Adam Rossi. How to Build, Exit, and Stay Married
Episode - 52
Adam Rossi. How to Build, Exit, and Stay Married
My guest today is Adam Rossi. He sold his company, Platinum Solutions, 14 years ago and walked away with life changing wealth.
But what hit him first after his exit was regret. We talk about how he came to terms with his new reality, searched for his new purpose, and dealt with losing his found identity.
My favorite part of Adam's story is that he built his company with his wife, Leila, and their marriage didn't just survive. Building and selling the business, it actually got stronger through it.
We talk about what Adam would do differently now that he's had 14 years to reflect. Adam's story is fascinating and full of hard won wisdom. I'm so grateful he shared it.
What We Discussed:
00:00:00 – Introduction & Adam’s Exit Story
00:01:06 – Why Exited Founders Make Bad Investors
00:05:15 – From Angel Investing to Private Equity
00:09:00 – Why Most Second Companies Fail
00:10:15 – Lessons from a Failed Acquisition
00:12:07 – Buying vs. Building a Business
00:14:34 – Regret After Exit and Finding New Purpose
00:17:27 – Sacrifice, Purpose & The Next Big Thing
00:20:18 – Impact, Meaning & Philanthropy Struggles
00:23:44 – Coaching Entrepreneurs as a Calling
00:25:18 – Why He Hasn’t Jumped into a Big Mission Yet
00:27:00 – Kids, Family, and Timing the Next Move
00:29:00 – Angel Investing: Rise and Decline
00:31:06 – The Illusion of Control in Angel Investing
00:32:35 – Advice for New Angel Investors
00:34:45 – Lifestyle Balance Post-Exit
00:36:00 – The Grind Years: 20-Hour Days and Stress
00:36:00 – The Grind Years: 20-Hour Days and Stress
00:38:00 – Building a Business with His Wife
00:41:30 – Division of Labor and Complementary Skills
00:43:00 – Conflict Resolution in a Husband-Wife Team
00:44:45 – Why They Didn't Start a Second Business Together
00:46:15 – Raising Entrepreneurial Kids with Wealth
00:50:45 – The Only Real Passive Investing Strategy
00:53:26 – Life Rules: Wealth vs. Freedom
00:56:40 – Is Balance Between Mission and Freedom Possible?
00:58:45 – Mental Health After the Exit
01:01:00 – Why He Shares His Story Publicly
01:03:15 – A Book for His Kids and Maybe the World
01:07:17 – Will He Publish It?
01:09:41 – How Adam Wants to Be Remembered
01:10:36 – Closing Thanks & Final Reflections
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Anastasia Koroleva: [00:00:01 - 00:00:27]
Welcome to Exit Paradox where we explore what actually happens after a successful business Exit. I'm your host, Anastasia Koroleva. My guest today is Adam Rossi. He sold his company Platinum Solutions 14 years ago and walked away with life changing wealth. But what hit him first after his exit was regret.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:00:28 - 00:01:02]
We talk about how he came to terms with his new reality, searched for his new purpose and dealt with losing his found identity. My favorite part of Adam's story is that he built his company with his wife Lila and their marriage didn't just survive building and selling the business, it actually got stronger through it. We talk about what Adam would do differently now that he's had 14 years to reflect. Adam's story is fascinating and full of hard won wisdom. I'm so, so grateful he shared it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:01:06 - 00:01:14]
Why do you think exited founders tend to make really bad investors? What's wrong with us?
Adam Rossi: [00:01:15 - 00:01:48]
Yeah, I think we're terrible investors by and large because we have a bunch of money, a bunch of liquidity all of a sudden. And we have not had the experience of investing in things outside of our core industry. We have been stewards of capital where we're saying, okay, I'll invest in a new piece of equipment or a new office, but it's not really doing diligence on different things. And so we become like the biggest suckers on the planet. Right?
Adam Rossi: [00:01:48 - 00:02:14]
We are targets for scammers. We are targets for people who prey on our good natured desire to want to help other founders. We are optimists by and large, and so we tend not to look for the negatives in a potential investment. This sounds great. I think we could do this.
Adam Rossi: [00:02:16 - 00:02:44]
I think we're kind of like, you know, I, I was talking to a friend who, in, within my circle of, of entrepreneurs, friends who have exited, a number of them have been scammed on more than one occasion for millions of dollars. Right? They have been. They got into an investment they didn't really understand with people that were not either qualified or had bad intentions and they lost millions of dollars. And I was talking to my friend and I was like, why there?
Adam Rossi: [00:02:44 - 00:03:02]
I know those people are smart people, I mean geniuses. And they are experienced and they would have heard of. You've seen them on TV there. How would they, how are they, you know, victims of fraud like that? And my friend said, we suck at investing.
Adam Rossi: [00:03:02 - 00:03:16]
Like we, we suck at investing. We do like we. It's a. If you think, you know, it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at something, even if we've owned our business for a decade. Or two decades.
Adam Rossi: [00:03:16 - 00:03:39]
How much investing experience did we have during that time? Not a lot. Usually some of us have acquired a company, but not the level of scrutiny and diligence. And really, we haven't even really, I think, exercised the ability to say no enough yet. Which is something that you have to learn, right?
Adam Rossi: [00:03:40 - 00:03:41]
Just my default answer is no.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:03:42 - 00:04:16]
Yeah, yeah, no. The ability to say no, the skill of saying no is, Is something that takes people a while to acquire. I also found that when these requests, financial requests, come from family or friends, it's especially hard. And then we are really not prepared, and that's a big danger. But I also found that some of the personal traits, character traits that made us successful as entrepreneurs are exactly the ones that make us so horrible as investors.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:04:16 - 00:04:32]
Like, for example, risk tolerance, the desire to do things. Like if you look at the Warren Buffett's of this world, they win because they don't do much, right? And it's very hard for us. We can't just sit and wait. It's completely unnatural.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:04:32 - 00:05:19]
And then of course, there are other problems, like the sudden wealth syndrome, which is a psychological problem when we become extremely scared of losing the money we got. But as a result, we make very impulsive decisions because we jump on opportunities that are too risky to earn a lot of money because we're actually scared to lose, and we end up losing. So I think it's extremely important for people who recently exited to fully appreciate that A, we're idiots when it comes to investors, and B, our personality may not really suit that, that type of activity in the first place. But I'm very interested because you did a lot of angel investing. You stopped doing it, but you still consider yourself an investor.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:05:19 - 00:05:36]
You just do it differently. It's more like private equity investment that you're doing now rather than angel investing. How did you transition in terms of your mindset, your thinking, but also your skills to feel comfortable doing that?
Adam Rossi: [00:05:36 - 00:05:51]
Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's. It's by and large now as a limited partner, right? So, you know, we're acquiring companies through like a private equity fund. We are giving them growth capital.
Adam Rossi: [00:05:51 - 00:06:45]
We're then acquiring, you know, another company in the same industry, putting them together, growing them, eventually we'll exit the company, you know, so as a limited partner, I can choose to be very involved. I can choose to be a little bit involved. It's really shifting from finding great founders or opportunities to just finding qualified general partners that are executing a plan that is predictable and that you have confidence in. And so you know, it's. And that's why I mentioned, I think even with angel investing, which is not traditionally like a PE thing and if it's early enough, not even a traditional VC thing, but I also think even those are better done through a fund with staff.
Adam Rossi: [00:06:46 - 00:07:27]
And you know, I like having the ability to do, you know, what they call sidecar investments where I've been following the company, the fund is invested in them, they come back and they say, okay, we have, you know, an opportunity to invest more in, in company X. And then I'll say, yes, I've been following this company closely. I want to increase my investment. I'll do it through the sidecar. So yeah, that's, you know, apart from the operating companies like Total Shield I mentioned that I acquired, you know, I'll always be on the lookout for other companies I can buy and put together with them.
Adam Rossi: [00:07:28 - 00:07:46]
But I've found that qualified general partners earn their fee for a reason. Right? They deserve it. They're doing a lot of the, a ton of diligence work. They're looking at a deal flow that I do not have the patience or time to look at.
Adam Rossi: [00:07:46 - 00:08:20]
And then it's just traditional equity investing, right? I mean, just buy and hold dumb ETFs and hang out in them and you know, and collect dividends and do well with those too. Right. And so, yeah, I think it's doing that stuff and saying no to weird deals you don't understand, products you can't understand easily or things that are very illiquid and will tie you up for a long period of time. Right?
Adam Rossi: [00:08:20 - 00:08:43]
Those are, you know, my banker is JP Morgan. They're similar. You know, Goldman Sachs are all kind of similar in that they will try to put you into weird products sometimes. And, and I've trained them to say, like, I'm not interested. If it's too hard for me to understand in 10 seconds, I'd rather just hang out in, you know, an index fund.
Adam Rossi: [00:08:43 - 00:08:44]
Like, it's fine.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:08:44 - 00:09:31]
So, Adam, I love that we are going into this subject because just last month I spoke at a conference of post Exit Found where I shared with them the fact that so often we start our SQLs full of confidence after our success and yet the statistics is that 70% of SQLs fail. And I've collected about 30 reasons by now of why it happens. And I divide them into three groups and one of them has to do with the timing. We start a new company too early, when we are not yet emotionally ready and the quality of our judgment is very poor. Or we start them too late when we already too used to comfortable lifestyle, not working, basically early retirement.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:09:31 - 00:09:59]
And the second group is about motivation. Our motivation needs to be right, because I found that it doesn't actually matter why we start our first company, but it really matters why we start our sequel. Because we cannot start it out of fear and greed anymore. We'll just run out of that motivation very quickly. And then the last reason is that so many of us haven't really processed our experience and never identified our true zone of genius.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:09:59 - 00:10:14]
So we jump bravely into a new industry, into a new market where we know nothing, and then we get burned. So I'd love to use this framework of these three reasons to analyze your experience and to see if you can relate to any of these problems.
Adam Rossi: [00:10:15 - 00:10:36]
Well, I can definitely relate to the problem of jumping into a industry that you don't understand. For me, you know, after we sold the software company, as a software developer, I was always working on kind of a virtual product. And I said, I want to make a physical product. I want to manufacture something. I want to own a manufacturing company.
Adam Rossi: [00:10:37 - 00:11:04]
And so very quickly I bought a manufacturing company that designed and manufactured its own commercial H vac equipment. And it was really, I think my downfall was two things. Speed. I wanted to do something quickly, and I didn't identify in diligence a major problem with the acquisition which we can get into, but had to do with a related party transaction. It was very obvious.
Adam Rossi: [00:11:05 - 00:11:20]
It turned out to be the downfall of the company. I missed it. I just wanted to do the deal. But the main problem, I think the overarching one, was hubris. I distinctly remember after being on the Inc.
Adam Rossi: [00:11:20 - 00:11:40]
500 list year after year and climbing the list, and we're number 60, then we're number 50. You're doubling every year. You get this feeling of invulnerability, infallibility when it comes to business. And I kind of felt like, business is business. I don't care what the domain is like.
Adam Rossi: [00:11:40 - 00:12:06]
I can perform anywhere. And so I really, really got burned on that first acquisition because there was a lot of things I didn't understand, and it was a very different environment. And it turned out to be a really poor acquisition that I divested at a. At a significant loss.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:12:08 - 00:12:15]
So tell me why it is that you chose to acquire companies as opposed to starting from scratch?
Adam Rossi: [00:12:17 - 00:12:49]
So the, the, the main problem I think we had with our software company was we were cash poor and we took a long time to kind of get to viability. You know, we, we had no Ability to borrow money. We didn't have any money of our own. And so Lila kept working at Anderson Consulting. She would pay our mortgage and our, you know, gas bill and all the bills.
Adam Rossi: [00:12:49 - 00:13:18]
I was sitting at the kitchen table working, and it took a solid, you know, two or three years before you could say, this is a going concern. You know, we were always kind of one invoice away from, this is not working. You know, like, if a customer was slow to pay. And so looking back on those three years of toil, I really wanted to skip that. Right.
Adam Rossi: [00:13:18 - 00:13:39]
And so. So, you know, you get into a different position where, A, you're. You're a little less patient, B, you have more money or you have the ability to. To write a check. And for me, skipping the viability stage was really worth the investment.
Adam Rossi: [00:13:40 - 00:13:55]
And so, you know, it has proven effective in kind of subsequent acquisitions that I've done. And it's. It's something that at least you get to skip the. Does the market care about this? You know, are there customers for this?
Adam Rossi: [00:13:56 - 00:14:07]
And so, yeah, I feel strongly that the right acquisition is just such a jumpstart.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:14:08 - 00:14:21]
Yeah, no, I can absolutely see that. If you find a company that has already proven they have a product market fit, the risk is significantly lower. So it's the time and the risk for you.
Adam Rossi: [00:14:22 - 00:14:33]
Time and risk. Yeah. And just that trade of, you know, I will trade money for time, you know, because it's often a really good trade.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:14:34 - 00:14:55]
Absolutely. So, Adam, the most important question. You said that you regretted exiting your business at some point soon after the exit because you were missing that sense of purpose, that mission that you had in your business. Do you have it now? Have you found it?
Adam Rossi: [00:14:56 - 00:15:39]
Yeah, I. Absolutely. One of the things that I think is interesting about the human mind is we tend to forget some of the bad things and we remember good things nostalgically. I have now come to the point in my life where I realize there was great highs, but also terrible lows and a lot of physical sacrifice and mental sacrifice and just being bathed in stress all the time that I'm glad to not be a part of. And I know I do not want to step back into.
Adam Rossi: [00:15:40 - 00:15:53]
And so I feel now, you know, if. If the opportunity came back and they said, hey, do you want your old company back? I would say, I'm not. I'm not going to take it back. I.
Adam Rossi: [00:15:53 - 00:16:24]
I can't, you know, at this point, have the same quality of life that I have today with taking that on again. And I think it's one of those things Where a lot of founders that I've talked to have that kind of feeling of I've made a mistake. But generally when you talk to them after, you know, a given number of years, they get over that feeling. Right. They say, oh yeah, I made the right decision and I'm glad I did.
Adam Rossi: [00:16:24 - 00:16:32]
And I'm glad I did it when I was young enough to appreciate all these things I've appreciated in life. And I'm. I'm in that spot too.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:16:32 - 00:17:09]
Yeah. So again, do you however, find a sense of purpose in that life? Because all you said is so correct. It's exactly what I found as well, what I've observed in others and in myself. But I also found that when you talk to those people who are very happy with their lifestyle a few years after the exit or 10 years or more after they exit, they may have this problem with a sense of purpose because purpose does come from sacrifice, from accepting a duty for something.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:17:10 - 00:17:28]
And when we settle into this beautiful lifestyle and we have the sense of contentment, we are stress free. It is hard to sacrifice, much harder than it was earlier on in our lives. How to reconcile that at this point?
Adam Rossi: [00:17:28 - 00:18:06]
I'm 51 years old and I still feel like I have a lot to do and accomplish and I'm not sure what those things are yet. And so I think there are. I guess what I would say is there are things that I have in my mind that I haven't done yet that I want to accomplish and do. And some of them are mundane and others are very ambitious. I just don't feel a.
Adam Rossi: [00:18:10 - 00:18:41]
Like there's a clock running where I need to do something on a schedule anymore. And so I used to be very regimented about goals and you know, this is my goals for the next year. I'm going to accomplish these things. I'm going to, you know, my goals now are really, you know, first centered around family. And I think there will be a big decision to make when my 14 year old, you know, goes to college or leaves the house.
Adam Rossi: [00:18:41 - 00:19:17]
Right. I mean, I think that's the next stage, this empty nester stage which I've got friends that are going through now where I'll need to say what is my next do? I want to take one of these kind of lofty goals and try to go towards it. So it's maybe three or four years away, but I think there's always things that can make us feel fulfilled and things that we want to do and ambitions that we have. And I think it's just finding the right time and place to do them.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:19:18 - 00:19:35]
Yeah. I think balance is the hardest thing to achieve in life because balance is so easily disbalanced. Right. And entrepreneurs tend to be people who are very obsessive by nature. And balance is particularly hard for us.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:19:35 - 00:20:16]
And yet we crave it all the time because that sense of fulfillment usually comes from us feeling we have, you know, the sense of achievement, but we have a sense of purpose, and then we are content all at the same time. And it's very difficult. And I think it's very, very rare that people find that situation. But I want to stay on the topic of mission and purpose simply because you raised it as such an important thing for you early on. How would you define that sense of mission and purpose you may one day want to have again in your life?
Adam Rossi: [00:20:18 - 00:20:41]
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just, you know, we want to have an impact on people's lives somehow. Right. We want to make the world a better place. We want to, you know, have something that people will look back and say they made it better in this way. Right.
Adam Rossi: [00:20:41 - 00:21:12]
And so I feel like it's hard to get into something you're not really excited about, even if it makes you a ton of money that you don't find is doing those things. Right. That it's either it's making an impact on health or safety or something meaningful. And so I think what happens is a lot of us say, okay, well, I'm in an industry. I mean, just pick like, something mundane.
Adam Rossi: [00:21:12 - 00:21:27]
Like, you know, I'm in a. I run a call center. Right. It's not really, you know, what I'm passionate about, but it's going to make me a bunch of money, and then I'll get into philanthropy. And this is something that I found is difficult.
Adam Rossi: [00:21:28 - 00:22:10]
Philanthropy for entrepreneurs is another area where we're tend to not do a great job of it. We might be on a board of a philanthropy, but it's operating in a way that's counter to the way we've operated, which is focusing on doing something in kind of a capitalist economy that people want to pay for and we get market signals and we get rewarded. So I've been very. I think what a lot of people would say when you ask that question is, oh, well, I find meaning now by being philanthropic. For me, it's been difficult because when I've been involved in those, I haven't achieved a lot of fulfillment from them.
Adam Rossi: [00:22:10 - 00:22:48]
I think it's more, you know, what I do every day. Almost every day I have a call with someone who has an idea for a company or has founded a company and just wants it. They're not looking for, for investment, they're looking for help or advice. I'd much rather help people in that way. Create kind of a better company that employs people and helps the economy than giving money to philanthropies by just writing checks.
Adam Rossi: [00:22:51 - 00:23:19]
I, I feel like my answer to the question of like, what, what can, you know, provide fulfillment in the future is really just helping build people up that are on kind of an entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial path. And for me, not so much on the, you know, philanthropic side. We certainly give money to philanthropies, but I think that's the typical entrepreneur's path of like, now I'm going to be Mr. And Ms. Philanthropy and be on a bunch of boards and give a bunch of money and.
Adam Rossi: [00:23:20 - 00:23:22]
And I haven't been very successful at that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:23:22 - 00:23:47]
Yeah, yeah. I also think that sometimes it happens early on, but it's vanity driven. And as we grow through this post exit challenging period, many of us develop like aversion to anything vanity driven. We want things to be real and we stop doing that. We stop doing it in a way for our own reason.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:23:48 - 00:24:05]
Reasons. I have met amazing entrepreneurs who found this mission driven activity in venture philanthropy when they merge business and philanthropy together. That seemed to work for some people for sure.
Adam Rossi: [00:24:06 - 00:24:44]
Yeah, I think that's a great model if, if you can figure it out. I think it's tricky to figure out, but I think if you can do it where you're helping a community or a, you know, a founder with a business that is providing a service to its community, like that's the dream, right? Is if, you know, you can kind of use your skills to help build up a family or a community in an entrepreneurial sense. I just, I haven't cracked the code of how to do it, but I know that some people have been successful doing that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:24:45 - 00:25:17]
Adam, you keep saying that for you, potentially the way to find your purpose would be in helping other entrepreneurs. But this is what you're doing right now, isn't it? What I want to really understand is why you think just based on your personal journey, why you think you had a sense of purpose when you were running your first business, Platinum Solutions, and you don't quite have it now when you're less involved in Total Shield, which you bought and there are other people who run it.
Adam Rossi: [00:25:18 - 00:25:49]
Yeah, I mean, it's. I think the problem that I have is when you have a mission that you feel is like literally life or death, what do you do that is more meaningful. If I had a company that was a trash disposal company, okay, I helped sanitation. That's a public good. But I can top that.
Adam Rossi: [00:25:49 - 00:26:19]
I could do better. It's hard to replace a like for, like, kind of mission, at least perceived level of impact and importance from where I was. And so I think, you know, the. I'm pretty confident that there will come a time in my life where I say, this is the next mission. And I feel just as strongly about this mission as I did for that previous mission.
Adam Rossi: [00:26:19 - 00:26:29]
I'm just trying to be patient and see what that is and not try to force it, because I've forced things a couple different times over the past decade, and they don't seem to go well when I force it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:26:29 - 00:26:49]
Yeah, yeah, no, no, I hear you. So you basically gave me two reasons why you are not pursuing these big, ambitious things that you, at some point, want to pursue. The first one, you actually want all your kids out of the house. So a very personal reason. And the second one is that you want it to come to you naturally.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:26:49 - 00:26:59]
You don't want to force it. So why do you think the children prevent you from going in that direction?
Adam Rossi: [00:27:00 - 00:28:14]
I think it's just a question of time and balance that you mentioned, having a lot of founders who feel kind of regret that they spent so much of their effort while their kids were in their formative years in their business, and then after they exited, maybe they were going through a lot of discovery and maybe just not as present as they could have been, even though they had all this time to spend with their kids. I am cautious about that feeling of regret that if I were to say I found my next mission. I mean, for example, and I don't want to say this in kind of a bragging way, but a lot of people have said, you should run for public office. And I say, on the one hand, I think that's attractive. On the other hand, I see the level of scrutiny it does to kids in school, the attention, often negative, that they receive, and I'd much rather have them out of high school than to do that with high school kids now.
Adam Rossi: [00:28:14 - 00:28:48]
You know, it's just one example of something that, you know, I've considered where I've said, is it better to do it today or to wait just a couple more years and not put kids through that? Or the time commitment and saying, now I suddenly can't go to your basketball game. I can't help you with your homework because I'm getting dragged back into something. And the reason I Sold. One of the reasons I sold the company was, you know, to spend more time with the kids.
Adam Rossi: [00:28:48 - 00:28:55]
So anyways, that's. Yeah, that's why I think. I don't know that you can't do it, but I'm just being careful, you know.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:28:55 - 00:29:12]
Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's that balance that is so hard to, to achieve, isn't it? Balancing the kids and personal ambitious ambitions and all of that. So, Adam, you have been angel investing for a while. Could you share your experience?
Adam Rossi: [00:29:13 - 00:29:48]
Yeah, I really wanted to do angel investing because I really like to work with new founders and I like to kind of coach and mentor them. And so I've been involved in angel investing for over a decade and I started doing it a lot. You know, there's this concept of, you know, the power law. And you need to invest in a lot of startups because most fail and you'll have one or two winners and, you know, one or two will be okay. And so I kind of took that to heart.
Adam Rossi: [00:29:48 - 00:30:19]
I started investing a lot of startups and over time, my love of startup investing has dwindled and I'm now at the point where I'm only really participating in a handful of startups that I have been with for quite some time and have really kind of closed the door on new angel investing.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:30:21 - 00:31:05]
So what I find a lot among existed founders, and I experienced it myself, is that we have this illusion that angel investing will satisfy some of that need or desire to be entrepreneurial again, to have our own company. And then we realize that angel investing doesn't give us a creative outlet because we don't control the company. So we cannot actually bring any dream into reality without that control. It's very similar how artists, for example, would not be able to create a piece of art if they don't have a complete and full control over their artwork. Does this resonate with you?
Adam Rossi: [00:31:06 - 00:31:40]
It does. So the, you know, one example of, of one of the companies that I am still involved with is lawnstarter. You know, I met two young guys in their last semester of college at Virginia Tech who wanted to create this on demand lawn care company using kind of a software app. And you click a button and somebody comes and mows your lawn. And for four or five years I was kind of saying, guys, you need to do these things.
Adam Rossi: [00:31:40 - 00:32:06]
And they were like, yeah, okay, we're going to do it our way. And one of the big ones was, you know, kind of implement a system like eos, get a coach, you know, and they were kind of resistant, which I get. Like, people are headstrong. But eventually they did all those things and they were like, yeah, I wish we had done it earlier. And it's kind of one of those things where, like, as the angel investor, you can suggest, you can, you know, make your voice hurt.
Adam Rossi: [00:32:06 - 00:32:35]
But you know, the, at the end of the day, like, yeah, you don't, you're not, you're not telling them what to do. And a lot of the founders that you want to invest in are headstrong and individuals and they want to do it their way, which, you know, I, I would have been the same way. And so, yeah, you feel that, that friction of kind of like, I see, you know, you're going in a direction and I would not have done it that way, but I can't really change the outcome.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:32:35 - 00:32:45]
Yeah, no, absolutely. So, for example, if someone exited a few months ago and they ask you for an advice about angel investing, what would you say?
Adam Rossi: [00:32:47 - 00:33:30]
I will say if you're doing this for a large monetary return, you're going to be probably disappointed. If I took all the money that I've invested as an angel investor and just stuck it in an s and P500 index fund, I would be farther ahead with the s and P500 index fund. I mean, there's, you know, no doubt about it. And I think the statistics, the last time I looked at them, most angel investors don't make any money and a lot of them lose money. And so you're, you know, I would say if you're doing this to, to, to be satisfied with, with your financial returns, probably not the best, best investment.
Adam Rossi: [00:33:30 - 00:34:05]
If you're doing this because you want to be involved with mentoring and kind of the, you know, the startup scene, that, that's, that's viable. But again, temper your expectations for how much you're going to be involved or have a say, you know, as we just discussed. And so I think for some people, it's, it's enough to, you know, get a quarterly update and, and write a check. Right. I mean, it's, it's, they, they like it.
Adam Rossi: [00:34:05 - 00:34:30]
They have an intrinsic, you know, I'm, I'm helping give back every once in a while. I can, I can make an introduction or, or answer a question. And for them that's okay. And so I'd say if, if that's your expectation, you know, go ahead and do it. And I think the other thing is, it's one of those weird things where everyone will tell you, oh, you're just not doing it enough, you need to do it more.
Adam Rossi: [00:34:30 - 00:35:11]
And I would say you got to invest in at least 10 or 20 startups. Well, if to do that you have to diligence 200 startups, it's a lot of work. I mean, sitting through the pitches, reading the documents, looking at the legal agreements, significant amount of work. And so I think a lot of folks, when they look at that, they say, you know what, I'd probably be better off getting involved with a group that does this. So we share the diligence or investing in a fund and then I can jump in and out if I feel like I can lend value to one of the fund portfolio companies.
Adam Rossi: [00:35:11 - 00:35:16]
I think we all tend to gravitate towards that as the better option.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:35:17 - 00:35:48]
Yeah, I'm very happy that you mentioned that. It's actually hard work and it takes a lot of time. That was my experience as well, and I did not expect that. And I think oftentimes people want to try angel investing either because lots of others around them do that, or because they're searching for a balance between lifestyle and, and work. And they don't want to work too hard because they, they're still exhausted from, from the marathon of the first business, which is very understandable.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:35:48 - 00:35:59]
And I'm curious how you created a lifestyle balance for yourself. Did you have a good balance while building a business.
Adam Rossi: [00:36:00 - 00:36:21]
When my. I did not have a good balance for most of my software company career. And you know, it was, I was young. I mean, I started my company when I was 26. I needed less sleep than I do now as a 51 year old.
Adam Rossi: [00:36:22 - 00:37:03]
But I would routinely work 20 hours a day. I would, you know, seven days a week, work every weekend, work a lot of holidays, you know, just, just, you know, my eyes would just be like bugging out, looking at my screen, writing software or reviewing code or whatever it was. And so, you know, it caused a lot of, you know, physical stress and, and, and, and I didn't have a great balance. And you know, Lyle and I had, we have three kids. We had our first child, you know, somewhat early in the business where we were bringing kids to the office.
Adam Rossi: [00:37:05 - 00:37:44]
There's so many pictures of like, you know, my son sitting at my desk with me as I'm working and my wife would bring him in just so that like, we'd have some, you know, together time because I was working so hard. It's something that I caution, you know, when we get back to kind of mentoring other founders, I say, look, you know, I got away with it, but I have a lot of friends who really hurt themselves, you know, physically have. Have lasting kind of stress problems, you know, mentally have hurt their marriage by working so hard. So it's something I caution folks on. And again, it's hard when you tell a young person, okay, I'm.
Adam Rossi: [00:37:44 - 00:37:52]
I got here by working really, really hard. You know, you should work hard, but. But set some limits. And they're kind of like, well, you didn't. It's like, yeah, I kind of didn't.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:37:52 - 00:37:58]
Yeah, but in your situation, Lila worked with you in the business, right?
Adam Rossi: [00:37:58 - 00:37:59]
She did.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:37:59 - 00:38:21]
And you and I talked about this before how investors don't like those wife and husband businesses. I personally think wrongly, even though it's understandable. So would you mind sharing your experience running a business with your wife? How strategic were you guys about it?
Adam Rossi: [00:38:22 - 00:38:41]
So we, you know, I've heard that too, where people say, look, if you invest in a business with a husband and wife founder, if there's a problem with a relationship, the business often gets torn apart. Right. I mean, there's just no easy way to unwind that. I think that's the downside. The good side that we experienced is when it works.
Adam Rossi: [00:38:41 - 00:38:55]
It's an amazing. That's like the best partnership ever made, right? I mean, people. You typically see a lot of founders have a co founder or two co founders, right? So it'll be either two or three people that start a company.
Adam Rossi: [00:38:55 - 00:39:13]
And I understand why they do that, because it's really scary to do something totally alone. You have no one, really, that's a peer in the business to talk to. You can't really talk to your employees. You know, so people naturally, I think, look for partners in a business. For me, the best partner in the world was my wife.
Adam Rossi: [00:39:14 - 00:39:41]
I mean, just someone who I have 100% trust in. She has 100% trust in me. We've had a very long relationship that has stood the test of time. And someone who I knew would always make the right decision for the business, and she knew I would always do the right thing for the business. There was never that seed of doubt that I think partners have where.
Adam Rossi: [00:39:41 - 00:39:54]
Where someone says, well, I'm working harder. I want this more, or I deserve more. For us, it was just the perfect partnership. And I love the fact that. That we did it and it worked extremely well.
Adam Rossi: [00:39:54 - 00:40:22]
You know, I won't say that there wasn't moments of stress in our marriage, because there certainly were where we're both getting, you know, terrible news about, like, an employee resigning or, you know, a customer leaving us or, you know, some type of Usually on like a vacation or on a week, you know. Right. Like the worst possible time. And we're both like, you know, usually like one partner is removed from it. Like, we didn't have that.
Adam Rossi: [00:40:22 - 00:40:32]
But the little downsides were far outweighed for me and Lila by the amazing upsides. Like, who else can you trust that well?
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:40:32 - 00:40:38]
Yeah, so, okay, trust is one thing. Did you have complementary skills?
Adam Rossi: [00:40:39 - 00:41:10]
Yeah, we did. I mean, so the. I was really good technically and I was really good at working with our customer base. I was not great at organizing, managing, you know, hiring, firing. There were a lot of things that held us back when Lila was working at Anderson, and I was kind of the only, you know, day to day employee or manager, if you will.
Adam Rossi: [00:41:12 - 00:41:24]
So, you know, I mentioned, you know, we. We didn't grow for the first few years, mainly because I was a control freak. You know, I had employees that were afraid to. To do their own thing. They would always say, you know, is this okay?
Adam Rossi: [00:41:24 - 00:41:58]
And I'd say, no, it's not. Let me rewrite it. And so when, when we reached a point where it was like, okay, this is a viable company, Lila, come over and assume the role of kind of the, the CEO, the person that is doing the running of this company, the hiring of the management team, all those things that were kind of internal to the company. And I just said, okay, I'm not writing code anymore. I need to be spending my time with our customers downtown in D.C.
Adam Rossi: [00:41:59 - 00:42:06]
in Maryland, wherever they are. I need to be kind of outside. So we had kind of an inside, outside division of labor, if you will.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:42:07 - 00:42:11]
Clear division of labor, then clear division of labor.
Adam Rossi: [00:42:11 - 00:42:45]
I mean, don't get me wrong, every key hire we were both talking about, but she would usually be the one that would interview them kind of extensively, and I would be the one that would, you know, if there was like a technical que. You know, like, I might technically interview them, but we would always, you know, for big decisions, obviously it was a mutual decision, but clear divisions of labor where there were things where she would just say, like, don't, you know, you don't have, you don't have to mess with this. Like, I have this. Don't. Don't screw it up, you know.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:42:45 - 00:42:59]
Yeah, yeah, so you said trust. We. We talked about complementary skills. How about conflict resolution? How did you resolve conflicts?
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:43:00 - 00:43:03]
Disagreements about the business? Because I'm sure there were some.
Adam Rossi: [00:43:03 - 00:43:32]
You know, the, the thing is we. We had so few disagreements that. I know it sounds kind of hard to believe, but there were really never any big disagreements. I mean, if, you know, there were some. Some things that we did that were maybe controversial or risky.
Adam Rossi: [00:43:32 - 00:43:58]
Like, you know, I might have mentioned that, you know, putting a ton of money in a single competition with a large company, Lockheed Martin, you know, that was one where it was. It was my decision to do it. And Milo was just like, look, if you feel this strongly about it, do it. You know, we just didn't really, you know, or if she said, look, I really, really feel strongly about this CFO candidate, I know you were kind of lukewarm. I want to bring this person on.
Adam Rossi: [00:43:58 - 00:44:19]
I would just say, let's do it. You know, it was just that the. The times that I can't even really think of a time where we felt that differently about a topic that we had to have like a, you know, rock paper scissors or anything. Like, it just. It just didn't really happen like that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:44:19 - 00:44:48]
Yeah, that's fascinating. I talked to another very successful exited founder recently, and I asked him how he protects his romantic relationships from his entrepreneurial grind. And he said, well, I merged them. He's another example of someone who built a business together with his wife very successfully, and in fact, they created several businesses together. Which leads me to the question for you.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:44:48 - 00:44:54]
If you had this successful experience doing it together, why didn't you do it again together?
Adam Rossi: [00:44:55 - 00:45:36]
Well, it's just, I think the. Once we sold the business, you know, we were 39 years old, our kids were, you know, kind of preteens. And Lila said, look, I've accomplished everything I want to accomplish in the business world. I really, really want to focus on the kids, and I'm not in any hurry to step back into owning a business. And so, you know, at that point, and she's kept to that today.
Adam Rossi: [00:45:36 - 00:45:58]
I mean, she does a lot of things, you know, that are philanthropic and, you know, is involved in, for example, you know, boards at our college, Virginia Tech, extensively. She does a lot of work on things, but it is no longer she. For. In terms of business ownership. She was kind of like, I'm good.
Adam Rossi: [00:45:58 - 00:46:08]
And I was like, I still want to do some. Some things. And so we. We kind of, you know, made those decisions after that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:46:08 - 00:46:15]
Totally get it. So your kids are now 18, 17 and 14. Right. You also have three kids like me.
Adam Rossi: [00:46:15 - 00:46:15]
Right.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:46:16 - 00:46:23]
So have you ever intentionally wanted them to be entrepreneurs as well?
Adam Rossi: [00:46:25 - 00:47:14]
I'm very cautious about telling them or even giving them the feeling that I have an expectation that they do one thing or another in their life, because I've seen that happen in my family with my Grandfather and owning construction businesses and the expectation someone else is going to do this puts a lot of pressure on a kid. And I think kids need to have the freedom to figure out what they want to do in life to be happy. And so I have always, my philosophy is expose the kids to everything. Bring them to the office, bring them to business meetings, bring them on entrepreneurial retreats. We're going to go on one this weekend, expose them to all this stuff.
Adam Rossi: [00:47:14 - 00:47:38]
But never and always tell them you are free to pursue whatever you want. If you want to try something, you know, in terms of entrepreneurship or founding a business, we'll be supportive of that. But if you want to be a, you know, farmer or rodeo rider, whatever, you know, like, just will support it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:47:39 - 00:47:52]
Yeah. So how did your family go about raising kids with wealth? That's obviously a very hot issue in the post exit community and a challenging one it is.
Adam Rossi: [00:47:52 - 00:49:11]
I mean, I was very, very nervous when we sold the company about how that would affect our kids because both Lyle and I grew up without money and without, you know, with a very strong kind of grit. And you know, it's something that we wanted our kids to have as well. And so we thought a lot about, you know, the, how we communicated that with our kids and how we structured it from a, you know, will and trust perspective. And what we hit upon was we will take some money from the sale of the company, put it into an LLC that they are three way owners of and they can use that business to, once they're adults, borrow from to start a business or buy property, but they need to work together on it. And we're kind of legally advisors to the LLC until they're at an older age and they've not been told, they don't know what our net worth is.
Adam Rossi: [00:49:11 - 00:49:55]
And they're not really even that interested in knowing, which I like. Sometimes they're quite worried, you know, like when my wife bought a, A, a newer car, they're kind of like, do we have the money to do that or are we going to, you know, like. So they're, you know, in a way they're kind of, it's charming in that they're, they're not walking around thinking they're like wealthy kids. And I always try to say, for one, we, we, we constantly have them, you know, listen to their, their grandparents or us about, you know, kind of growing up without money. And then I always remind them, you know, like, okay, your mom just bought a new car.
Adam Rossi: [00:49:55 - 00:50:24]
That's not your car, it's our car. And we worked really, really, really hard for that car. You know, if they're, you know, have a free day, I'll bring them to the warehouse and I'll put them to work. And you know, they work hard and, and it's something that my father did with me. I mean, he'd bring me on to the construction sites and I'd pick up trucks, trash, I'd crawl through culverts, under streets to figure out where, you know, dirt was coming out.
Adam Rossi: [00:50:24 - 00:50:36]
And they'd have a rope attached to me. You know, I mean, I would do kind of all the dirty work that, you know, kids of, of business owners do. And, and I do that with my kids as well.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:50:37 - 00:50:41]
So. So your parents did that to you. So with you?
Adam Rossi: [00:50:42 - 00:50:44]
My dad definitely did that with me.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:50:47 - 00:50:57]
Adam, do you believe in passive investing? Do you think it's possible to invest passively and not spend too much time managing money post exit?
Adam Rossi: [00:50:59 - 00:51:42]
I think if you. So what happened to me is what happens to a lot of folks. They get approached by the big banks, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and they say, you know, we can manage everything for you and we're going to put your money in these exotic kind of funds or structured notes or proprietary products and you're as you know, the founder of a company. You have some financial expertise, but this stuff that they're showing you is like different and weird and it's hard to understand. One of the things I think that happens is some founders go like one of two ways.
Adam Rossi: [00:51:42 - 00:52:13]
Either they say I'm going to manage everything or I'm just going to let you manage it. And when you say I'm just going to let you manage it to a financial advisor or one of these, you know, banks, they tend to put you into a lot of things that are sticky and fee centric and you're going to do okay. You're going to pay them a lot of fees and you can kind of ignore it. You know, there other folks say I'm going to learn everything. I'm going to only invest in stuff.
Adam Rossi: [00:52:13 - 00:52:30]
I understand if they were to invest their money in, you know, S&P 500 index funds and you know, NASDAQ, QQQ and MSCI, all world and just hang out like they're going to do great. Right. I mean they're just going to. That is truly passive investing.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:52:30 - 00:52:31]
Yeah.
Adam Rossi: [00:52:31 - 00:52:43]
If they're thinking that they can, you know, okay, I'm going to buy a bunch of real estate. And that's passive. It isn't. Right? I mean, you're dealing with the broken Hot water heater, the tenant, that's a deadbeat.
Adam Rossi: [00:52:43 - 00:53:24]
The, you know, a lot of these investments that are kind of sold as passive are, are like there's kind of no free lunch and you're going to, you know, you're going to put some work in and, and there's effort in almost everything. I mean, I think if you're, if you're truly wanting the life of the, you know, I'm going to travel the world and drink wine and surf and not worry about it. Like, you could put in a couple index funds and pretty much that's the only passive way that I'm aware of. And even then, you're going to have to stomach some pretty scary drawdowns, sometimes a 30, 40% drawdown. You're going to have to, you know, take that and live with it.
Adam Rossi: [00:53:24 - 00:53:25]
It.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:53:26 - 00:53:45]
So, Adam, if we were to crystallize a few rules for yourself, how you balance your life and how you would like others to, to do it, what they can learn from you, what the, what those points would be, those rules.
Adam Rossi: [00:53:46 - 00:54:17]
Well, I, I tell people all the time, I think there's a big focus on, on wealth. People say, I want to be wealthy. I want to have millions of dollars. And I always say, what, what is it, though, that you would do if you had that money? And they say, well, I would spend more time coaching my kids teams or I would buy a farm or I would do, you know, and I think a lot of those things are, we tend to, you would then say, well, okay, to do those things, how much money would you actually need?
Adam Rossi: [00:54:17 - 00:54:42]
And it's usually a lot less than the millions and millions of dollars that people think they need. And what I say is, okay, you really didn't want $50 million, 100 million. What you really wanted was freedom, right? You really wanted freedom of time, freedom of place. And so I really tend to focus personally on freedom.
Adam Rossi: [00:54:42 - 00:55:13]
I avoid being on a bunch of, you know, boards or companies that demand that I be attending things on a certain schedule. I like to work on my farm when the weather's nice and when it's rainy. I like to work on something cool and technical. And, you know, I may or may not be available for a zoom call on any given day. And I might be traveling with my wife to, you know, another country.
Adam Rossi: [00:55:13 - 00:56:17]
She loves traveling and photography and, and so I, I really, if I were to give people advice, I would say, you know, don't focus on, on wealth, focus on freedom and focus on living where you want to live, being with the people you want to be with and doing the things you really want to do, and maybe not wait until you're, you know, 70 years old and you've reached this kind of artificial number to make those decisions. Right. I mean, you know, the other core tenant for my advice is focus very, very heavily on your health and enjoy your health while you have it. And don't get caught in this trap that I've seen so many other successful entrepreneurs fall into, which is work and achieve success, but it's never enough and never enjoy it and then die. It is shocking how often that happens to people.
Adam Rossi: [00:56:17 - 00:56:38]
It's happened to a good friend of mine recently and, you know, so I would say, yeah, I think, I think that covers it. Focus on where you want to live, who you want to be with and what you want to do, and don't lose sight of what you're really working towards.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:56:40 - 00:56:57]
Do you think it's possible to have a balance where you work hard on something that really excites you, the mission driven work, and at the same time have enough peace and freedom of time and time with the family? Is it possible?
Adam Rossi: [00:56:59 - 00:57:37]
I've seen people do it that were more effective than I was. And one of the things that, you know, I've seen other folks do is they'll say, they, they, they create such very clear lines of what they, they will and won't do. And when. There's always this natural thing that happens in a company where people will keep asking, you know, for more and more, like problem solving, hey, boss, what should we do here? And the most effective people I've seen are kind of like, what do you think we should do?
Adam Rossi: [00:57:37 - 00:57:47]
And they'll say, I think we should do this. And they say, well, okay then, then why don't you try that? You know? And they'll, they'll remove themselves from those positions where they're always kind of getting pulled in. Pulled in.
Adam Rossi: [00:57:48 - 00:58:21]
I was not good at that at first. I'm much better at it now with later companies. I think if you were to talk to my folks at Total Shield, they would say Adam's pretty good at delegating and doesn't really fall into that pattern that much. It took me a long time to learn though, so I do think it can be done. I think it takes a real mindset and a diligence to protect that way of being.
Adam Rossi: [00:58:21 - 00:58:29]
Or you get busy, the company grows, you fall into old habits, and it's easy to do.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:58:31 - 00:58:45]
Makes a lot of sense. Are there any other lessons that you feel we haven't shared that you would love to share with somebody who recently exited.
Adam Rossi: [00:58:47 - 00:59:41]
Well, I mean, for someone who's recently exited, you really need to protect your mental health and you need to be prepared for, for a bunch of side effects that you're not presently aware of if this is your first exit. And I, you know, I share, you know, a lot of the things we've talked about about just, you know, total freedom of time when your friends are working most days. The, the, the, the lost feeling you have where you're used to having 50 meetings in a day and now it's quiet. The guilt you'll feel if you just sit there at 2pm and open up a book and start reading because you're kind of like, should I be doing this now or should I be working on, you know, something. Right.
Adam Rossi: [00:59:42 - 01:00:25]
All these weird feelings that come up and you know, I think it's important to just be aware that it's going to happen. It happens to everybody. You'll feel depressed, you'll feel isolated, you will feel regret, probably about exiting like I did. And you have to either be prepared for, you know, kind of setting a new schedule and a new direction and new kind of goals and things that excite you at the same time avoiding doing what I did and what we've talked about, which is making a quick decision to get into another business just because you don't know what to do. You know that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:00:25 - 01:00:28]
Yeah. It's kind of like something, you want to be busy. Yeah.
Adam Rossi: [01:00:28 - 01:00:41]
You want to do something, you want to be busy. It's like a fine line between like jumping into something and doing nothing and feeling like you're lost. It's, it's a weird balancing act that I think I would tell people, just be prepared for.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:00:41 - 01:00:53]
Yeah. Yeah, brilliant. So, Adam, you are very consistent and disciplined in making very high quality, deep and thoughtful social posts. I love reading them. I love.
Adam Rossi: [01:00:53 - 01:00:54]
Oh, thank you.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:00:55 - 01:00:57]
Why are you doing it? What does it give you?
Adam Rossi: [01:00:59 - 01:01:49]
I really feel an obligation to help the next generation, period. I mean, I feel like we, I feel like anyone who's had, who's, who's achieved some success is obligated to try to share some of that formula with younger people. And I always say that the world belongs to the young, not the old. And I've noticed a pattern with some folks who are older and have kind of made it to be in a way, kind of selfish. And I want to avoid that by trying to give of my time to whoever needs it.
Adam Rossi: [01:01:49 - 01:02:10]
So I do a lot of those posts just to kind of generate. It'll Be something that's on my mind. I'll record a quick video or I'll write a post just to try to share my experience or thinking on something. But it also generates discussion and people offline will contact me and say, I'm going through this exact same thing. I am a founder of this kind of company.
Adam Rossi: [01:02:10 - 01:02:24]
Can I talk to you on the phone? And I always say yes. I mean, so when I, I walk every day, I try to get 15,000 steps in. I do get 15,000 steps in a day. I, I will always say, yeah, I'm going to be walking from two into three.
Adam Rossi: [01:02:24 - 01:02:38]
Like, give me a call, here's my cell phone. So that's it. I mean, it's just, it's like, like how, what, what do you do to try to give back and kind of help the younger folks that are potentially in the same position? Position.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:02:38 - 01:02:41]
So it's a form of contribution for you?
Adam Rossi: [01:02:42 - 01:03:15]
I think it's much more effective than other things that I've tried in the philanthropic space. You know, like you can write a check, which we do. You can be on a board of a philanthropy. But I feel like I'm gifted at business and entrepreneurship and I think sharing that with folks who can found a business in their community, help their family, help their community, is a more enduring impact on the world than writing a check.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:03:15 - 01:03:19]
Yeah. Have you read this book, From Strength to Strength?
Adam Rossi: [01:03:20 - 01:03:24]
I have not. But it's been recommended to me by a few friends now, so I need to.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:03:25 - 01:03:57]
You would enjoy it. It's interesting that lots of entrepreneurs find it depressing. I actually find it empowering. I understand why they find it depressing. But the key idea and what you just said reminded me of it, is that after we achieve success and if we, if we reach a certain age for entrepreneurs, I believe it's 38, chances are that we will not be able to put as much intensity and physical effort, energy into the business.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:03:57 - 01:04:35]
But also our brain changes. And it goes from one type of intelligence into a different type of intelligence. And later on there's actually a chance to be even more successful in a very, in a very broad way, in the sense of impact and contribution. You can give it even more to the world later in life, but only if you jump what he calls a second wave. When you are not afraid to acquire the new skills and start doing things like teaching, like sharing your ideas, your insights, why you became successful.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:04:35 - 01:04:59]
So it actually is similar to what you seem to have found in your life. And I wonder if you are intentionally also thinking about it as Your next path, if you plan to turn it into a book or build a personal brand about. Around it, or it's more just spontaneous kind of hobby like activity for you.
Adam Rossi: [01:04:59 - 01:05:34]
Yeah, I don't think I am writing what's turned out to be kind of a large book on things that I want my kids to know. And so I started writing it directly to my three kids. And then some relatives said, well, would you share it with our kids? And then I've mentioned it to a couple friends and they're like, oh, I'd like to read it. And so I started to think, maybe I should edit this and not be so direct in terms of the language to my kids.
Adam Rossi: [01:05:34 - 01:05:51]
But I did feel like it's hard to tell your kids everything you want them to know, but if you write them a letter, they can read it kind of on their own time. And so I've done that. I've written letters to my kids. And then I was like, you know what? I want to.
Adam Rossi: [01:05:51 - 01:06:06]
I want to leave them with a little bit more. And so I've just started writing and writing. It's not something I intend to publish, but who knows in terms of why not? Well, I, like I said, I mean, it's just. I mean, maybe, maybe I should.
Adam Rossi: [01:06:06 - 01:06:21]
But it was, it's, it's weird to, to, to. To have so much written down and then say, oh, maybe people outside of my family will read this. And I'm kind of like, did I write this with the right voice? Is it the right. You know what I mean it.
Adam Rossi: [01:06:21 - 01:06:24]
So, okay, maybe.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:06:25 - 01:06:32]
But don't you think you'll get a much more sense of contribution if you share it with the world, the way you share your wonderful videos?
Adam Rossi: [01:06:33 - 01:07:08]
Well, it is widely applicable. I mean, I think I'm fairly direct and opinionated with my kids and maybe too direct in terms of a wider audience, but you might be right. I mean, it definitely could turn out that way. And so I've started to write kind of new content in this in a way that's a little more kind of general voice instead of directly addressed to my kids. And we'll see.
Adam Rossi: [01:07:08 - 01:07:16]
I mean, maybe I'll take it and preview it when I feel like it's 80% and see if it's something that other folks find valuable.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:07:17 - 01:07:30]
You know, some books are written to kids. I mean, not all kids, but the author's kids. And that makes a fascinating format to read.
Adam Rossi: [01:07:31 - 01:07:32]
Maybe you're right.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:07:32 - 01:07:36]
Sure. You have to change it. It makes it very personal. It's almost like it's.
Adam Rossi: [01:07:36 - 01:07:51]
It's very personal. Right. I mean, I talk about, you know, kind of how Lyle and I met. I mean, I just. I go into a lot of detail about, you know, things like marriage because I think, you know, as I often tell people, that's the most important decision you'll make.
Adam Rossi: [01:07:51 - 01:08:04]
You know, it's. It's so important. And so, yeah, maybe you're right. In terms of other things like personal brand, I'm really just having fun. I'm not.
Adam Rossi: [01:08:05 - 01:08:12]
I'm not probably organized enough to. To go beyond kind of what I'm doing now.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:08:13 - 01:08:26]
Yeah, I found that for some post exit founders, the idea of building a personal brand creates a structure around sharing their insights. And actually it is helpful.
Adam Rossi: [01:08:27 - 01:08:37]
Some people do a great job. I mean, I'm really impressed with how some folks kind of put content together and they really share a lot of very, very valuable.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:08:38 - 01:08:39]
Yeah, exactly.
Adam Rossi: [01:08:39 - 01:08:39]
Wisdom.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:08:39 - 01:09:14]
I always encourage exited founders to do that. As you said, we have an obligation to share how we got where we are and we have to do it honestly. And you mentioned marriage just now, and I thought if you feel that you have this duty to share how you became successful, it should apply to marriage as well. And it's definitely the fact that you are sharing deeply the secrets of a successful marriage. It's very, very valuable, and it may be more valuable than any business advice you ever give.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:09:14 - 01:09:40]
I'm just trying to encourage you to actually publish your book for other people. I'm listening to you and I'm thinking, is it just humility that is stopping you? And maybe you feel you shouldn't be doing it because you put yourself too much out there. But there is a reason I'm interviewing you. You are fascinating.
Adam Rossi: [01:09:40 - 01:09:47]
Yeah, maybe. Maybe when I reach a little bit further, I'll send you a draft and you can tell me if this is something that looks like it's publishable.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:09:47 - 01:09:50]
I'd love that. I'll give you an honest feedback, I promise.
Adam Rossi: [01:09:50 - 01:09:51]
Great.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:09:52 - 01:10:07]
Adam, thank you so much for all this wisdom. This has been absolutely amazing. I want to ask you just one last question before I let you go. It's the question I ask everyone at the end of the interview. How do you want to be remembered?
Adam Rossi: [01:10:09 - 01:10:33]
I would like to be remembered as a good person. And that's what I tell my kids, you know, that my job is, is to try to raise them as good people who are happy. And for me, that's enough in this world is to be remembered as a good person. And that's it. It doesn't have to be.
Adam Rossi: [01:10:33 - 01:10:36]
It's not for me any grander than that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:10:36 - 01:10:54]
But it's, it's such a beautiful answer. Very spiritual answer. Really doesn't need to be complicated. Adam, thank you so much. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I think there's so much wisdom and value that you, you're offering others by sharing your, your story and your thoughts.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:10:54 - 01:10:55]
Thank you so much.
Adam Rossi: [01:10:55 - 01:11:02]
Thank you so much for having me and thank you for doing what you do on this podcast. I think it's super valuable for our community.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:11:02 - 01:11:03]
Thank you so much.
