We have 10 months of runway and if we don't get this right, we're gonna go under.
We have a meteor hitting the earth and we are dinosaurs, which is AI.
There will not be another offsite next year unless we put in that work.
We have to get it right or else things could really just disappear.
If John five years ago told me that he wanted to start a company, there's a world where I would tell him not to do it.
So let's talk context on how a business doing 30 million in revenue that's profitable could go under in 10 months.
So I started a business called StanStroll five years ago and we grew from zero to 35 million in revenue in just a few years.
But recently we started a new business, an AI agent business called Stanley, that we've grown from zero to 2 million in just four months.
But for a business of our size, doing $30 million in revenue doesn't make a dent whatsoever.
And so we recognize that, although we had this nest egg of a business doing 30 million and very profitable, That thing will get eaten alive in today's AI age unless we make this broader evolution where we can build our customers an AI agent that not only allows you to really simply and easily build your online business, but also builds you distribution and your brand all together in one package.
Because that then allows us to evolve from a nice 30 million cash-flowing business into a multi-billion dollar business out there that truly can help any entrepreneur out there from start to finish.
Because we recognize that the real problem in today's AI age is no longer about creating web pages or products and services in AI apps that you can spin up in two seconds, but instead differentiation has moved up the stack and that distribution is your new competitive advantage.
But the problem is, in order to do this Stanley bet right, we have to invest a ton of cash into developing this product so that it is world class and to make sure that we are the de facto agent for this particular category, which is costing us millions of dollars per month and means that we only have 10 months left of runway.
So the question is how do we get our team of 60 plus to buy into a new multi-billion dollar vision and make sure that we're all rowing in the same direction as soon as possible, before we lose the opportunity?
All while I try to manage the stress of all of this and make sure to not project that onto the team.
Instead, process that in the way that a CEO should, into productive measures where we actually end up winning winning.
Because if I don't do this right this week, then we could genuinely go under.
So ironically, bringing the team together in Costa Rica is significantly more affordable than bringing the whole team together in the States.
So we're actually saving money.
And if you think about this kind of critical moment checking in remote, like a couple hours a day, not in sync, like hacking together, like there's a reason why Hacker Houses exists, like coming together for a hackathon for three days exists in these really intense bursts
And so, although on paper, in the present moment, it is like exceptionally painful to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars, bringing the whole team together in Costa Rica is the most affordable version of this versus anywhere.
Like we can fucking go to Idaho. and it'd be more expensive, right?
And when you think about this critical moment in time, the whole premise is that we need to break out of our old environment, our old context, and reshape how we see the world, reshape our identities, what we think about, what we focus on, what we're talking about, what we build.
And it's much easier to do that in a net new setting than it is in your same old setting and you're comfortable.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna open with like, you know, the mission, all that kind of stuff.
And then I'm gonna go through financials, which is, you know, not great.
We are formerly in a really great place and no longer in a great place.
We're in a dangerous place now.
On paper, the numbers still look good.
It still looks like a good business.
But we have a meteor hitting the earth and we are dinosaurs, which is AI.
Why do you feel the need to talk about finances in the first place?
I think it's important to have everyone know the situation if it's also channeled into something productive.
And so the reason I'm so stressed going into this presentation is I need to make really clear to the team both the urgency of the moment of like hey guys, if we don't take this fucking seriously, all of this good stuff, this business will dissolve and go bankrupt and go under.
But I would not drive growth like from the fear point of view, like because that particular fear is unprotected.
I would probably focus on the vision and the opportunity.
We need to see the exact same things that you are driving towards.
We shouldn't use the burn rate as an incentive.
We should use the domination of the market and the mission as the incentive.
So what I have to do is I have to get people to accept and understand our current reality, without getting derailed by the fears of it, and then give them a clear North Star and that hope and motivation towards the future that we can build and be super successful together.
As of this moment, I feel pretty nervous because there's a lot of different things that I got to deliver on for this presentation.
But I also know in this moment to trust God, like to trust like my system to my subconscious.
I know what I'm doing.
I know that we're going to will this company into success.
And if I can just connect with every team member of the room and really understand where they're at and understand what they need to hear in order to crush it and have clarity on okay, this is my role at the company and this is how I'm going to help us be successful and give everyone a clear reinvigoration and a re-anchoring in our mission and why it's so important right now where, by the end of this week,
If we do all these presentations and meetings right, every team will leave here.
No one fucking fired up about our future and what we can do for people.
Then number two, how specifically they're going to get there.
What actions do they take?
What role do they play in this?
That's how you operate exceptionally well at scale is everyone leaves really clear.
So I'm going to go in there and fucking hype up the team first and give them clarity on the future.
So we'll see how this goes.
I want to start today by sharing how lucky I feel to get to be spending this time with you in the middle of fucking Costa Rica.
I landed here and it was this absurd feeling, getting to look around and be like, holy shit, we're a company and a team together.
How special is this that we get to have this moment?
It's really freaking cool.
And I recognize that the reason why we're able to enjoy these privileges, to be in this beautiful hotel, to have all the food catered for us, to fly everyone to Costa Rica, is because for years we put in the work.
And I want us to recognize that we will not have more of these special moments if we do not put in more special work.
And so, with that context being set, I wanna talk about a feeling that I think so many of us are feeling, which is like it's time to fucking get after it.
We wanna build a generational business.
And so we should work backwards as to what are the insights that got us here, And then how can we deliver that outcome to millions of people not fucking 80000 right now but to millions of people who need this, who have the potential but need the education, the guidance and the tools.
Stanley will eventually do all of these outcomes for one person, right?
The content ideation, the content creation, the content distribution, the monetization, the conversion, Everything in one package.
It's all of us packaged as one single tool and agent and helpful thought partner.
One of the things that's most important that every small business owner is recognized.
Every realtor, every lawyer that's going on TikTok is recognizing.
Every like scrappy startup founder or new age entrepreneur is like wait a minute in the sea of attention.
The one way that I can break out from the suffocating scale of a corporation spending billions of dollars on advertising is to build my own right.
Whether it's an exec, it's a lawyer, it's a founder, it's a nail salon owner, whoever it is, they're all building personal brand as the channel.
And we have that knowledge, which means we can build an AI agent with that exact workflow.
If we can do it, that means we can build an AI agent that can also do that for millions of people.
But we all know if you think about how macro economics plays out, someone will do this.
Someone will do this.
It's just how innovation happens.
We're already covering all the other rest of the stack, the commoditized product space.
What we need to be doing for people is building the Stanley for distribution.
That is a 10x TAM opportunity on what we were doing before.
The last thing I'll say is who's here to vote.
So, first of all, I'm fucking gassed because you stand up there, you present, you're trying to channel all this passion and energy and you're like, desperately hoping that the crowd of the team you're working with also feels the same way and that you've actually threaded the needle on giving them clarity, giving them conviction and belief.
And then the last thing you learn as a leader of a successful organization over time is you've also turned that energy into clear next steps for people.
So they know okay, this is how I channel all this good energy that I can create in someone into let's create something in reality that changes the outcome.
All that to be said, you do that for five hours straight.
Then you meet with all the teams to start to tackly work through what we're doing next and how we're going to solve this thing on Stanley short form, or how are we going to solve this thing on Stanley versus how we're going to do this one thing on marketing.
And all of a sudden you're just like at the end of this day right now.
I mean, what time is what?
I haven't owned a watch in years.
Why am I looking at my fucking wristband?
It's 10 o'clock at night and I can tell you that I've been going since 6 a.m.
It's no different from almost every day that I have nowadays, but you just end and you're just like so fucking tired.
But I do think the tiredness was for sure worth it.
I think we took a huge step in the right direction.
I think we're closer to our end goal payoff that we need to get to by the end of this week, which is everyone's super clear on their ownership.
Super clear on the structural flaws that they need to correct in their organization to get to their goals.
And then we're super clear on our goals as well of what we're going to crush in the next few weeks.
So tomorrow we're going to get to work as a team and start working through all these gory little details of like how do you actually get to success?
And then, by the end of it, we'll have a clear game plan to present to the rest of the team the following day.
This is so funny.
I can't wait to see all of us in Zipline gear.
I'm shook by how many people we have on the team now.
Like this is all Stan teammates.
It's really interesting to context switch between like the whole team is having a great fucking time and it's actually like sick.
We got fucking 50 people going through a zip line.
And then at the same time, I'm also like, holy shit.
This is so much money and also like we have so much strategy to figure out and so much is going wrong.
And so to balance those two things is, it's a really interesting human experience.
And I think it's one that I'm realizing increasingly as a leader one ends up being in all the time because you have so many other things going wrong and you have to like ground and just like be here with the team and enjoy this and not be a party pooper.
I feel so much stress and pressure right now that, even though we're literally sitting in paradise, I don't feel any enjoyment.
All I'm locked in on is the fact that I feel so much pressure around delivery and all that.
I gotta release the pressure to make sure to show up for Forbes, but I'm so not in a head state to enjoy things.
I've been looking around all these people here enjoying this and I feel so.
It feels like I'm watching someone else's dream.
Feels like I'm observing other people in a dream state and I'm like in a completely different parallel, in a different world.
We have to get a ride or else like.
Things could really just disappear in six months.
I surf pretty much every day.
I can surfing because it's so critical for me to feel sane for lack of a better term in a sense of like it's my happy, calm place, of like everything could be going on, the world could be moving a million miles a minute, and i think i need the intensity of surfing.
The exercise, the feeling of like the cold water uh, the feeling of like the glide and the flow, um can really really just like center me and i feel like every single time i'm having a hard time in life and something you're trying to figure something out business, A single surf session heals you completely, cools you down from all of it and also gives you complete clarity on what you need to do to be successful going forward.
You're just in connection with the water.
You're catching the right waves, you're getting right back in.
You're just in flow.
It's just such an incredible feeling of mastery that you're trying to achieve and that you never, actually ever unlock, and the ocean always humbles you.
I think I really enjoy that process, although I get frustrated pretty often as well.
I was working with a coach once and we were watching footage of me going down the line.
And then we were watching these guys who were just so good flowing.
I was like, what's the difference between me and these guys?
And the coach was like, oh, you're trying so hard to force it.
Whereas these guys know that they're not the star of the show.
The wave is the star of the show.
It's kind of surreal, right?
Like we're having this good organic time for a brief moment in the day and I'm having chicken tenders.
Like, look at them, they're fucking trolling us.
It's crazy.
It's like really surreal.
It's like we clearly all know what's on the line and we're working hard.
But then also to take that moment to just like take a break and get in the pool and feel good at the same time.
It's really strange and it makes me feel wrong or bad or guilty.
I think this is a moment where you get a little bit of that rest and that joy which also infuses your energy around wanting to work with this team, feeling like a human being.
I think coming from an Asian-American immigrant background, which is very self-flagellation, work hard, there's a Chinese term called , it means eat bitter.
It's a new mental model for me to take on and I don't fully accept it by the way of like hey, you can have a good time and be human while also succeeding.
It feels like a little bit too good to be true because so much of my model of the world is...
You have to sacrifice and just, like, eat fucking pain and shit to be successful.
And there is some version of that that is totally true.
But I think what we're trying to do here on the trip is, like, we're already fucking in Costa Rica.
Might as well have like a little bit of a good time and like find the 20 of that.
That's the right amount to infuse us with energy.
Because the rest of today, we're going to be cranking.
So it is 2am and I just wrapped up the deck for tomorrow.
I'm so fucking tired.
And What I'm realizing now is, I think about us vlogging the whole process, me showing up with so much conviction for the team.
I think, at the end of the day, there's this deep, dark fear inside of me that, at the end of the day dude, I have no fucking idea what I'm doing.
I feel like I've hit my ceiling of incompetence way long ago.
Like, I'm trying my fucking best.
I'm calling every executive I can possibly get an intro to like the people who built DoorDash, the people who fucking built Stripe, like the top execs.
I'm asking them every fucking question I can.
I'm, like, so desperate.
Like my energy's so desperate around, like getting to the next level of like hey, like how did you scale this?
How did you scale that?
Like all this shit.
I'm just like so fucking like trying so hard to figure out how do we fucking make it?
Like how do we navigate this thing and get to the next level?
And I feel like I've learned so much, of course, like how do you scale a business?
How do you build it, operating rhythm and like all this fucking buzzword technical, like terms that I want to teach you guys one day so you can learn to not have as much pain as me and scale way faster than me, but at the end of the day, it's like 60-70.
I know that I we're gonna give the team such fucking clarity on like what to do, what we're what we want to do, and to get the team hyper on our mission, but at the same time, there's like so much fear underneath as well.
Like Dude, this is chaos.
We have no fucking idea what we're doing and the way.
I think no one does.
But like It's fucking so hard man, like You have to put as a leader, you have to put on a brave face, even if you feel the same fucking fear as everyone else in the trenches.
But like your job is to fucking show up for people on your team because your energy is contagious and you got to fucking suck it up and be like the calm and the storm and give people like, even if you're fucking scared no, that's where we're fucking going and we're going to fucking make it.
And you have to believe in that.
And um, dude fucking cried like twice this video already this week, just like sharing the internal dialogue, like I don't even want to let this out right, but it's um, it's so real and um Yeah, I just hope you know that, whatever you're doing in your journey, when you hit these moments, the thing that I've learned is like, no matter what, you always fucking get through.
You always get through.
It gets harder and harder, by the way.
It keeps life.
Your reward for solving the problem you're currently stressed about right now is you'll get fucking dicked down.
You'll get punched in the fucking gut by a new problem that twists your fucking gut and stresses you out in ways that you didn't even know were possible.
But you always learn that you get fucking through.
It might last two or three days longer, or weeks longer than you're used to, but you always get through.
It's always painful, but you always get through.
And so I know that tomorrow I'm going to give my fucking heart of hearts out for the team.
I'm going to rally the fucking troops around this mission that I believe is worthwhile, around this technology we're building, that we got to innovate on, that doesn't even fucking exist right now.
And people one day in the years future will take it for granted that we built this fucking thing.
It's been so hard for us to imagine and create that we will create.
I will rally the team behind that shit and we will build this fucking thing.
And years from now, people will look back and be like, this was the fucking year where Stan made it.
This was our fucking year.
And so I'm gonna get some sleep and go crush it, and I will see you tomorrow.
Let's fucking rally the troops.
All right, y'all, it is time to bring it home.
We've had a long week where we started and I had no idea what we were going to do.
I was so stressed.
I was so worried about delivering this message to the team, whether they'd be bought in, whether they'd be fearful over our financial situation, all of the muck of building a startup.
And we worked through that.
The team has been so fucking awesome to work with.
And then since then, we worked through a really clear game plan.
Now I need to do the final bit for us, which is to bring us home.
My job here is to synthesize everything we've talked about this week and to give you full clarity on where we're going and why we're gonna win okay.
We recognize that distribution in today's world is the most important possible thing.
And so what we're gonna do here is we're gonna build a singular AI agent in a single idea.
In your pocket, on the phone, in the shower, wherever you wanna do, your ideation is gonna come up with your LinkedIn posts, your Twitter posts, your Instagram care, so your videos are all in one place.
And we all, I think, recognize the value of that.
We're all living the benefit and wealth of creating content online.
All of us, whether it's through our customers or through all of us creating that ourselves.
We're going all in on Stanley in the age of AI.
So I want us to be really, really clear on everything that we're doing.
It's all about growth.
We have to grow the business.
We have to make the product awesome enough.
And then all of us have to grow the business to make sure that we can stay alive and actually deliver this to the millions of people out there who want this solution.
And then lastly, we are going to build a generational brand that turns heads.
This is the legacy that we all want.
We wanna build the Nike for entrepreneurs, right?
Think about that feeling of that, right?
That's gonna be sick. our friends are gonna be like, holy shit, that stand was awesome, right?
The way that we're gonna make millions of people feel, I think about it all the time.
I tell interview candidates all the time one of the selfish things that I want for this business is that every single kid, no matter their socioeconomic background, out there is gonna see a story of themselves succeeding someone who went through the same shit as them, someone who had the same background as them.
I don't care what background that is, but I know that little John back in the day would have loved to have seen that for himself.
And I think that we can see it in our customer base every single day that that actually exists in our customer base and it's up to us to tell those stories.
We have the marquee partners.
We have the faces of creator entrepreneurship, the faces of the new age founder, actually with us on our cap table.
And so we'll partner with them and tell those stories, in the same way that Nike did with the LeBrons and Serenos of the world.
So with that being said, this is where we're going.
Number one, Stanley is one, we're all in on Stanley.
Number two, growth is the North Star.
Number three, let's go build a generational brand.
Because, for me, what all three of these things unlock is the realization that this is currently.
It's our time.
What I mean by that is it's our time, in the sense that it is our time, to empower and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Like this is our time to do that.
This is what the world needs the most right now in this moment.
All of these people currently are looking for hope, are looking for tools, are looking for systems and education to do these things.
And we have all of it at our disposal.
So this is our legacy that we can leave where we fundamentally lifted the success curve of entrepreneurship.
I don't think we've ever dreamed that big before, guys, before we just built Stan's store.
But I don't think that's fucking enough.
I'm not going to take that personally.
I think we're all really excited to build something that blows people's minds.
Like, how sick would it be to be part of the next lovable next cursor and have that on our resumes?
Like, yeah, we built that.
We dreamt that up.
We pushed through all the grit.
We innovated.
We dreamed that up.
That's what the opportunity to do.
And that's what I will make sure that we do.
Because, like, I think about When we first started out, there was nothing.
It was fucking nothing.
And now all of us are working so goddamn fucking hard.
Everyone's putting in so much passion, so much ownership.
Like I refuse for us not to have this outcome.
That's how I feel personally.
I refuse for this not to be a massive success.
With all of you guys working as much as you are and how much we're dreaming.
So that being said, it's our time to build.
Let's fucking go.
Get in here, get in here, selfie!
Fucking amazing, dude.
The team's great.
The team's great.
We're going to do everything we can to protect this actually and build it even bigger so more people can enjoy this.
Dude, there's so much good energy in the air.
Every team member right now is so hyped and has such big dreams for themselves, but also for Stan.
Like, there's so much good energy.
I'm hearing people be like, yo, this is our year.
This is our fucking year.
I can't wait to fucking build this year.
And what I can tell you right now is I will never waste that.
I see all of the team feeling so hype and it makes me want to be the best version of myself.
And I can't wait for you guys to watch that journey, because we are about to build a multi-fucking-billion dollar business that helps millions of people go out there and build their dreams.
