a complete stranger and you don't know if you can trust them because the person you're dealing with at the beginning might be a very different person you're dealing with at the end and they look the same.

That's the hardest part. Hopefully that makes sense. 

Mehmet: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Makes sense. You mentioned the book, so tell me a little bit about the book. Figure it out or feel Yeah. Uh, 

Derrick: yeah, 

Mehmet: I, I'm sure like you shared a [00:18:00] lot of the experience, but, uh, how, you know, this, you know, idea of writing a book came to you and you decide like, okay, I, I need to share this.

Uh, so this is, let's, let's tackle this first very quickly and then I will go to the next question. 

Derrick: Yeah, it's, it's interesting because what happened to me was, was very interesting. At the end when I was, when I went through this, not everybody knew what I was going through. In fact, that's one of the things that I think is a big mistake for me, is I, I tried to not make my problems somebody else's problem.

I didn't wanna burden somebody else with this. And so I didn't share a lot of this with a lot of people in my network. Shame on me. It made it really, really hard for me. And so, as I tell people all the time, man, you gotta be wired very special and, and a little crazy to take all this on yourself and not find an outlet to somebody that you can lean on and confide in.

And so when it was done, what was interesting for me when I went through this and then I sold the company, people started hearing what I went through. [00:19:00] The, the, the question was always the same. How did you do that? How did you build a tech company with no tech background? How did you scale with little to absolutely no money whatsoever?

How did you land the largest financial services firms in the country with a handful of employees? When they tell everybody no, unless you're big, like how did you do this? Right? How did you manage all these lawsuits and keep growing at a crazy rate? And then of course win all of the lawsuits? And what I always told people was, I promise you there's nothing special about me.

Nothing. It's just a mindset. And so I always called it the FIO mindset, the figure it out mindset. And I do a lot of speaking and I love getting up on stage and speaking in front of people. And what I tell people all the time is a lot of times figure it out is something people use in their daily language when they really want to say, not my problem.

Right. So when the kids are like, I'm hungry, you figure it out. Right? Right. It's raining outside, you figure it out. Right. [00:20:00] It's always sort of like, not my problem. And the FIO mindset applies when you realize it is your problem. Like what are you gonna do when there's nobody else that's gonna solve this for you?

And by the way, it has to be solved. And that's the mindset. And so I don't think there's anything about me that's special. I don't think there's anything about me that's unique. It's just this mindset. And I think most people have it. They just, it may not get activated when it's supposed to. It may not get.

Uh, deployed the way it's supposed to. And so I wanted to write this book to basically share, here's my opinion. I'm not an expert, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a therapist. Here's my opinion of how this works, how I applied it. And, you know, the feedback has been great 'cause people are like, it. It's amazing the stories you share about your life.

And I talk about my life growing up in the military and the crazy things that I've been through, but I want people to understand that's where this comes from and that's who I am. 

Mehmet: Absolutely. So this is about the book and the mindset. So you mentioned something, and this [00:21:00] was actually my question. Why do you think many people, they don't figure it out like they, why, why do you think the main reason, maybe it's not related to tech, it's not related to anything.

Uh, I mean on, on the career side, but I've seen a lot of people who think like, yeah, it's the end of the world. Mm-hmm. Actually, I, I shared something on, on, on LinkedIn a couple of days ago. So even, for example, if, if you see. Someone didn't get a job. They think it's the end of the world. They try to, I don't know, to sell something and the custom tell them, I'm not interested.

They think it's the end of the world. Why do you think we are stuck, Derrick? And how we can start to change ourself? Yeah. Anything that you might advise. Uh, people to do. 

Derrick: I think excuses are far more accepted than solutions. I think everybody these days just seems to be completely okay and content with an excuse.

And I, the other thing I see a lot is this victim mentality. To your point, I didn't get the job well, why didn't you get the job? It seems like the answer is never because they found another qualified or better qualified candidate. It's funny to me, every time somebody [00:22:00] says, I didn't get the job. Well, why do you think that is?

The answer is never because they found a more qualified candidate. And then I'll ask people, what did you ask? Questions? What could you have done different? What, what were they looking for? What skill sets? What, what? What education did you not have that would've helped you get that that position so you can be better prepared for the next one?

That desire to learn and improve. Just doesn't seem to be there. And so I think that's the biggest issue that I see with people missing this FIO mindset is this. Like I said before, I asked a ton of questions. I was so crazy about learning. When I got sued, I became a law student. I just became a learner. I just wanted to improve.

I think too many people these days are just okay with the excuse and the world seems to accept them, and I, that drives me insane as a father. That drives me insane. As a, as a leader and a business person, it drives me crazy. Um, and so I just push people all the time. You help, you come to me with answers.

You come to me with [00:23:00] solutions, we can, it, it doesn't take a genius to identify a problem. Now let's work on what is the solution? How do we get to the solution part of this conversation? And more often than not, what I find, especially in the business world, is people don't know how to ask questions. And it's funny to me, people say to me when I do consulting and stuff, they go, Derrick, could you write down all those questions you just asked in this role play session?

My answer is no. 'cause I, I can't just tell you the questions to ask 'cause then you become a mindless robot. I need you to understand how to guide a conversation and listen and respond accordingly. Like we're doing here. You're listening to what I'm saying and asking follow up questions. I think too many people are just afraid or ill prepared to do that.

Mehmet: I think people also looks usually for shortcuts, right? Mm-hmm. Um, I was one of them when I was much younger, I would say when I was in my early twenties. Yeah. I was looking for shortcuts. We all were. 

Derrick: Yeah, we all were. [00:24:00] Yeah, 

Mehmet: absolutely. Until I figured out like, okay, so. Uh, as you said, I need to figure it out, right?

So, so there's no shortcuts. Fine. How do I figure it out? And I, I'm 

Derrick: not, but real quick. 1, 1, 1 point on that shortcut piece, and this is a really important, I think, point that most people have to understand. 

Mehmet: Sure. 

Derrick: Especially young people today. I say this to my kids all the time. Success is stairs to the top floor.

Mm-hmm. So it's stairs, it's not an elevator. And so, so many people today will stand at the bottom floor and they wanna stand in an elevator bank and just hit the floor that they want to go to. Like, oh, I want to be a vice president. I just want to hit the button and go to that floor and just be a vice president.

And so, and I talk about this in the book, I had that opportunity. I was given a role early in my career that I was not qualified for. So I literally got to skip not just steps, I skipped floors because of my [00:25:00] confidence and everything else that I was, is able to get this role and reality kicked in and dropped me right back to where I belonged.

And then I had to take the stairs because there's a lot of lessons you learn on every step. And so that's the thing. People I, I think, don't quite understand and it, it, it holds them back more than they realize is it's okay, you have to take the stairs. I'm telling you, you have to take the stairs. Stop looking for the shortcut.

Stop looking for the elevator. Stop saying, this guy over here has this role in this title and this salary, and this great house and this cool car. I just want that. And realize success is stairs. Take the stairs. 

Mehmet: Absolutely. And on the other point you mentioned about people when they come and ask you about, uh, like, can we take these questions?

And you tell them You have to figure it out. I'm not against, okay. Some people, they, they told me you are the anti playbook guy recently. Yeah. I tell them it's not like about anti playbook, but um. Really sometimes [00:26:00] feel irritated by a lot of posts where, you know, someone writes like, here are the things you have to do.

Finally we found out how to do X, Y, Z. Mm-hmm. And I tell people, I'm not against this. I'm against the. The clickbait, if that makes sense. But if, if there was such playbook that can make you rich or can make you successful at your job, everyone would would find it and would use it. And this is where you need to figure it out.

So this is why I like really, uh, Derrick, your, your, your book title because you, we have to figure it out now. Figure it out of, of course. As an entrepreneur, as a founder, do you think we can still utilize the same mindset when we have a bigger team and take this as a culture? And apply this mindset for a larger team.

Do you, do you think this is applicable also? 

Derrick: It is. I, I think the biggest thing, uh, you know, one of the companies that I'm working with right now, um, you know, [00:27:00] one of the challenges that they had is they, the, the previous leader would come in and just say, everybody, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna adopt this new thing.

We're gonna go down this path. And they just, he, this person would come in and just tell everybody, here's what I decided. Go. And the problem is you don't get buy-in from the team. The problem is you don't get everybody on board with this idea. They don't get the opportunity to ask questions and push back a little bit and respectfully.

And so when I say figure it out, you know, one of the things that I'm doing now with this organization is I'm asking a ton of questions. And when we identify a common thread of something that's not right. What do they think this solution is? What have you tried? What have you recommended? If you approached it the way you're suggesting, what do you think would be the outcome?

I wanna push people to come up with solutions. I absolutely love, I'm a big whiteboard guy. I whiteboard everything. Let's throw stuff up on a whiteboard and let's talk through it. Let's not get personal, let's not attack. I don't care how crazy the idea is. Again, I started a tech company, right? With [00:28:00] no background.

Let's, let's get crazy. Let's get wild in these things. Let's try to come up with the solution to the problem. And the solution doesn't always come from the person with the biggest title. I think that's another problem that we see in a lot of organizations is you look for the title to give you the answer, man, you can have the.

Lowest person on the totem pole will give you the greatest ideas because they pay attention and they listen and they're observant. So I think the figure it out, uh, mindset applies everywhere. It just has to be applied correctly. And understanding egos, of course, is a big deal with that. People get titles, they get egos, people have opinions, they don't wanna let go of 'em.

That becomes a, an issue too. But I think once people embrace this mindset of figure it out, it's. It, it's one of those things I'm a big fan of. Like, let's agree. Let's go down this path together. If it doesn't work, let's agree it didn't work. Reset, reevaluate, move forward. Again, that's sort of the military mindset in me.

It's whatever it is, we're gonna [00:29:00] move, we're gonna commit to this. If it's not working, we don't just keep committing to this. This is silly, right? Let's reevaluate and let's rediscuss and, and redeploy another tactic. And that's the way I think it works in the corporate world and, and it can work really well when it's applied correctly.

Mehmet: And work in startups, because if something is not working, obviously you need to pivot. Right. So, uh, a hundred percent on this. Yeah. Now, uh, just, you know, out of curiosity, and maybe I should have asked this question before mm-hmm. Coming from, you know, a, a financial service background. Mm-hmm. How does helped you, Derrick?

Uh, you know, when you. For example, try to create financial models for, for, for the company, or when you decided to sell the company and do the valuation, because I know, you know, usually founders and entrepreneurs, they get stuck here and they get lost. So I'm sure maybe your background help you, but yeah, maybe you can advise also what they can do to get this done [00:30:00] properly.

Derrick: Yeah, I mean, when it comes to valuation, especially of a startup, you know, the hardest part for a founder is disconnecting the emotion from the reality. And, you know, every startup, every founder, you know, my uncle, when we started, you know, we had, you know, I think a thousand dollars in revenue. He thought the company was worth $5 million.

Okay. If you remove the emotion from it, you'd realize nobody's ever gonna pay that at the beginning of this. And so the valuation piece is always interesting because the market tells you the value, right? And so whatever the market tells you that, that point, the multiples are crazy. Your trend line matters, your budgeting matters.

All that stuff makes a massive difference when it comes to what is this thing worth? Understand, you have to separate your emotion to the product that you've built. That's the hardest part for most founders when it comes to this. It was hard for me, but understanding that the other side of it, the background, the financial services background.

One of the things that was interesting is like most founders, I didn't pay [00:31:00] myself. I ran the company for six years, seven years. I, I only paid myself for like the last year and a half. I took nothing 'cause we didn't have the money for it. And so people would say to me, Derrick, it's crazy that you're not paying yourself.

It's crazy that you're not, you know, taking a paycheck of any kind. I knew that going into it. Um, I knew that as a, as, as something that I was gonna deal with very early on when I was building this. Um, I got introduced to a gentleman who built a massive company that he sold for a billion dollars. Um, Jamie Simonov, if you've ever heard of the Ring Doorbell, he called me one day outta the blue, got introduced to him and uh, and he, him and I were talking and he said, you have to plan for seven years.

You have to plan for not making any money for seven years. Have you planned that? I said, no, I haven't planned seven years. I knew I wouldn't make money for a little while. And he said, seven years, expect seven years with no money. Wow. And so [00:32:00] for me, budgeting was really, really, really important. We didn't have capital infusions, we didn't have private equity or venture capital funding.

It was bootstrapped. So I had to take every dollar, every month and figure out if I need to hire somebody, who can I afford to hire? What can I afford to pay? That got even worse when I'm dealing with three lawsuits because 50% of every dollar that came in the door went right back out to pay lawyers. So again, people that's, people are like, Derrick, how in the world did again that point that question?

How did you do that? It was, it was tough, right? Had to find the right people, had the right find the right team, build the right culture. It was not easy to do, um, but we did it. 

Mehmet: Yeah. I'm happy you mentioned this, Derrick, because a lot of. I don't blame them again. Mm-hmm. A lot of entrepreneurs, you know, they, they start this journey, uh, and they have these dreams of, you know, getting rich and getting rich, [00:33:00] getting rich quick, you know, the doom and gloom and you know, like, uh, um, so this is why sometimes.

I hear it a lot. I'm, I'm sure you, you heard a lot also as well, like, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Yep. Um, so what's the reality check you think everyone needs to do? So for you, you, you, you, you know, very obviously you prepared yourself mentally and financially. Mm-hmm. Uh, for this. Mm-hmm. Uh.

Probably, you know, like you have this mindset also, you have, you know, your, your background in, in, in military. Maybe that helped you. I'm not sure, you know? Right. But what me as a founder, if I come to you today mm-hmm. And I want to have this reality check with you, Derrick, I would say, Derrick, like, I want you to be my mentor or coach.

Right. And how do I know? If I am good or I am fit Yep. For starting [00:34:00] what I'm applying to start. 

Derrick: Yeah. The startup process is interesting to me, so, you know, obviously I was a good saver before, but you know, I'm, I'm married and my wife was also a a, she also worked. And so everything I did up until that point in my life, my wife and I budgeted everything we do based on only one of our income, not both.

And so the whole idea there was, I, I was always willing to take risks. I was always willing to try something different. And so I always said everything we do is based on one income, not two. And so that, uh, give, that gave us the ability to, to, to spend accordingly, but also save and do all those things we needed to do because I'm a guy that likes to take risks.

So that's really important. That reality check. You talk about, we got given the, we were given the opportunity. For a massive reality check. And, and some people forget about this, and that was COVID. Mm-hmm. And what I say about this is to be an entrepreneur, you have to understand nobody else is gonna tell you what to [00:35:00] do.

So when you wake up in the morning, you open your computer, it's you. There's nobody giving you a list of things to do. Most people are wired to be employees. They're just wired to have a task, to have a job, to have somebody else guide them and tell them what to do. To have meetings, to have structure, to have infrastructure.

Most people, and I would say 95% of people are wired that way. COVID was a great reality check because you learned there's a lot of people that cannot work from home. Right? 

Mehmet: Right. 

Derrick: Working from home is a terrible thing for a ton of people, which is why companies now are forcing people to come back to work and people are quitting.

They're like, no, I don't want to do that, because you're realizing. Your, your productivity is nowhere near where it should be, but you're working from home so nobody knows. And so accountability, being able to hold yourself accountable to do the things that need to be done is really the ultimate litmus test.

And most entrepreneurs that, [00:36:00] or most people that try to be an entrepreneur, fail at it. The other thing that's really key, and I say this all the time, is. Even the word entrepreneur. Entrepreneur, to me, is a buzzword, right? Colleges use that phrase all the time. Uh, the, you know, society uses the term entrepreneur to describe somebody like me or like you because they don't know what else to call us.

The reality is most people that are successful entrepreneurs never even use that term. They don't call themselves that. We're just problem solvers. We find a problem, we solve it, and by way of solving the problem, we create a business. We hire employees and wouldn't, you know it, we become an entrepreneur and I see a lot of young people especially that get sort of this idea of being an entrepreneur is what leads them to the path.

What leads them into, you know, this idea of I'm gonna be my own boss. Not the problem they're trying to solve, which is why it's so easy to give up on it and so easy to fail. It's 'cause they're doing it backwards. 

Mehmet: [00:37:00] Absolutely. That's why I tell some people, by the way, you can be an entrepreneur even, you know.

When you still work in, in, in, uh, a company. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah, because you are problem solver. You are, you have the initiatives, you like to try new things, and this is why, you know, people start to call me entrepreneur, especially when I left my last job. But I was telling them, Hey, like this is nothing new.

I was feeling myself an entrepreneur, like even when I was working. Full-time. Yep. Because I was always the guy who's asking why we are doing it this way. Is there a better way to do that? Yep. You know, and you need this curiosity, so a hundred percent I agree with you and yeah, we, we, I, I think we're gonna reach some stage, I'm, I'm optimistic that people will start to understand more that it's not about, you know, being given a title mm-hmm.

Or, you know, all the, you know, shiny things that. Uh, you know, the media shows us, you know, sometime we see it also here and there, there is again, I call it a reality check about entrepreneurship by the way, that is coming sooner [00:38:00] or later and people will figure out Yeah. Like, it doesn't necessarily mean I need to start, you know, something shiny and, you know, get rich.

You can be an entrepreneur in different ways. So, so a hundred percent I agree with you direct on this. Yep. I know you are working or maybe like, there's another book, right? It's called Put the Put to the test. 

Derrick: Yeah. So put to the test is the book and the FIO mindset is a big com is is basically the entire premise of the book.

Yep. 

Mehmet: Okay. Yeah. Uh, so, so, um, if you want, you know, people to, to. To distill like maybe one or two lessons out of it. What, what, that would be 

Derrick: the most important lesson I think that I want people to take from the book. And again, I share a lot of stories. I share what I went through with the lawsuits and building this business and, and, but I share a lot of other personal stories and stories from other people that I know.

The most important thing that I want people to take away from this is excuses. Don't solve [00:39:00] problems. It doesn't matter where you are in life, and it doesn't matter the problem that's in front of you. I don't care if it's personal, losing weight, saving money, working on a marriage, a relationship. If it's professional, it doesn't matter.

Never in life will you encounter a problem or an excuse is the solution. And what I try to get across in the book is I, there's. Every day I wake up, I can use an excuse every problem I've ever found. I can use an excuse, I can point the finger, I can blame somebody. I can go, woe is me. That doesn't solve anything.

It might help me today, right? Imagine waking up one morning, getting an email saying, now that you're being sued, we can help. And realizing this is a patent lawsuit in federal court. Easy, right? I excuses are everywhere. All you gotta do is go talk to one person and somebody will say, just close the company and be done with it.

They're everywhere. That doesn't solve the problem. And so my advice and my guidance to everybody, and what I try to get across in the book with personal stories is don't use excuses. Find [00:40:00] solutions, embrace the solutions, and, and push through. 

Mehmet: Absolutely. Derrick, I know like, uh, you, you wanted to share your message and your lessons with others, but did you had, you know, any thought about maybe starting another company or you knew that I want to dedicate this, you know, to, to share, uh mm-hmm.

You know, with, with fellow entrepreneurs and, and, uh, founders? My story, which is your story. I'm talking about you. Yeah. You know, start to do more speaking engagements. So was it like a decision that came at once or like it took you some time until, you know, you decide, okay, I need to do this, this is my mission moving forward after I sold the company.

So how, how this happened? 

Derrick: Yeah, so it was a little bit different for me, you know, the way I, I grew up, my background growing up is very, very interesting. And you know, my wife has always told me, you should probably talk to somebody about your, your life. The way you grew up is really different. [00:41:00] And so when I sold the company, you know, there's so much stress and so much frustration and so much anger that was involved there.

And, and when it was done, I finally spoke to a coach, a sort of a life coach. Mm-hmm. And it was interesting because I'd never done that before. And this gentleman said to me, it was really interesting, he said, you know, when you went to trial, 'cause most people don't realize, I went to trial in federal court for eight days and I won.

And you get to listen to the jury, read the verdict, it's just insane. And he goes, when you won, what did you do? And I went, I got in my truck, I went home and my wife and I had dinner. He said, what'd you do the next day? I said, I got up and I went to work. What am I supposed to do? And he said, you sold your company.

When you sold your company, what did you do? I said, I had dinner with my wife. And then I got up the next day and went to work and he said, when do you process all of this? When you can actually slow down and process everything you went through? And that was the sort of the light bulb moment for me is that I haven't and I need to.

And that was sort of like, [00:42:00] I'm gonna write this down. I'm gonna share this story. That's what led to the book. In terms of everything else, I, I am working on some other projects. I am working on some other business, uh, things that I want to do. I'm actually working with other entrepreneurs to help them as well, which I absolutely love doing, sharing my perspective, the coaching and the, and the speaking.

I, man, I love that. It's so much fun being able to stand up on stage and. I think a lot of people, if you go to conferences, you go to seminars, you might hear, it might not be the exact same message, but the delivery of it is similar. So you, you walk out of it and you're like, you know, what did I really take away?

Yeah. One little thing. And the feedback I get when I, I get a chance to speak is awesome. They're like, that was delivered in a wave we've never heard before. Nobody's ever walked up on stage and just been that frank and that blunt and that direct and delivered such a powerful message. I love that stuff, so I'm, I'm selfish enough to kind of wanna do all of it.

That's just the way it is. 

Mehmet: No, you're not selfish. You're so authentic. Also, Derrick. Yeah. Okay. [00:43:00] You know, miles away, I felt like how, uh, genuine and authentic, uh, your message is. And it's, uh, uh, it's, it's good you know, that, um, you know, sometime as, as you. Your coach told you, uh, we need to slow down and figure out like how we are processing things.

Mm-hmm. And I'm sure like, you know, from talking to you for the past, like 40 minutes or so, probably what the missing point was, what I call not me like. Some people, they call it connecting the dots, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, and starting, you know, to understand and okay, what lessons I can learn and what lessons I can share so other people can avoid having the same things.

And this is like kind of a passion and mission, which I can see Derrick, uh, you know, in from your way. Talk of talking and your energy and, and your passion to do so. So, absolutely. Uh, I'm glad that you shared your story with me here today. Before we, we close [00:44:00] like two things, which traditional questions I ask.

Uh, anything else you wanted to share today, Derrick, and where people can find out and get in touch maybe for a, uh, speaking engagement or maybe a, a consultation. 

Derrick: Yeah. Well, I think aside from everything else I've shared, I I'll, I will reiterate one thing that I said earlier. Um, find somebody that you can confide in.

Find somebody that you can have that, that, that conversation, I didn't do it. It made it really, really difficult. And so one thing I've said to my wife and I've said to everybody that, that listens to me. I'll be that person. So if somebody is in a point where they're like, I need somebody to talk to, I need some guidance.

I just need to vent. I need somebody to share this with. I'm not gonna judge. I'm not gonna tell you. You're right. I'm not gonna tell you you're wrong. I'm gonna listen. I'm gonna ask questions. We're gonna have a good conversation. That's how it's gonna be. I didn't know who I could turn to and do that with, and I didn't wanna burden people.

And so I've made it like a mission of mine. I will be that person. So if you don't know who [00:45:00] that person is in your life, whatever you're dealing with, I you find me, and I'm happy to be that person, right? I need, I need to be that person that I didn't know I had. Real reality is I had all time, I had all kinds of 'em.

I just didn't really understand it and know who to who to take that to. So that's really important in terms of getting a hold of me. I have a website, Derrick Girad.com. I try to keep it really simple. Uh, you can get ahold of me there, you can, you know, find this podcast on there. There'll be a link to it there.

You can find the book. It's on Amazon, but you can also, and, and Barnes and Noble and everywhere else, but you can find links to it there. But reach out to me there and, and if I can help in any way or be a part of what somebody's up to or doing, I'm happy to, I'd, I'd love the opportunity. 

Mehmet: Great. Thank you so much, Derrick.

Like, uh, also the link to your website would be available in the show notes. Uh, this is for the audience if you're listening on your favorite podcasting app. If you're watching this on YouTube, you'll find the links, uh, in the description section. Derrick, really, I can't thank you enough. Uh, it was. You know, [00:46:00] even for me, it's a wake up kind of, uh, call of thinking of many things, believe it or not, like, uh, and I'm saying it genuinely.

Thank you. It's an inspiring story. Uh, it's, uh, eyeopening also as well, and I'm sure a lot of people will benefit listening to your story and I encourage everyone to go. Check the book and check Derrick's website, which as I said, it'll be available in the show notes and the description, and this is how I end my episodes.

This is for the audience, if you just discovered us by luck. Thank you for passing by. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, so give me a small favor, subscribe and tell your friends and colleagues about this podcast. As you can see, we are trying to bring people who have a lot of experience and I want to share their stories with you.

You know, as much as we carry that would be perfect. So I appreciate, you know, if you can spread the word, if you are one of the people who keeps coming again and again, thank you very much. Thank you for all what you're doing for the show this [00:47:00] year. I'm really humbled since the beginning of the year, even during the slow summertime, the podcast state in the top 200 Apple Podcast charts in the entrepreneurship, um, category in multiple.

Countries, which is, you know, I thinking maybe in July, August we will disappear, but this didn't happen. Of course, all is because of your support and what you're doing to the show. And of course, big thank you to all my guests, including yourself, Derrick, also. So thank you very much and as I say always, we will have a new episode very soon.

Thank you. Bye-bye. 

Derrick: Thank you.