“when to add staff? “What positions are most
critical to line up first?” – Taylor, and by the way before
I get into your answer Taylor, obviously this is a startup
themed episode in honor of the 43North competition. Taylor, I think that there’s a
lot of ways to go about this. I think you reverse engineer
the founders of the company. So there’s a lot of
things that are needed. Financial understanding
is needed. Marketing understanding
is needed. Product understanding
is needed. There’s a lot of needs
when you’re a small company. I think what you need to
do is first you hire as soon as you can afford to. There are startups that I know
that are literally paying their founders and CEOs way too much
money because they want to take the money home. You’ve got to start spending it
to invest in your business but not more than you have. So if you make 30
or $40,000 a year as an entrepreneur that’s plenty. You’re building an asset
for yourself for the rest of your life. It’s better than making 100 so
you can take that 70,000 and go and hire your head of marketing,
hire a project manager, hire whatever needs you have. Who to hire is actually
quite easy my opinion. You hire around the thing that
you most need that you yourself can’t most provide. I don’t hire salespeople
very quickly in my companies. I don’t hire HR
people very quickly. We didn’t have a HR department
or a sales staff for the first five of the seven years of
VaynerMedia and everyboy thought that was so crazy because
those of the things that I did. Those are things that I
could do with my hustle. But we did have a CFO and a
legal person very quickly over our means because
those were shortcomings. I think AJ could have probably
learned it on the job but those are things we
didn’t have as much of. I think when you hire first is
the thing you need to round out your team with even if it’s not. Let’s say sales is more
important than legal but you’re great at sales I think you still
fix legal even though it’s less in priority because by doubling
down on a person you’re still zero here and you might just
gain 20 to 50 percent here, where maybe your hustle
and your efforts could just be the part that gains. I think that sometimes people
say sales of the number one thing for this company but even
though I’m great in sales I’m gonna hire second person and
won’t get to that I find that to be a vulnerability. I would say up your game by 20
to 40 percent and allow you to fill some of the other needs
that can become vulnerabilities on your team.

The Startup Van and you were
to get one guest in, one guest, who would you get in? – Mark Zuckerberg.
– Mark Zuckerberg? – The best
entrepreneur of this generation. – Really?
– Sure. That’s instant boom. – Mark, call us. – That’s instant, go get Mark. Go see what that does for you. – That’s next. – Well we’re over in
the States soon enough. – Good for you.
– We’re in the States in July. – You’re going to take this? – Not this. We’re going to
get one over there. – How they going to get this? – It’s like Air Force One. Start Up Van.
– I get it. – So we’re going
over there in July. It’s going to be pretty cool.
– Cool. – Thanks so much
getting in The Startup Van.

“to improve women’s underwear. “I’m scratching my own itch, but
know nobody in the business. “Advice?” – So India, you and I
worked on this one today we saw this tweet, I sent it to you, you went to go reach out to her. She deleted it, what did she say? – [India] She said oh
yeah, I just deleted it, but I’ll put it back up right
now if you’re gonna pick it. – (Gary laughs) I love it. Mike, this is starting to
get good, look at that. – [Mike] Yeah I know, thoracic extension. – Um, one more, we’ll just bend this out. Rupa, I think that this answer is actually the answer to your question, which is, you don’t know me,
hey Rupa, you don’t know me! You don’t know me, and you tweeted at me, and here I am responding to
you and giving you feedback, in the same way that you can go and map all 700 executives in the industry and hit them up on Twitter and say hello, I’d like to talk to you
about my business idea, and literally three of them will say yes, two of them will cancel on you, and one out of the 700 people, and if you think about three
to five minutes per engagement, three minutes to write the engagement and kinda to check it, and
then maybe four to 10 hours of research of who those
700 executives are, that you need for marketing or production or the retail world, right? Like, as you’ve tried to, (laughs) this is so, this is the most, this is way up there with
ridiculous things that I’ve done. I’m so sorry to the Vayner Nation. I don’t know what I decided, I
don’t know how this happened. Anyway, I think that um, I like take my workout serious too. So, I think you have
to go and reach out to, and so I’m telling you
that you’re gonna get to one person, maybe two, by spending 80, 90 hours of time, which scares
way too many of you off. The problem is, what’s the alternative? The problem is, what is the alternative? When you’re at the bottom
and you’ve got nothing, you’ve gotta scrap, it’s like me and Mike when we first, now I can use this, now I’m gonna start using this gym. When we first started here 16 months ago Mike told me to do this,
this, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it! That’s how at the bottom physically I was, and then we just
systematically did things. That whole thing when I
was like this is good, literally 60 days ago I
couldn’t do crap with that because we hadn’t worked
on that flexibility. So, anyway, what you have to do is you have to find the 700 people and you have to go and get them. And I would use Twitter,
LinkedIn is a place you could use as well, the problem is so many people spam on LinkedIn you get so much more upside on Twitter especially if you don’t
just like spam them with the first move, you know,
jab jab and right hooking. Woops, I use the wrong, anyway! So that’s it, put in the work. Put in the work! – [India] Shawn, I was asked to fill out-

“Is it wise to form a startup
around an app or website “which will solve a problem,
but without yet knowing “how to monetize it?” – Yes, Anthony. Solving problems in utility form is one of the greatest ways
to make a shitload of money. You know, for, I mean like, absolutely. Like, like, if you, you know, yes. I’m like, anytime you solve things for, anytime you solve things for people, monetizing becomes the
easiest part of the equation. The reason I’m pausing a
little and jumping around, Vayner Nation, is I’m
rolling with disrespect for Anthony, ’cause. It’s Anthony?
– [India] Mmhmm. Because it’s, it only
speaks to me not believing that you’re gonna solve the problem, to be very honest with you. It, it like, I have a bad
feeling in my stomach. Anthony, I love you, thank
you for supporting the show. I have no interest in dropping venom on Halloween here, but, um. Yes, that’s so like crazy to think about. There’s a million ways to monetize. If you actually bring value to people, even if you make people laugh
and escape their real life, you make tons of money. It’s called the entire
entertainment business. Right? Like, if you solve something tangible, like invent a car so we
don’t have to take horses, ya sell it. Like if you make something, sell something that’s a thing that makes thing better, you monetize by charging
for something that, I’m just. I don’t even wanna answer this question.
– [India] Sorry. This is crazy question. – [India] I’m sorry. – Again, the last part,
even if you don’t know how you’re gonna monetize it yet? – [India] If you don’t know yet know how you’re going to monetize it. – You’re gonna sell it! You’re gonna sell it. You’ve solved a problem, you’re gonna sell it! Either to a human, or
to a business that wants to sponsor the fact that we’ve
solved somebody’s problem, which is the height of value in humanity. – [India] Mmhmm. – Oh look, I created this potion that makes people feel better. How am I ever gonna make money? I mean, what the (bleep). I mean seriously, people. We’ve done this for 158 shows. Like, seriously. Ah! I wanna, I feel like I might,

“with vulturous, unethical investors? “Would you put ’em on blast?” – Yeah, I mean, if they’re truly vulturous or unethical investors, I’m more than willing
to put them on blast, but something about this question makes me also wanna say make sure that is true. The level of thin skinness in young, first-time business people, let me just say this for the record. The audacity that is running rampant in startup land, that you’re a 22 to 24
year old entrepreneur with zero proven record, and
you’re going to the world, and you want them to give
you one million dollars at a six million dollar
valuation on your idea pisses me the fuck off, and so the answer is yes to both. I would equally put an entrepreneur that is out of their goddamn mind that has not contextualized the insanity of the
marketplace that we live in as I would as an investor
who is being vulturous or unethical and doing the wrong thing, but please recognize sitting
in this ecosystem as I am, I have had a lot of
kids come to me and say, “Can you believe this other investor “that’s part of our deal?” And when I look at it, it is very normal. I would even say, 10 years
ago, soft negotiating, but by the thin skinness
of our society right now feels aggressive to this
23-year-old idea Ricky, and so I would say absolutely,
I would put them on blast, but boy would I double check that I don’t look like an
asshole five years from now for crying about somebody
just business negotiating, and I didn’t like it
because I’ve been so used to the world giving me eighth place trophies and Mom doing my homework and having no repercussions for anything for the first 22 years of my life.

However, I do have a question for you. I am developing an app with a partner. Basically the first time we built it we had an initial name and branding. However we discovered that there was a potential competitor with a similar name so we decided to go with
another branding oppertunity that we had, however
now there’s another app with the same name and a similar premise. My overall belief is that we have the superior product and
a way better strategy. My question though is do we continue to have the same name as
our potential competitor or do we completely
rebrand ourselves again to find a new name. What is your insights on this? Thank you so much Gary, you’re awesome. – That was amazing I love it. Man, that was amazing. I don’t think it matters. Next question. Fine, I’ll go into a little bit. You know, look. I don’t think it’s convenient to have a similar name with a similar
premise to a competitor. I think, you know, if Twitter came out when Twotter came out, it would have been awkward. Especially if there was
a company named Twotter. But I think, I think that, I
think at the end of the day my point of view on this would be I’d be sitting there
and say “You know what? “I’m just going to
out-execute the other person “and force them to change the name “because they realize they
want to compete with us “because we were the
thing that was winning.” Thought I don’t love the situation. I don’t want to also
say look how cool I am. I’m going to beat them to it. Like, I don’t mind you
walking away from it and changing a name either. I just ultimately don’t
think it’s going to matter. You’re going to have to out-execute. Angry Birds had a similar situation. There was a lot of birdy
kind of stuff going on. Like if you’re the best
and your product’s the best and you can navigate it,
you’ve got the right product, and you guys are the right leaders, I don’t think it ends up playing out and so I wouldn’t stress
about it too much. I think a lot of times
to make it more valuable as a question to everybody overall, I think a lot of times people
very much worry about names. I have consistently stayed on a plane of the name doesn’t matter. You can make a name matter after the fact. I don’t think Snapchat
or Facebook or Google meant anything to anybody until they actually meant something. You know, I guess maybe I’m affected by having a last name like Vaynerchuk. You know, it doesn’t feel
like the most brandable name. I also made an incredibly huge flaw in my Twitter handle with Gary Vee. I mean, I have two silent
Es at the end of my username which is not easily to explain in public. It takes time every
time, time is the asset. You know, people like “where’s the ee?” And it just wasn’t a smart move. Another bad name play by me that I think I overcame
in a Twitter environment. So execution will always trump your name.

– Are we good? Hey Gary, Demario Davis.
– [Gary] Double D. – Linebacker, New York Jets,
number 56, aka Double D. Coming at you. I got a question. When it
comes to start up companies is it better to use your own
capitol, raise money for it, or to take out a loan? Hit me back with an answer, please, sir. – I love it. Demario, got
a couple fun facts for you. Number one, you maybe 56 now, but you’re looking at a human being, probably the only one who has
a number 49 Demario Davis, because when you were drafted
out of the third round by us two funny things happened. One, I ordered your jersey immediately, because I knew what Double D
was gonna bring to the table, because I got a story that you don’t know. Which is, I got some friends in that team that I don’t like as
much called the Patriots. And when you were drafted
in their draft room, they were really sad and scared. Which excited me, because I
knew Double D was gonna bring it to the New York Jets. You didn’t know that, huh, Staphon? You didn’t know that, Double D, but I did. Now, let me answer your question. All three work. They all can work. Again, if you’re asking
for selfishly, for you. If you got some start up ideas, I think that raising
money is the way to go, because you can. It’ll come to you easier. You have the leverage of your notoriety and things of that nature. And, so, that’s the route. And really for a lot of people, if you’re able to raise money. The terms of raising money
are so attractive these days, that you can mitigate a
little bit of your risk without using your own money. And loan you’re on the hook, and interest, and things of that nature. So, to me it’s raise money first, closely followed by using your own money. Especially if you can afford it, and especially if you
really believe in it. But the reason I think raising money instead of your own money is a little bit more attractive is because the people you bring money from there’s dumb money, and
there’s smart money. By bringing in smart money, people that write
$50-$100,000 dollar checks that happen to be in that business, or that can happen to
have leverage to get you your first five clients. If you got a wine, spirits,
or social media start up, I’m a great investor, because I’ve got clout in those worlds. So, I’ve got my money on the line, right? And I’m gonna go use my power to bring opportunity for it. So, smart money is really
the most attractive. Then dumb money, just
the money for the money versus your own money becomes a debate based on your own financial situation. Third is the banks. Third.

that many others have tried
to do before me & failed. Am I stupid to think
that I’ll be the anomaly? – Daniel, that’s a tough question, because the truth is,
there are some mountains that are very difficult to climb and thesis’s that people
love to think are real, and they’re never able to
really fully get there. I think the anonymous social network space is gonna end up being one of them, I think that brings
out the worst in people and ultimately kills
itself from within itself. That’s one preview to a space
that I’m not bullish on, that I think a lot of people are gonna try to climb that mountain, that said, it just takes one tweak, one turn. You know, there was a lot of industries where people couldn’t
figure out how to win, and then eventually somebody
came along and won that game, and so I think that very
similar to the first answer in this episode, it
comes down to your chops, your skills, your patience,
your infrastructure, and really really really does
come down to your skill set. I really do believe that, you know, anybody can do anything
if they’re good enough, if they’re the first of that thing. I just think that people
have to be very realistic to also understand how special
and rare that actually is.

“Which marketing vehicles are working best “to grow the businesses of the startups “you’ve invested in?” – Steve, a hardcore VaynerMedia employee
working on data and insights. I wonder if this is a
hedged question or not. But, Steve, the answer to
this question is clearly Facebook dark posts. I’ve pounded this over and over. It’s funny, the VaynerMedia clients don’t
recognize what’s going on. All my investment companies
are only playing in this space. You know, I’m going to look
it up right now in real time. I’m gonna predict, right here on the spot, that Wish, the app Wish, the shopping app, is probably in the top
150 in the app store. This is a company, met the
founder at Cannes last year, the big advertising festival. Just go through this Facebook. Facebook, by the way,
Dub Mash I missed it. I skyped with the founder
of Dub Mash from Berlin like seven weeks ago, so on it. 10, 15 weeks ago I screwed it up. Snapchat, okay. This is what I do all the time by the way, DRock you can focus here. Every so often, actually I didn’t do it this morning, it’s just fun to do it, I’m just always looking
at the top 100 apps to basically get a feel. Usually where I’m most excited
about is down here, right? Because the top is pretty consistent. But has anything popped up here, like Wallapop, like those kind of things, I’m always trying to see. Let me just see if Wish is here, It’s somewhere, here it is, 112. Zoom in, baby. – [DRock] Yep. – 112. All Facebook dark posts. And I mean all Facebook dark posts. If people understood what
was going on arbitrage-wise on Facebook dark posts right now, which is a slang term. Facebook advertising
platform where you can reach anybody that you want. If people understood that, they would win every single time. Just like Google ad
words in the early 2000s that Amazon and Ebay used
to build their businesses. Still can’t believe
people don’t understand this is what happened. Facebook is absolutely the place that you can’t milk enough
of that cow right now. And again, over the next 24 to 48 months it will disappear, and it will more or less level out and become appropriate. Right now it’s underpriced. In four years, I’ll still love it, intuitively I believe, but it’s gonna be appropriate. I’ll be like, this is worth it. Just exactly worth it, not this is worth eight bucks and I’m paying a dollar for it. So, Facebook dark posts. If my startups could
spend every penny they had they would on that place. Pinterest starting to
emerge a little bit as well. – [India] Do you want this one

“Who would you recommend
pitching an app idea to? “What steps would you recommend?” – Jamie, this is an awkward question. Let’s get an awkward alert here. (bell sound) I don’t know what you’re
gonna come up with, guys, (laughter) but I’m excited to see it. On my awkward alert, I don’t
even know what this means. I mean, this is such a basic question. I don’t know why Steve loves this. He was like, “I love this question.” I don’t love this question,
meaning, I don’t know? Who do you recommend pitching an app to? Well, first, if you need money, you pitch it to money
people: angel investors, VCs. If you need press to get
awareness because now you’re out, you pitch it to the media and press opportunities, influencers. (laughs) Listen, we know how much I love
the reverse engineer thing. Actually, I want to make
this crazy link up episode. Link, don’t we have like four? This is gonna take you a
while to get up, DRock. The Cyber Monday wine is
gonna be completely sold out by the time this episode gets up. (laughs) Let’s put up the reverse
engineer hoodie specifically, because that’s the one
I rock, to the page. Who do you pitch it to? Whoever you need at that moment. Everything you do in business life needs to be really strategic, meaning it’s gotta make sense. Who do you pitch an app to? You have an idea but you can’t code or
create an app for crap, so you need to pitch a
co-founder or a dev shop that you don’t want to
charge you a lot of money to actually build it. Then you need money. I
already answered that. Then you need to get it out
there. I already answered that. Then you need to sell it, so then you pitch your
app to a strategic buyer. This is a very, very, and I don’t wanna pick on you. This is more … Show Steve. This is more on, more on– – Can I defend myself?
– [Gary] Yes. – Okay, you were just on Seth Meyers because you invested in Delectable. So, if somebody thinks, “Well, gee, have a really cool app idea. “Gary invested in apps.” I think that would be why
they would ask the question. Right? How did Delectable
come to your attention? – A VC pitched Phil, who vets my deals. It’s obviously in the wine
space, so it came with context. Steve is saving himself
and it’s pissing me off, (someone laughs) so I’ll answer this. It’s very strategic to
understand ones history to predict their future. Obviously coming from the wine world made me more susceptible to
be interested in Delectable. That’s the real answer. (exhales loudly)