From Wall Street To Clean Air: David Heacock’s Journey To Building Filterbuy
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Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius podcast. My guest today is David Hecock. We're going to talk about the story of Filter Buy. He bootstrapped a business up to 250 million run rate, which is an amazing story for anyone to do. So we're going to get into that story and talk about his successful Wall Street career and some of the great ideas he has as a entrepreneur. So welcome, David. Thank you.

Yeah. Tell me a bit about your background and how you came across or created the idea of Filter By. You know, we'll get into the main story shortly, but, you know, have you always been an entrepreneur? Like, what's your background? Yeah, I've always been an entrepreneur, if I'm honest. You know, I grew up in Talladega, Alabama, which is a town of about 12,000 people when I was there and probably about 9,000 now. And, you know, I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. My grandfather came back from World War II and basically started a supply business to the textile industry in Talladega.

Alabama. And that was kind of our family business that I got to see as I was growing up. And then I kind of came of age in the 90s when the textile industry largely got decimated by NAFTA and saw kind of the destruction of that around where I lived. And, you know, I saw the family had to basically reinvent the business that they were in. And I think that kind of seeing that and the reinvention and all the entrepreneurship, you know, trace that it takes to be able to survive was

was definitely very formative for me. And I, you know, was, you know, did all types of entrepreneurial things growing up and really was lucky to kind of come up in the age of the boom of the internet or the genesis, I should say, of the internet. And, you know, like one of my first businesses was selling, you know, computers that I pieced together myself on eBay. And I didn't do it as successfully as Michael Dell did, who ultimately made it into a huge business that I kind of

Started out actually building computers and selling them on eBay. It was one of the first businesses when I was 13 or 14. Okay. And the idea, what is Filter Buy? And then let's get into that story. What is it? Yeah. So fast forward, I wanted to get as far away as possible from Palo Alto, Alabama, and ended up after college going to New York where I worked for Goldman Sachs. And I spent the first eight years or so of my career where I ran the emerging market options trading business in New York.

And in 2012, my family was going through the sale of what was left of the family business, which was largely an industrial supply business that was calling on the wood products industry. And I was really close with my grandfather and he was in his early 90s and did not want to see it sold.

out of the family. And so I ended up basically making a deal with my aunt and uncle and buying them out of this dying industrial supply business and wasn't 100% sure what I was going to do with it when I quit my job to go do it. But I...

quickly started looking around for a product that I could manufacture competitively in the U.S. and sell direct to consumer, keeping in mind, you know, at that time, the direct to consumer movement was very big and everybody was, a lot of money was being raised around and there was lots of interest in it.

And for me, direct-to-consumer means being able to manufacture a product and sell it direct to the end user because that's what direct-to-consumer by definition is, in my opinion. And so many of the direct-to-consumer business models that you see are in fact not direct-to-consumer. They are basically use contract manufacturer, put a label on it and sell it to an end user. That's not really a direct-to-consumer model. And

And but I decided I wanted to come up with a product that I could actually manufacture competitively using some of the infrastructure that I saw in Alabama. And I basically decided between remanufactured ink cartridges and pleated air filters because both have a similar kind of traits than ultimately went with the pleated air filter because it's so logistically complex. It is a very expensive to get it into the customer's hands ultimately.

but there's lots of variation. So in order to be able to be in a business, you have to have lots of variation and you have to be close to your end user. And I kind of assessed that it would be difficult to import it from China or some other place. And so that would be, you know, have some staying power if I could manufacture them competitively. And that kind of started me on the process of building a air culture manufacturing plant, my first one in Talladega. And we've been kind of expanding it ever since. So air filters. Okay. Well,

What was the run rate when you took it over from your, I think your aunt and uncle versus the two-fifty million? To be clear, the business I bought had absolutely nothing to do with air filters. We was a dying industrial supply business that, you know, was doing about $10 million of revenue with $300,000 of net income. And, you know, I used every bit of money plus the borrowed money to buy it from them. And then I quickly realized that I

I was in a bit of trouble because the ERP system that they were using was an old system called Profit21, which is built by a company that's Epicor that I believe still exists. But it was basically put in in the early 90s. And, you know, this was 2012. And I realized, oh, I've got to do something to be able to even just continue to function in this business, this low-margin business that I bought and did a $450,000 NetSuite integration, which...

It was a formative experience for me for reasons we probably shouldn't get into. And so that's the business I bought. And then I was like, well, I got to do something. And I actually started building what is now Filter Buy at that time from zero. You know, it was zero, you know, and zero, you know, manufacturing, zero anything. It was starting to crash. That's amazing. So what are some of the big lessons learned? Like, you know, have you ever done this before or?

Was this like your, not only your first success in that arena, but a huge one? No, I mean, it looks like a huge success, maybe 12 years in, but I mean, it's a, you know, it's a constant grind and, and has, it's still like a constant grind over that whole 12 year period. I mean, I think that, you know, I say often that people consistently overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade. And, you know, I think that I saw, I had a vision for this unique business I could build and I had a unique,

competitive advantage that I carved out that I understood. And I committed to, you know, doing that over a long period of time, a long period of time being, you know, a decade plus. And I think that people consistently underestimate what they can do in a decade. And oftentimes, and I think part of my secret sauce, quite frankly, was, you know, seeing an opportunity, which is a unique insight in a unique business in a unique market that is quite large. But I stuck with that in

insight over a long period of time, like holding it and refining it and really like using first principles thinking to build the best version of it. I mean, you know, fast forward to today, we have, you know, three manufacturing facilities and seven distribution centers across the country.

And, you know, we basically like I've actually in the logistics business, not the air filter business. And I guess kind of the unique insight that I had from early on. But, you know, I'm manufacturing a product for two dollars and selling it for eleven. Unfortunately, that's not all margin in between there. That's, you know, it's the logistics of getting it to the end customer in this logistically challenged product. And so understanding that I had that insight early on, I understood I was actually in the logistics business and I

I framed my whole business model around that unique insight. And I stuck with it over a long period of time and combined that with being in a big market in a consumable product. And that is how you ultimately get the business that I have today. But, you know, there's no magic or secret to it. It's just having an insight and being willing to stick with that problem through lots of adversity over a long period of time. And I think that that's true for almost any big success that

that you see. And I think a lot of people don't want to hear it because they don't want to put in that 10 years or whatever, one specific focus problem. But that is ultimately what I think is the differentiator in success. What were some of the problems that you wrestled with for a long time? I mean, every day is a new chance for a new problem, right? So, I mean, it's, you know,

I could list you hundreds of problems, but you have to remember in the beginning, I had never set foot in an air filter manufacturing facility. And when I...

started it, I was very naive. I had no idea what I was getting into. And I significantly underestimated the complexity of manufacturing something. Because if you go and you look at like the air filter itself, there are really only four components that go into an air filter. It's the media, wire, glue, and the frame. That's it. And lots of different sizes. And you say, how hard can it be to assemble that and put it together? In theory, the manufacturing process is very, it's very simple. And that's not kind of how I got lured into it. But you quickly realize when you're

when you're starting something from scratch that doing anything at scale requires such a level of detail and you know when other companies that maybe have been doing it for 50 years have the institutional knowledge that you do not have that they're taking for granted and it's like little detail stuff that in

in aggregate really adds up. But when you're starting from scratch, you have to pay the piper and go and figure all that stuff out, which, you know, took me three years more or less to get to where I was not

effectively losing money on every filter that I was making. And because of our business model, I was able to absorb it in that, you know, when I say I was losing money on every filter I was making, I could have bought the filters cheaper than I was able to manufacture them for like the first three years because we were just that inefficient at it because it, this is a surprisingly tricky thing and the learning curve was way higher than I imagined it would be. But, you know, I stuck with it. So, I mean, that, I tell the story quite often, but

You know, really two and a half years in, you know, I'm in, we're operating in Alabama. May hits, it's May of 2015. And the first part of the air filter manufacturing process is what they call, what's called the laminating process, where you basically take this kind of chicken wire and laminate it onto the media, which is what gives it the rigidity when it goes into the HVAC system and you have the airflow. Yeah.

And we had what was called a cold glue laminator, which we're kind of using like, you know, equivalent of Elmer's glue, call it, to affix the wire onto the media. And it comes up into a big roll that then, you know, goes further on in the manufacturing process. Well, May in 2015 hit in Alabama and it was so humid that the glue was not drying. And with that glue was not drying, basically we were wasting all of this raw material. Like half the raw material we were putting out was just completely wasted. I mean, I was at my wits end.

I didn't know what to do. And I started calling around desperate. And by some acts of God, I found, let's call it the hot glue version of this laminator that supposedly fixes this problem. And somebody had it in stock. And I rented a 20-foot Penske truck, drove from Alabama to Fort Lauderdale, Indiana, on a

on a Thursday night, got there early Friday morning, got trained on this laminator to understand it for about half the day, then drove back to Alabama, got back at midnight. And then the next morning on a Saturday morning, had my team, was training my team to, you know, actually to laminate with this hot glue laminator and almost cut off my finger when I have a scar to prove it when almost when training them because I made a stupid mistake. But that was like...

like the turning point in the business. And that was two and a half years in, like after that, like that is the moment that I remember, like, like I was about to give up. And if I had not found the hog eliminator, I think I would have, I couldn't have afforded to keep going, to be honest with you. How did you, how did you fight the temptation to just buy the stuff? And instead of, you know, making it yourself, like,

I congratulate you on that because it just seems like, again, like a big temptation to say, you know what? The heck with it. I'm just going to buy the stuff. It's cheaper. It's easier. And then I'll just resell it. But it goes back to what I said earlier. I had a unique insight around the logistics of this business. And I knew that the only way that it worked at scale was that if I could manufacture it competitively, like that was a, that was my kind of root, root cause thinking like they're like the only way that my business model work is if I'm able to manufacture the product.

And so I was very focused on that and very committed to that. And so I was determined to find a way to make it happen. Like I did not, I would not have been able to build the business I do, I have today if I was relying on somebody else to manufacture the product. No, that's really great. So, all right. So you had the problem with like the heat and humidity, the glue was all screwed up. You know, I mean, I guess it doesn't reveal anything proprietary. Like how did you fix that? And maybe a couple other issues you faced.

Before we continue, I've been personally funding the Finding Genius podcast for four and a half years now, which has led to 2,700 plus interviews of clinicians, researchers, scientists, CEOs, and other amazing people who are working to advance science and improve our lives and our world. Even though this podcast gets 100,000 plus downloads a month, we need your help to reach hundreds of thousands more worldwide. Please visit findinggeniuspodcast.com and click on support us.

We have three levels of membership from $10 to $49 a month, including perks such as the ability to see ahead in our interview calendar and ask questions of upcoming guests, transcripts of podcasts you're interested in, the ability to request specific topics or guests, and more. Visit FindingGeniusPodcast.com and click support us today. Now back to the show. Yeah, well, I fixed that one with the machine and we moved on. I mean, you know,

Another big turning point in the business that, you know, just to kind of give you the ideas of types of issues you face is, you know, COVID happened, right? In 2020. And at the time, we were only in...

in Talladega, Alabama, we have one location where we were manufacturing and shipping all of our product in April of 2020. Many people may not remember it, but you know, all the shippers were overloaded. So they basically FedEx, who was our main partner at the time, you know, said, okay, we're going to limit the number of orders you can ship a day because we don't have the capacity for it. At the same time, we were using Amazon for a lot of, um,

using their FBA for some certain high volume SKUs. Amazon made the decision to stop all sellers from being able to send product into their distribution centers for about a month and a half. And so that was happening. And yet in our business was booming because everybody wanted air filters and all combined with the fact that our employees were scared and didn't want to come into work because everybody didn't know what was going to be happening.

happening, right? And, you know, how as a CEO do you, or as a leader, do you go and you deal with that problem? And, you know, that was one of the most challenging times in our business. But there's also the time when, you know, I effectively moved my family to Alabama, and

I ran the plant myself to get it going and get through it. And actually then in May of 2020, opened up a distribution center and then manufacturing facility in Ogden, Utah.

and made a deal with FedEx to give us extra capacity if we had a FedEx, sorry, a West Coast center so we weren't overloading as much in the Alabama location as we initially were. So I did that. We trucked product out there, started it as a distribution center, then started it as a manufacturing facility. I spent 20 weeks straight going back and forth to Utah and, you know, got that facility up and running in, you know, in under 60 days.

And that was another big turning point for our business because that is what allowed us to really expand during COVID, acquire a lot of customers that we would not have likely gotten otherwise, and use that as a time to really kind of get three to five years of experience.

ahead of where we would have been if it hadn't happened. And the only reason that we were able to do that is because we had a big bias to action of going in, actually, you know, moving forward and facing these problems and overcoming them rather than retreating and kind of being paralyzed, not knowing what to do. And that's that that would be another big formative experience for me in my kind of business journey. Did you did you ever get tired of dealing with it? You

You know, did it ever seem like one thing after another and you're like, I can't take this anymore? Or like, how did you feel along the way? I feel that almost every day at some point in the day, right? I mean, like, baby, crazy. I mean, if you don't have that, then something is broken probably. So absolutely. I mean, I think everybody has, everybody has that, those fears, right? I mean, and anybody who tells you otherwise is not likely being truthful. So, you know, but it's, it's, it's ultimately commitment to growth,

Commitment to pushing forward and, you know, a belief in the long term vision that you're building. I mean, it's a combination of those things. And that's why I encourage entrepreneurs or young entrepreneurs not to go and, you know, rush into a new business or a new idea immediately.

Because you want to wait until you have a really clear vision that you're willing to work on for a decade. Like if it's not something that you're going to like, you're so committed to that, you know, you're willing, you see the long-term vision and you know, you're going to be going through the slog and there are going to be times where it looks crazy, but you're so committed to that long-term vision, you're willing to stick through it. If you don't have that attitude, then you're not, you're very unlikely to win. Yeah.

in my opinion. How do you sell people on a 10-year vision? I remember my dad saying, look, if you want to succeed in business, you got to do something for at least five years. And the five years I didn't want to hear about. How do young people that want to be a business stand the message of 10 years? I would think that most of them would be like, hell no, I'm not doing that. Then you shouldn't go to business. I mean, it's very simple. That's fine. It's not for most people. You really think it's 10 years, not five?

I mean, I think that if you go into it with that kind of attitude, you're setting yourself up for failure. Like when I go into it, I go into like, you know, I think even longer term, I'm devoting the rest of my life to building the world's leading indoor air quality company. That's my mission. And so I wake up every day working towards that, building towards that. So you don't have to do that. But like, if you want to compete with me in my field, then you're probably going to have a hard time competing if you're saying, hey, how can I maximize my next three years? Right. You just got to be honest and

yourself. I mean, and it's not for everybody, but, you know, if you're going to try to do something big, then you're going to be competing with other people that are all in on a vision and do have a long-term thinking and

And, you know, I think your probability of competing with them is not very good if you're going in with your with only one foot in. Right. And that that's the mindset. Like maybe like you can do big things in two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years. But like you could do a lot more over a bigger you can you can do much more over a larger population.

time frame than you can over a short time frame. That's just undeniable. And I think too much of society is built around that short term thinking, that short term instant gratification. And I think that's hugely detrimental. And I think that's really cool. That's amazing that you have that staying power. And, you know, if I was to do a new entrepreneurial venture, but, you know, I was under your tutelage and you said, look, you got to put in 10 years, I would think a lot more seriously about what I'm doing. Like,

do I really want this bad enough to spend 10 years? Am I willing to put in the work for that long? So I think, and I'm not criticizing you by any means. I think it's great to have that kind of outlook. And I'm amazed that, you know, you're able to counsel people and they're like, yeah, I'm willing to spend the 10 years and I'll do it. Yeah, but you also have to realize it's like, you know, it evolves over that 10 years, right? I mean, it's not like life is a journey. And, you know, I think that, you know, you have to,

have a growth mindset. You have to have a long-term vision. It doesn't mean it has to be, you know, exactly like, oh, I want to have X amount of money in 10 years, or I'm going to have, you know, Y amount of revenue in 10 years or whatever it is. Like, I don't believe in that type of goal, but you have to know like what type of person you want to be, what type of, you know, what type of impact you're going to have.

you know, how you're going to be spending your time. This kind of stuff, I mean, is like a more macro level is really what I mean by it. And I think the more focused you can be around that, the more likely you are to be able to do big things. Yeah, that's really cool. Amazing. So what's, I don't know, what are some of the common, not even milestones, but major stumbling blocks that you see entrepreneurs have that derail them where it's

It looks like they're headed, you know, in the right direction. Things are getting there. And then something happens that just knocks them out. Like, what do you see in common? Well, it all stems from really what we've just been talking about is not having the staying power. But like one example would be, you know, if you're going to go out and start something, then, you know, I counsel people that you need two years of runway, meaning that you need to be prepared to not take a dime out of your business for two years. Yeah.

If you want to give it the chance to get to escape velocity. And that's sometimes controversial. Doesn't mean you have to have two years in the bank. A lot of people can't afford that. I didn't have two years in the bank when I started it, but it doesn't mean you can't have, you know, side hustles that you're going to have to have that are stable to be able to fund it. Or you have to go out and get investors or you have to go out and do something. Maybe you have a partner or a spouse that works was the case in my case. And, you know, but you have to have the mindset that,

of two years before I take any money out of my business if I'm going to go out and start something new. And, you know, again, the reason why that's so important is I see so many people start something for like six months and then they're like, why isn't this working? I've been pounding my head for six months on this. And, you know, it's really trying to really starting to make headway. Like, why, why am I not making enough money yet? And the reality is six months is

There's not enough time to know if something really is working or not. And people strangle it too soon by trying to force something that you need to have a little bit of patience with. So that's another piece of advice I give is if you're going to go out and start something new, be prepared to slog it off for two years before seeing any financial benefit. But why does it take so long? What's happening that causes a business to take so many years to really...

Like, is it just the entrepreneur needs to be in it enough and have solved enough problems to really have the staying power? Like, what do you think is the reason? Well, I think it's because if you really want to grow and in the beginning you're getting exponential growth, but you're going from zero to...

whatever it is, right? That ends up taking capital and resources and that can manifest lots of different ways through hiring people or through, you know, having to add more software, like, you know, all the little things. Like in those early days, that capital is very precious and people underestimate how much, you know, it takes to be able to get something off the ground and to really put fuel in it. I mean, yeah, like with some certain software things, it's certainly easier now, but still like even, you know, server costs or,

Like all those things end up adding up and the more you're growing early on, the more of those things are going to add up, right? And I think people oftentimes underestimate that. So if you're saying, hey,

I've got to take money out of this to be able to feed. Then you're ultimately, you end up kind of choking the early growth potential of the business and are just diminishing the probabilities that you get to a state velocity, in my opinion. Okay. Do people ever run into any trouble with like IRS rules? Because from my memory, like, you know, if you don't make money from your enterprise for like three years, then the IRS can consider it a hobby. And, you know, have you ever run into any of that? Or that's not your concern? I'm not aware of that. I'm certainly not a tax accountant.

And, you know, oftentimes, and by the way, you know, I mean, you seem like a guy that likes to have like hard and fast rules. Like it has to be five years or it has to be two years. I'm using these as frameworks, right? Like there is no magic numbers. Like it's exactly going to take you exactly two years to take money out of your business. I'm talking about the mindset you need to have going in if you want to be successful. But you have the mindset of I'm going to be, you know, making, you know, taking out 200 grand a year, right?

you know, within a year to be able to like growing this business. I think that's going to be pretty hard if you're also really trying to actually grow that business and make it something meaningful. Those two things are oftentimes, you

you know, oftentimes not possible to do both of those things. It's like you have to realize that, you know, to your point even about the hobby, a lot of times people do take money out of their business early on, but then if they're honest with themselves, they haven't built a business, they built a job, right? And those are two very different things. And so a lot of people that maybe it sounds like you're defining it, are businesses. It's like, yeah, there are lots of quote unquote businesses or LLCs you can set up. They're going to go do consulting work or, you know, do like a little agency or whatever it is.

that are going to make you your, you know, 200 grand a year cashflow positive. But I, but that's not my definition really of a business, right? Because a business is something that is going to survive whether you are in it or not ultimately. And it has, you know, that you can go and sell to somebody else because it has value without you. And that's a very different metric if people were honest with themselves about what a business is. Yeah. How much did your business, like, well, I don't know if it's how much it made, but at what point did you feel like,

Ah, I've made it. Not that I'm going to take the foot off the gas, but you felt some relief that, you know, your principles came to bear and you'd been in it long enough and you've done enough. And now, again, not that you'll relax, but do you ever feel like a sense of contentment or that you're in a good place?

I'm honest with you. No, I've never felt that. But that is, you know, that is just who I am, right? Like I'm a builder. I'll be doing this for the rest of my life. I absolutely love it. And so, you know, that is like I don't allow myself to be content with it. Right. I mean, for me, I'm always pushing and trying to do bigger and bigger things. It's just how I'm wired. You know, I will say that, you know, the first time it took me about ironically, just before COVID,

that I started to feel like I had gotten to escape velocity. So it took me about eight years to really feel more stable. Then COVID happened, which really rocked me, and I kind of went all in on that, and it turned out to be a very good decision. But it was, you know, it took me about eight years in to really feel like I was comfortable. But everybody's different. Everybody's experience is going to be different. Maybe you're probably...

much quicker learner than me. I'm a slow learner, but for me, it took at least eight years to do it. Okay. No, I just wondered, I mean, you know, well, I would think most people would look at 250 million a year run rate and be like, holy cow, that's like a huge business and you're amazing and all the other stuff. And for you, at least for right now, it's like, all right, we got to keep going. You know, that's not the end. I'm just getting started. I mean, it all depends on how you compare yourself to, right? I mean, I

I was in a meeting with the CEO yesterday of a $20 billion enterprise. And, you know, he looks at a business like mine and I'm around here, right? It's all relative. It's all perspective.

And that's why it's a game. You're only at the end of the day competing with yourself and, you know, trying building the best version for yourself. And I wouldn't recommend my life for everybody. This is like, you know, I wouldn't recommend your life to everybody. Everybody needs to live their own existence, right? I mean, it's a matter of figuring out who you are, what you want out of life, and then going out and building a business and a life that is consistent with that. Do you counsel other people on, you know, how to build their businesses? Do you like...

take equity stakes or, you know, like how much, is there a lot of consulting that you do where you're still pretty much laser focused on your business? Well, I mean, part of the reason we're talking is I, I launched a YouTube series or YouTube channel in October of last year, David and David's ultra buy. And I, um, started, like I was, I did all of this without any social media, no nothing for the first 12 years. I was a ghost. A lot of people can say is I purposely didn't talk about it.

But I'm kind of switching my stage in life where I want to move more to investor mode versus operator mode. And that's a process for me. But I am very much interested in investing

investing in other businesses that I understand or partnering with other businesses that I understand and helping them to grow. And so I have my holding company is called Filter by Ventures. So you can go filterbyventures.com. And, you know, I kind of talk about there are the types of companies that we look at and we partner with. And, you know, that is really the kind of next part of my journey. You know, I intend to use my YouTube channel as a way of educating and also to really educate

you know, clearly talk about my principles. We actually, we talked, we touched on a number of them today, but I'm very principle driven and have a number of ways that I choose to run business and to live my life. And, you know, I'm looking to do business with other entrepreneurs or people that share those principles, share that long-term thinking and are in industries that I believe will stand the test of time and that I understand. Um,

And so that's what Filtered by Ventures is ultimately set up to do and what I hope to be spending more and more of my time focused on. Okay. So what are some of the, when you're evaluating someone to either partner with or invest in or whatever it may be, you know, what are some of the criteria you've been developing? What do you want to see in somebody?

First of all, to me, it starts with industry. Like I stick in boring industries. I know a lot of the audience is probably tech focused, which is great. We're huge users of technology and use lots of AI and all this kind of stuff to enhance our businesses. But from a business model perspective, I'm interested in industries and businesses that I think are likely to still exist today.

20 or 30 years from now and likely in similar forms, although the mechanisms like, you know, how you acquire customers and how you deliver certain things may have shifted. So, you know, anything in the filtration niche, obviously, but like an indoor air quality, like mold remediation and

and HVAC service, service businesses and things of, things of that nature. I'm also, like I said, we're really in a logistics company. So one industry that we've been looking a lot at recently is third-party logistics and some interesting plays within that. And it's something that, you know, I understand very deeply and, and interested in talking with other entrepreneurs that are

being innovative in that space. And so that's another active area where we are. And then distribution businesses, kind of boring distribution businesses within the HVAC general space and the filtration space. Those are all things that, you know, kind of fit our general model. And then it's more about finding...

good stewards of those businesses, people that, you know, probably has, you know, been doing it for a while, have a deep understanding of their business and their market, maybe have been struggling to grow a little bit or just don't know how, they don't have the capital or the infrastructure or, you know, knowledge or energy maybe to really grow

grow that business. And then, you know, but sitting in a industry that I understand in a, you know, market that that makes sense that, you know, we would come in and work with them to, you know, ultimately really grow that business using, you know, some of our infrastructure and connections and capital. So that's kind of how we're thinking about it. Okay. And how, for listeners that are interested, how can they get in contact with you? Silkerbyventures.com if you're interested from the business perspective or I'm David Silkerby on every...

And we put on a YouTube video every week, but I'm on every platform. If you want to reach me at David Filterby, you know, we look at all of the, all the messages and if it's something that's relevant, there's a high probability you'll get a response. Okay. Well, very good. Well, David, thank you for coming on and sharing the, the painful stuff. Most people don't want to, because I guess they, you know, maybe they feel like something's wrong with them or they failed or,

you know, if they had troubles that they're a bad person or something. So, you know, again, it's a lot of bravery to share that. So I appreciate that you did. Well, I think it's important for us all to be honest about what entrepreneurship is. And I think too much of social media, modern social media is glamorizing it. And, you know, obviously there can be lots of rewards for that. And it's, and entrepreneurship is great. I couldn't imagine doing anything else, but.

I think we're setting a lot of people up to fail by painting it a picture that is not realistic. And that's part of my reason for talking about it so publicly. Okay. Well, very good. If you like this podcast, please click the link in the description to subscribe and review us on iTunes. You've been listening to the Finding Genius Podcast with Richard Jacobs.

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