Alex Bean. From $2.5B Exit to Fulfillment and Impact
Episode - 32
Alex Bean. From $2.5B Exit to Fulfillment and Impact
Alex Bean has recently sold his fintech company Divvy for $2.5 billion.
Today, he runs a VC firm called Tandem and has written a book titled “The Factory for Good” on turning your life into a force for positive impact.
In this episode, we explore the emotional complexities of wealth and discuss why he envies those still in the rat race, how he earns his sleep, finds purpose and talks to his kids about wealth.
What We Discussed:
00:00:21: Guest Introduction: Alex Bean
00:00:46: Exploring the emotional complexities of wealth
00:01:11: Building and selling Divvy
00:02:57: Life after the sale and initial reactions
00:03:33: Feeling unfulfilled post-exit
00:04:57: Struggle with boredom and finding purpose
00:06:17: Trying new activities and hobbies
00:08:01: Transition into venture capital
00:09:50: Comparison between being a founder and a venture capitalist
00:10:58: Balancing work and life post-exit
00:11:55: Writing a book and future plans
00:12:33: Lessons learned post-exit and advice for others
00:16:07: Impact of wealth on personal relationships
00:17:57: Discussing a complicated crisis
00:18:00: Positive effect on the relationship post-crisis
00:19:08: Navigating success and its challenges
00:20:00: Requests for financial help from friends and family
00:21:03: Asset problem vs. behavior problem framework
00:23:04: Post-exit problems: purpose, relationships, and legacy
00:23:37: Stages of post-exit: honeymoon, loss, experiment, and finding new purpose
00:25:01: Climbing a new mountain for purpose
00:27:01: Impact of focusing solely on making money
00:27:13: Relationships post-exit: Circle A, B, and C
00:29:03: Surrounding yourself with caring people
00:31:06: Legacy and its impact on the world
00:33:17: Factory for Good: Creating a mission statement and budget
00:34:56: Engaging children in charitable activities
00:36:31: Discussing success and how to inspire children
00:37:23: Connecting purpose with legacy
00:38:14: Venture capital and creating opportunities
00:39:01: Teaching children values of success and wealth
00:40:50: Feelings of loneliness after an exit
00:42:25: Advice for exited founders
00:45:00: Finding your superpower
00:46:29: Conclusion and discussing the book
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Alex Bean: [00:00:00 - 00:00:19]
It's amazing how many people I've met that are missing happiness. They sold their company, they bought the cars, the houses, the planes, and they, like, made some choices that separated them from their closest relationships and their chase for all this fun stuff.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:00:20 - 00:00:33]
Alex Bean. He has recently sold his fintech company, Divvy for 2.5 billion today. He runs a VC firm and has written a book on turning your life into a full for positive impact.
Alex Bean: [00:00:33 - 00:00:45]
You know, I used to joke that if my wife could have pressed a button for the first year after the accident, pressed to like, you know, the easy button, and we could go back to, like, not exiting, she would have pressed the button.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:00:46 - 00:01:06]
In this episode, we explore the emotional complexities of wealth and discuss why he envies those still in the rat race, how he earns his sleep, finds purpose, and talks to his kids about wealth. Hello, Alex. Very happy to have you here today. Thank you for joining me.
Alex Bean: [00:01:06 - 00:01:07]
Looking forward to it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:01:08 - 00:01:24]
Excellent. So let's jump right in. You built and sold a company called Divi. It took you five years to sell and you sold it three years ago. Can you tell me a little bit about it and then we'll focus on how you felt afterwards?
Alex Bean: [00:01:24 - 00:01:53]
Yeah. We started around 2016, around when Apple Pay and Venmo were starting, and we created a credit cardinal meant for businesses that was, we follow a smarter credit card that we built. And so automated expense reports and budgets and we sold the small to medium sized businesses and took us about two years to build and three years to scale and sold it in our third to fourth year. And it was a fun run.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:01:53 - 00:02:00]
That's quite fast. How did you feel right after you sold? If you take yourself back to that.
Alex Bean: [00:02:00 - 00:02:52]
Moment, like, so two elements. One, I was obviously really proud, really excited. I think we sold to someone who bought what was really good to our employees as well. So overall, really proud. But the funny thing about it is I was trying, I told this to someone the other day, you think in your moment when you sell, there's going to be some sign the paper, everything hits the bank account. This EU fourth moment. And it was like the opposite. There was all sorts of legal nuance and, you know, timing delays. And by the time it actually, like, hit the. So the quote unquote bank account, it was like kind of weeks after the celebration, it just felt very anticlimactic through the whole process. So, yes, really excited, really proud, and also kind of like, wait a minute, like, you know, when is the moment where you go nuts? And that never really came.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:02:52 - 00:03:01]
So it never happened. What happened? What happened afterwards. Tell me about the next few months. How did they play out?
Alex Bean: [00:03:01 - 00:03:57]
Yeah, so we sold in June, which for me was a good timing because it was kind of, my kids were out of school and I left immediately after sign. And so I said to myself, to my family and to other people, I said, no one even talked to me about work for the summer. Like, I'm gonna take the summer off and, you know, work on a trip with my wife, with my kids, and just, just was able to like detox after so many not, not just diddy, but also years prior, so many sprinting years in the startup world that it was awesome. So for the first three months, I'll call it the honeymoon phase. Like, it was really, really great. Once my kids went back to school in September, it changed and it started to get into, I think we'll cover a lot today where I was like, oh, wow, I'm pretty bored. Oh, wow. I don't feel fulfilled. Oh, wow. Like, this isn't what I thought it was going to be so really great for a couple months. And then after that it started to shift.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:03:57 - 00:03:59]
Okay. And, and then what happened?
Alex Bean: [00:03:59 - 00:05:26]
Yeah, I mean, so I use the phrase, I had a friend telling this to me a long time ago, and it's this phrase of like, earn your, earning your sleep. And what happened with me is I remember being in bed, it's probably like October. And I sent this to my wife and I said, megan, I'm going to tell you something that I can't say publicly because people would not get it or they would just like, you know, crucify me for it. But I said, I'm kind of jealous of my friends that are still in the rat race. And she's like, what do you mean? And I'm like, I played golf today. I hung out with my kids, but like, I don't feel fulfilled. Like, I went to bed just not earning my sleep. Like, I just didn't achieve anything, I didn't build anything, I didn't contribute to anything. It was just all like consuming, like, you know, eating and relaxing and playing golf or whatever. And for me, it was this very unfulfilling, you know, feeling, feeling. And I just said, like, I miss being on the hunt. I miss having a purpose every day of like, alright, I'm gonna work today, so when I get home, it's like I can relax. And I go to bed thinking like, I accomplished something today. And that feeling was gone. The feeling of accomplishing something was gone on a daily basis. And that was really weird. And so that led me on a whole little journey. But that was the feeling that led me to feel, like, very unsettled, unfulfilled, and it would hit me at night when I didn't earn my sleep. That's kind of what I would always trigger it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:05:26 - 00:05:33]
Yeah. Were you tired at the time, after the marathon of the business?
Alex Bean: [00:05:33 - 00:05:55]
Well, I was tired. So when I sold weasel, I was tired. And then I took those couple months off, and after the couple months, I felt pretty good. And so I was like. I felt like I detoxed. So going into that October, you know, time frame and beyond, I wouldn't know. I wasn't tired anymore. Right. I was 37.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:05:55 - 00:05:56]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:05:56 - 00:06:04]
So still young. And I was like, okay, I'm now I have to do something. It was kind of like my body was, like, wanting to go.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:06:04 - 00:06:05]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:06:05 - 00:06:14]
And I had nothing to go for, so I was just kind of, like, stuck in this idle situation. So I wouldn't say I was tired come October, I felt pretty refreshed.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:06:14 - 00:06:19]
So you were full of energy and nowhere to go. What did you try to do?
Alex Bean: [00:06:19 - 00:06:58]
That is? Yeah. So I did all sorts of weird stuff, so. Well, not all weird, but, you know, like, some of it was I wanted to accomplish Buckingham items. My friend, my best friend, and I wanted to get his book a world record. So we played pickleball for 24 hours to break a pickleball or Guinness. Put the world record. We climb Mount Rainier. We. I started taking piano lessons with my two daughters who were eleven or twelve and ten at the time, or whatever their ages were at the time. And I was playing piano. I started taking magic card lessons because I always thought that was interesting.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:06:58 - 00:07:00]
Oh, my God. You were really bored.
Alex Bean: [00:07:01 - 00:07:33]
Yeah, I was really bored. And I, you know, it was like, I liked piano, and the card thing was interesting and all these little stuff, but it wasn't fulfilling. It was like, I did it. It kept me busy. I ended up not just not doing anything, but it wasn't fulfilling. I wasn't building or creating anything with a purpose. And so that's. That's what I did from probably September to call it, like, April, may time frame. Like, I stayed very busy, not productive. And so that kind of was my life for about six months.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:07:33 - 00:07:38]
Okay. And the. Something happened in April that helps you become more productive.
Alex Bean: [00:07:39 - 00:08:36]
Yeah. So I, you know, I would say probably like October, I started going into an office every day, you know, not 8 hours a day, but, like, going into an office to create some structure to just get out of the house and go do something. I started writing a book, not the one I actually will talk about, another one that I had always wanted to write. So I started writing a book to stay busy, and I started meeting with entrepreneurs. And so entrepreneurs have reached out and said, hey, I want you to get your opinion. I want to hear what you did at Divi and how we can do it. So that naturally started getting all these entrepreneurship conversations. And from that, I basically said, okay, like, I enjoyed this. I enjoy helping out the next generation. And I had a friend reach out and say, look, I'm leaving my venture capital firm and I want to start another VC fund. And I said, let's do it. So I started, I jumped into the venture capital world two years ago in May.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:08:38 - 00:08:47]
From your personal perspective, like, very subjectively, can you compare your experience as a founder versus post exit VC?
Alex Bean: [00:08:48 - 00:10:01]
Yeah. Yes. I would still consider myself an operator and a founder more than a VC. So I'm pretending to be VC. I'm learning how to be VC. I will say there's a skill on both sides, right? Like, to be a VC, you have to see certain things. You have to, you have to find it in founders. You have to enable founders. Like, there's things that it requires. But I also sometimes have to laugh because, you know, VC's, most of them haven't done it, and they do not know at any level what it actually takes from a stress level, from an energy level, from, you know, just a. The mental grind. And, you know, VC by nature is you're very diversified. You're betting on lots of different people and hoping that they do it. Whereas when you're a founder, you have all your eggs in one basket. This thing has to work and it lives 24/7 all the time. So you're just constantly, like, the stress, the risk. So my heart goes out, the founders. That's why as a VC, I do my best to basically be there for them and not to try to tell them how to do it, but to try to listen, because it's so much harder to be a founder and operator than it is VC.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:10:01 - 00:10:06]
Yeah. Okay. Did it give you that fulfillment you were missing after your exit?
Alex Bean: [00:10:06 - 00:10:58]
Yeah, yeah, much more so, you know, and we've been doing it now for two years, and I really enjoy it. Right. For me, it's the right pace. It gives me purpose. I feel like I can get in with founders and interact with them and work with the teams and try to recruit and do all the stuff, but I'm not having to work the hours and the stress and the time we were when we were doing Divi. But yes, I find a lot of fulfillment in helping out these other founders and investing in them. And so it's also a little different than just kind of doing personal investments. I know a lot of other people in similar situations and they kind of make personal investments. I find that that's not as intensive as what we're doing, which we're like, you know, we're meeting with five companies a day, maybe not five a day, but, you know, a fair amount a day, and it's enough work and fulfillment. Yeah, I really like it. It's good. It's been a good transition for them.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:10:58 - 00:11:00]
How many hours a day you work?
Alex Bean: [00:11:00 - 00:11:12]
I would say I'm in the office from nine to four on average, and then I do a little bit of work at home. So you don't call it seven to eight? I don't really take a lunch break, so to speak.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:11:12 - 00:11:22]
So do you think you have a healthy balance now between work and life comparing to before?
Alex Bean: [00:11:22 - 00:11:49]
Yeah, I really like where I'm at right now. There's days where I am busier than I anticipated and I'm like, oh, shoot. Like, I love to tone it down back a little bit, but other days I'm like, oh, no, this is perfect. I can do the things I want to do when I want to do them, but I am busy and engaged in building a lot of things, both with tandem and beyond, you know, some personal projects and stuff. So to me it feels like a really good rhythm. So hopefully we can keep with it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:11:49 - 00:11:53]
So you think that's what you're going to do for the foreseeable future?
Alex Bean: [00:11:53 - 00:12:30]
Yeah, foreseeable future for sure. I mean, I, you know, I'm writing this book as you know, called Factory for Good, which is kind of my experience, along with my family history's experience and how to navigate this post exit life. So there's a lot of things I do that kind of connect to the VC's side of things, but are really its own little project as well. So, you know, meeting with people and doing events along those lines is also something I'm going to do. But, yeah, I love helping out the next generation and if we can invest and make money together, then let's do it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:12:30 - 00:12:37]
So it's been three years since your exit. What would you say are the biggest lessons you've learned so far?
Alex Bean: [00:12:38 - 00:12:48]
What are you trying to achieve? Like, what do you mean by that? Right. Like, who am I talking to someone on, like, how to just navigate post exit life? Or would you just say, you know, what are the lessons I learned on, you know?
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:12:48 - 00:13:09]
Yeah, basically if I imagine someone who just sold their company and they're like, okay, what's ahead of me? What do these people who are a few years ahead of me know? Also somebody who's maybe selling the company or contemplating it, what it is they, you feel they could benefit from if you tell them maybe, you know, problems, traps to avoid.
Alex Bean: [00:13:09 - 00:13:40]
Yes. Okay, those are two different people, but the same. So let me answer a little bit of both. If someone just sold a business they know they're selling, it's not a discussion of whether they're selling. It's like, it's sold or they're selling it. My first thing I would say is like, enjoy it, but know that the enjoyment or the honeymoon is not going to last forever and that's okay, but enjoy the honeymoon while it lasts. Kind of have that experience of detoxing, but just know that that's not going to be the way you live life for the rest of your life. You're going to need to find purpose.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:13:40 - 00:13:40]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:13:41 - 00:15:07]
So for me, like, you know, the book content is like purpose, relationships and legacy. And then I have one other thing I want to add after that. But purpose is, you know, eventually you're going to need to find, well, what's next, right? And as we talked about before the podcast started, you know, when you're not money motivated anymore, right. Money still a productive thing and a good thing and whatnot. I'm not saying it's miserable, but when you're not working just for money, you're working for purpose and for creation and for, you know, things of that nature. You could be really fulfilled on what you choose to do, but try to go find something that you really want to do. So you're going to need to find purpose. And it could be nonprofit, it could be a business, it doesn't really matter. But you need to have something that, like in the shower, in the car. And actually someone told me this quote, they, they gave me this advice when I just left. They said, my kids need to know what I do for work. I said, why? He said, well, because if dad, if they think dad just does nothing, that's their reality and that's what they're going to expect to do with their life and that's not going to be fair to them. So I always thought that that was really good advice to just dad, you know, in my regard. Dad or mom, they have to know what you do. So one purpose, two relationships. It's amazing how many people I've met, especially interviewing for the book that are missing happiness. They sold their company. They bought the cars, the houses, the planes.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:15:08 - 00:15:08]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:15:08 - 00:16:05]
And they're just, they, like, made some choices that, like, separated them from their, their closest relationships and their chase for all this fun stuff. And I think when you talk to them, they realize that, like, actually the things that matter are their closest relationships, like your husband, wife or spouse or partner, your kids and your closest friends. Like, I would say, do whatever you can to make sure that those stay in a really healthy strong spot because if you don't have those, it doesn't matter what plane you're flying on, you're not going to be happy. And on that same token, the thing I wanted to throw in to someone, if I had to talk to someone who sold their business today, I would say, take a breath on buying all the stuff right now. You're going to have the money in the future. Don't go out first week and just buy everything you'd ever thought about buying. Just slow roll it. Enjoy the process. You know, you don't need to go buy something tomorrow. And I think that would be probably some cute.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:16:06 - 00:16:18]
Brilliant. So in terms of the relationships, how did exit the exit and what you've learned affected your relationships with your wife, for example?
Alex Bean: [00:16:18 - 00:18:00]
Yeah, this is, this is. I got one for you. So my wife grew up poor. Single mom with six kids. She did not grow up as much. I grew up with middle class. You know, we have what we want, but not like, crazy wealthy. So when the money came, I was like, oh, let's go do this. Let's do this for these people. Let's buy a cabin and let's, you know, let's do this. And my wife was like, no, let's not change anything. Like, I don't want to move. I don't want to buy a new car. I just want to keep the life I have. The answer, by the way, was in the middle. It wasn't what I wanted. It wasn't what she wanted. But what happened is, for us is, you know, I used to joke that if my wife could have pressed a button for the first year after the exit, press, you know, the easy button, or we could go back to, like, not exiting. She would have pressed the button. She wouldn't have told me because she knew, like, how much it meant to me, but she wanted to go back to a simpler time. And it just took a lot of communication. Frankly, it took us a long time to get on the same page of what are our responsibilities? What does giving look, like, how do we not spoil our kids? Like, the biggest thing for my wife was, how do we notice that our kids are entitled, spoiled little Brats and they can be contributors in society? Because that's all that she cares about. So it was more complicated than I thought. I didn't expect the first year post exit to be essentially our hardest year of marriage. And we worked through it. We're in a very relationship, but it wasn't easy. It was definitely more complicated than I anticipated.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:18:00 - 00:18:10]
So now you think you are out of that crisis, and it affected the relationship in a positive way. Looking back, would that be true?
Alex Bean: [00:18:10 - 00:20:00]
Yeah. I mean, because all experiences, good and bad, if done properly with your spouse, can be productive and healthy and strong and creative. Tattered bond. Right. So we went through things we didn't go through before. So in theory, yes, I would say we're at a stronger place. But, you know, like, two things on this one. You know, we lived in an apartment for our first eight years of our marriage, and, you know, now we have a nice home, and it's like, if you ask us if we're happier now in our nice home versus the first eight years in our marriage, I I don't think the answer is yes at all. It's actually, like, there we're together as a family, and as long as we're together and have a healthy relationship, it doesn't really matter where we live or what we're doing. But, yeah, crisis averted, so to speak. We're in a much better spot. We've kind of found our rhythm and footing for, you know, the things that we want to spend on and what that looks like and how to, you know, manage the kids, but also our relationships with our siblings. You know, another thing I found fascinating in this world is if you have. If you're lucky enough to have success, you can't go online and talk about it, right? You can't go on Instagram or Twitter and could talk about it because a lot of people don't want to hear it. It's totally fine. You don't have your siblings and your family haven't really gone through it, so it's new for them. So you can't go to them for emotional support or questions. And then, you know, for your friends, a lot of your friends are in this situation, so you kind of find yourselves in a little bit of a lonely space where you're trying to figure it out, but you, you know, there could be. There can be jealousies. There can be. You think you do things incorrectly or other people perceive things incorrectly. And so trying to navigate all those relationships to keep your friendships and all that stuff intact took a little time, but I think we're in a really good spot.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:20:00 - 00:20:04]
Did people ask you for money? I mean, like friends and family?
Alex Bean: [00:20:04 - 00:20:05]
Yes.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:20:05 - 00:20:06]
What did you do?
Alex Bean: [00:20:06 - 00:22:19]
Yeah, I'm not going to use names, obviously. So we've actually really enjoyed giving certain people, certain organizations and things like that. So it's been really fun and really rewarding. But there also have been other scenarios where it's not as rewarding and there's an expectation and entitlement, and it can be really like, oh, wow, this isn't fun. Like, they just expect me to give them this money, and, you know, it's not as enjoyable as you were hoping to give. So someone told me this recently, I think this is the best way I would advise someone. So there's. If someone comes in with a business idea and they want to. They want me to invest in it, that's great. And sometimes I do. For me, I throw it to my team, and I have, you know, team advisors, and I say, hey, send me everything you got. I love it. Let me have my advisors go through it, and if my advisors go through it, they think it looks bad, then, like, they can be the bad guy and they can say, hey, I'm not going to let you do this. Right. So I don't have to personally say, no, that's helpful. But to, like family and friends, like someone in need. The advice that was giving to me was, do you have an. Is it an asset problem or a behavior problem? As an example, a single mom who's raising kids and working hard with her car. Bury Stone. She needs a car to let you work. That's an asset problem. She's doing everything she can in her power, but it's an asset problem. So you can fix that asset with asset money and a car. Right. But if it's a behavior problem, and this is complicated, and this is where a lot of people get in trouble, if it's a behavior problem, you can't fix a behavior problem with an asset. So whether it's your parents or a kid or a sibling or a cousin or a neighbor, whoever's in trouble, if they're in trouble because of a behavior, whatever that might be, you can't solve those behavior problems just by throwing money at it or giving it to them. And if you give them 10,000 this month, they're in 10,000 next month and 10,000 the next month. 10,000? 10,000 the next month because they're not fixing behaviors.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:22:19 - 00:22:20]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:22:20 - 00:22:27]
And I think we've had some scenarios there that hasn't been super fun. And we've gotten, it's fine, but it hasn't been great.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:22:27 - 00:22:38]
Yeah, that's a hard one, but that's such a great framework. Behavior versus asset. Brilliant.
Alex Bean: [00:22:38 - 00:23:03]
It doesn't make it easy to say no, because there's definitely times where you wish it was that easy to say great. Let me give you this money. You're asking for the sad reality, not just from my life, but also these people I interviewed for the book washing. It's just not the case. Like, you know, if they ask for 20 and you give them 20, they actually didn't solve the issue so often and they find them same situation two months later.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:23:04 - 00:23:25]
So you're saying in your book you divided the post exit problem into three sections, purpose, relationships, and legacy. So let's go back to the purpose a little bit more. I want to dig deeper into that. So how do you think someone who sold the business should go about looking for their new purpose?
Alex Bean: [00:23:26 - 00:25:30]
Yeah. So there's a chapter. Basically the four stages is post exit. We phrase it as honeymoon. Right. Enjoy the honeymoon. Just know it's not gonna last. Stage two is loss. And loss is really funny. I was known as the divvy guy. And, you know, for like, I'll tell quickstart, I was walking my dog over, or, no, my dog got loose and I couldn't find him. So I was in the neighborhood trying to find my dog, and I'm driving in the neighborhood, I rolled out my window, I see this guy. No, from the neighborhood and old gentleman. I rolled out my window and I said, hey, have you seen a little black dog? And he goes, he kind of looks at me. He can't really see me. And he's like, oh, you're the divvy guy. I've been gone for Divi. For two years. And it's like I felt him. But then when he said it, I was like, wow. That's what he knows about me. He doesn't know my name. He doesn't know my personality. He doesn't know my family. He knew me as the diddy guy. And you will feel a sense of loss in stage two. And as long as you understand that it's coming, just, you're going to have to absorb that sense of loss. You're no longer the CEO. You're no longer whatever. You're going to be kind of, you know, separate. So you gotta, you gotta internalize the loss. And then stage three is experiment. And really, I don't know the easy equation for purpose, but you have to find another mountain to climb. You have to find another purpose that is hard to achieve and start marching towards that purpose. And if it's to eradicate the world of Bobby, great. If it's to build a real estate empire a second time. Overdose. But there's, you know, there's charitable giving things attached to it, fine. But you've got to find something that causes you to look up and say, I'm going to climb that mountain, and let's fire down. And then, you know, see how you experiment. And hopefully from the experimentation, you find it. And then if you get to stage four, then you're in a good spot.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:25:32 - 00:25:35]
And then you feel you deserve your sleep at that point.
Alex Bean: [00:25:36 - 00:25:57]
Yeah. Deserve your sleep means, like, you feel happy, right? You feel good because you go to bed at night, like, I did something with my day. And for me, it means, like, I can look my wife in the eye, my kids in the eye, or my maker in the eye and say, I did something today. And I think that's what you're trying to figure out.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:25:57 - 00:26:12]
Yeah. No, I think it's fascinating. You want to feel your day is not wasted, which means your life is not wasted, which means your life actually has a meaning, because it's not wasted. Right.
Alex Bean: [00:26:13 - 00:27:10]
Yeah. And I just want to say one thing, is that people, if they hear me say these things, I think they're thinking, never buy nice things or never relax or vacation. That's not how I feel. I actually, you know, like, I still play a lot of golf and travel or whatever, but if that's all you do, I feel like that path has been paved by a lot of people. Vast majority don't make it, and that's a lot of what I talk about, because I saw my grandpa do that, and, you know, he kind of stayed focused on just making money. I call it money Mountain. Like, he just kept focusing on making money without really trying to find another purpose in life. And because he never got off money mountain, he just made money. That was his pride and joy, so to speak. And, you know, that will let you down in the end. That's not the same as a relationship. It's not with you. Like, you're going to die. And, you know, he died alone and unhappy because that's where he put his pride and joy.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:27:11 - 00:27:24]
Okay, so that is purpose. And then you said relationships. We touched upon it with your wife. What else you found regarding relationships is important to think about post exit.
Alex Bean: [00:27:25 - 00:27:39]
Yeah. I mean, look who said it. I actually heard a Jim Carrey quote yesterday that I really liked. It was basically. I'm sure you've heard it, that I wish everyone could get rich and famous, because then they'd realize that's not the answer.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:27:39 - 00:27:40]
Okay. Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:27:40 - 00:28:06]
And he kind of expands on it is like, you know, that's not what matters. Like, not at all, but, like, at all. Like, you know, he didn't enjoy. He's actually been very open about how much he hates being both rich and famous. And, you know, for me, how I outlined how I structured the thinking is there's a circle a group a circle b, and a circle c. So circle a is, like, espoused your kids and closest friends.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:28:06 - 00:28:06]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:28:06 - 00:28:13]
These are the people that matter more than anything in the world. And whether you're poor or rich or anywhere in between.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:28:13 - 00:28:14]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:28:14 - 00:29:02]
This is why when you go to Africa and you find people that are super poor but they're really happy, it's like, why? It's like, because they. They have a pull group of people that love them and they love back. Circle B is the broader influencer of friends. Maybe not closest friends, but good people and people you interact with and your neighbor and your communities. And these have to be. You have to almost think of them as, like, how rich are those relationships? How strong are they? Not just how many, but how strong are they? So you have your circle a, and then you have a circle b, and then circle c is kind of, you know, the extended influence. And so, for me, it was starting with circle a and making sure that those were in a really good spot and setting up the rhythms and cadence for those, and then b, and then, you know, try to move on to c, which is ultimately a legacy, but, yeah.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:29:03 - 00:29:14]
And what do you think would help you care more about people in that circle c? Because now we are talking about kind of growing out of yourself, right?
Alex Bean: [00:29:15 - 00:30:14]
Yeah, that's a good question. I. I say this like, I think I'm a nice guy, but I also realize that I'm innately selfish. And what I mean by that, personally, is I think about myself and my wife and kids in kind of my little circle, and that's the world I live in. And hopefully, I treat those people really well, but I don't innately wake up and think like, okay, how do I. How do I help circle. See, I want to do it. And so, for me, what I've. I've put time and energy into is, like, I've actually surrounded myself with people that do really care, and their purpose in life is to help, you know, and so working with them and creating relationships with them and being exposed to different things through them as helping me be like, oh, I didn't even know that that was an option or that that was possible. So through those relationships, my eyes have been opened to different experiences that I wouldn't have connected.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:30:14 - 00:30:15]
Yeah. Stephanie.
Alex Bean: [00:30:15 - 00:30:42]
And frankly, then when you actually get to meet people, either running those organizations or the people that are affected by it, you start to realize how valuable those relationships are, how they can expose. And by the way, it can be locally, it can be internationally, it can be domestically. But for me, it's surrounding myself with people that really care about circle c situations and having empathy through them and learning through them and being exposed to them.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:30:43 - 00:31:06]
I love this. I'm a big fan of being very conscious about people you spend time with, because we get so much from other people, we copy so much from other people without often realizing it. So the only way to deal with that copying is to pick the right people to copy and. Okay, that's brilliant.
Alex Bean: [00:31:06 - 00:31:06]
Great.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:31:06 - 00:31:11]
So that brings us to legacy. What is. What is legacy for you?
Alex Bean: [00:31:13 - 00:32:45]
I mean, so legacy to me is like having an impact, just having an impact on the world around you and making it a better place. And so, you know, we talk it. I've thought about it a lot. Like, I have a great grandfather that was successful in his own right. It's been 70 years since he was, you know, a productive person of society, and we still talk about. Right, like, we still talk about this man 60, 70 years later. And it's because of the impact he had on the community in terms of, you know, he built a building here, and he set up an organization over here, and they still exist. And that's so, to my family, we still talk about and. Or make decisions in our lives today because of the person that he was then. And, you know, so for me, I think about it with that lens of, can I make the world better today? And can I do something by establishing my values to my children? So they know that mom and dad didn't just care about having a swimming pool, but that we cared about these other things that really, really mattered, and we think shaped who we were as people, both our faith and both, you know, impacting, you know, the community and everything at large. So, to me, it's about passing on values to people beyond your historical and certainty and creating an impact. So I think it's just different for all people.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:32:46 - 00:32:52]
So how are you doing it? Or how do you plan to do that at this, this point in your life?
Alex Bean: [00:32:52 - 00:34:55]
The book is called factory for good, by the way, and the reason it's called factory for good is for this purpose. So we've thought about it this way. Most people, you know, when you start, you know, the responsibility of becoming an adult is like, you work, you have this factory and you work really, really, really hard. So at the end of the factory, money is output in, so you can provide shelter and food and all the, you know, basic needs. What we're talking about today is like, well, when you provide it for your basic needs, the factory needs to be retooled and reshifted. So instead of this factory that we spent all of our time and energy on outputting money, we now take money and input into the factory. And the output needs to be good or impact or whatever you phrase. But we all good, right? So for me, I've set up budgets with people that hold me accountable and help expose the money to other people. And again, doesn't need to be Melinda Gates big, you know, just whatever your amount is. And we've created a mission statement behind it. And we meet, you know, once a month and say, okay, some things we do, we have these things we call $5,000 miracles. And it's like, single mom here, guy here, where we'll, we'll send out little, little things. It's not going to change their life forever. But we're just trying to help some people. But fundamentally, we try to say, okay, here's our overall budget and here's our mission statement. And we are constantly trying to find things that allow us to invest in these, like a business. Where do we get the most impact? Where is the ROI? Where's what's sustainable? And that we're trying to increase the budget, therefore the impact. And we just, we report on it like a business, and we try to really sit there. And so my wife and I, and we have a third person that works with us to, like, keep us, you know, honest on it and pacing on our giveaways. And so for us, that's our factory for good, is trying to actually be stewards of that budget and money and purpose and then give to the organizations and people that will execute.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:34:56 - 00:34:59]
Do you engage your kids in that?
Alex Bean: [00:34:59 - 00:36:14]
Yes and no. So they don't know the money elements yet. I don't know when we would expose them to that, but they don't. Yet we do expose them. So, for example, there's a, I live in Salt Lake. There's a guy who's running a place called other side academy. Basically, they take homeless people off the street and drug addicts off the street, and instead of just kind of putting them in a room and giving them therapy, they've created these businesses for these drug addicts to come to and to work in the business, and they kind of rebuild their life through, through the work. Amazing organization. Super cool to watch. So we've donated money to this sorry, sorry organization, but our kids are like, we've had our kids come to the Christmas wrapping one. We've had our kids come, you know, just meet, you know, come to the facility and meet people, you know, so they're engaged to know what the causes are and try to interact with us on those. They haven't read, like, our mission statement yet, but I think as they get a little older, probably 1516 range will start to really integrate them more.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:36:14 - 00:36:23]
And you don't want them involved or know about your wealth just because you're afraid they'll be spoiled brats, as you mentioned before.
Alex Bean: [00:36:25 - 00:37:21]
Yeah, it's probably a good summarization of it. So I don't know if that's totally fair. Like, my 14 year old, smart enough to know that we're doing okay and things like that, but I don't want to shy away from, hey, we've had some success because I actually think, like, if done properly, they should be inspired by the risks we took and the things we did and the amount of effort it took. So I'm not ashamed of it, and I don't think I'll ever tell them, but I also don't think they need to know the numbers and everything quite yet. So we'll integrate that with them as they get older. And our 14 year old, we have more conversations with and we talk about stuff with, but yes, we try to tone down a lot of elements of what wealth might look like just so that they don't have a skewed reality, because it's probably not going to be their reality because I'm not giving them.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:37:22 - 00:37:34]
No, absolutely. So, okay, you're doing all these different things in terms of your impact, but how would you connect your sense of purpose with legacy?
Alex Bean: [00:37:35 - 00:38:52]
So, for me, I'm not a philanthropist at heart. Like, amazing at it. I guess it's also, I don't know how to do it. It's not like my gate. So what I. My factory for good is I want to build businesses that create opportunity so I can employ people that are around me and in my circle of influence. And. And second, that creates cash flow and additional funds so that I can pour that into the, into the budget of giving away to the people that we think are actually really good at philanthropy. So for me, doing the venture capital, doing the investments, that's my purpose. I like it that every day I enjoy that treadmill. But the motivation is, okay, can we make more money? Can we help these founders build their own companies? But then can we make more money? And we can put that into the budgets, and we can start deploying more and more money into these various organizations, charities, people, etcetera. And I work with someone who's really good at helping me deploy that. So that's how I connect purpose and creating of additional wealth into impact or legacy.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:38:52 - 00:39:01]
So how do you teach your children values and the definitions of things like success and wealth?
Alex Bean: [00:39:01 - 00:40:49]
Yeah. There's never one right answer with kids. Like, you can't just say, well, if you have one meeting, you'll do it. So, you know, my kids will say stuff like, you know, my kid will ask, are we rich? Right? They've asked that because their friends will call, will make fun of them or call them, you know, rich or whatever. And we live in a nice area. And I say, well, what does that mean? You know, we have a good conversation about, what does rich mean? What does success mean? You know, also, like, rich does not imply you're the only one that is rich, right? And, like, people can consider themselves rich in a lot of different, uh, amounts or, or circumstances. So we try to define what success is, because I think to me and Megan and I are, what success means is, are you building? Are you creating? Are you, are you pushing something forward that has positive, positive impact on the world? You have these relationships, you know, do you go to dining night and say, like, you got all the same things we've discussed? And so we try to just have those conversations. So when they ask a question like, are we rich? Or whatever the question might be, don't just say no and get out of the corner and don't say that again. But try to flush those conversations out with your kids and let them, you know, let them be curious, let them ask, because I'm super proud of the work we put in and the opportunity we took advantage of and what we did. And so I want them to know that. I don't want them to think it's, like, a bad thing to have success, but I want them to know that they have to do it on their own, right? That they're going to have to go build their own world, that there's responsibility that you have if you're lucky enough to be found in this position to help others. And so we try to have those conversations and discussions with you.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:40:50 - 00:41:04]
So you mentioned that you felt quite lonely after an exit. Did you join any organizations besides just reconnecting with your friends or anything like that that helped you through that stage?
Alex Bean: [00:41:04 - 00:41:51]
Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, we talked. I mean, you're part of the same organization I am. There's a tiger one and there's a local one here. And I saw link, I mean, join us that I've been for a few years, and it just allowed us to have some more personal or vulnerable conversations with other businesses. They'll allow us to ask questions and navigate stuff with the kids and I, things of that nature. So, yeah, some of those for sure. Also, having a good team around me allows me to have good conversations about how we do it, not just how do we pay less taxes. Like, that's not the question. The question is how do we navigate all this stuff with all the things that we're looking at? It's not one answer for sure, but I've tried to surround myself with people that have been helpful.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:41:51 - 00:41:56]
Yeah, I'm just trying to see what helped you create a new circle.
Alex Bean: [00:41:56 - 00:42:00]
The reason I wrote the book is so I could go interview people and say, hey, can I ask you what you did?
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:42:00 - 00:42:01]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:42:01 - 00:42:05]
And I would ask them a simple question. What did you do well, and what did you do poorly?
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:42:05 - 00:42:05]
Yeah.
Alex Bean: [00:42:06 - 00:42:09]
And from that I was able to learn a lot of stuff and that was really fun.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:42:10 - 00:42:30]
Okay, that's brilliant. Is there anything else that you feel will be helpful for other exited founders to learn from your journey? Whether it's in writing a book or building personal relationships? Post exit, looking for purpose in any of these areas that we missed.
Alex Bean: [00:42:30 - 00:44:05]
Take what made you a successful business owner. Right? Like, the focus, the intensity, the intelligence, and apply that to whatever you're going to do next, anyone's. So don't. Don't go from being proactive, an executor of a business to then just being like, we'll see what happens. And I would just say, be proactive in your plan for yourself, for your relationships, for your kids, and figure out, go through a very proactive and thought out process on what you're going to do and who you're going to be. Post exit, I think when I see a lot of people maybe not be where they want to be. And by the way, what I mean by this is not just like, oh, they have a responsibility to give back. I believe that they do, but you know that I can't force them to do that. What I mean by this is there's a lot of people that find themselves not as happy as you would think, because they're not building something or serving people. They're just kind of existing with their money, which is, you know, traveling or doing their hobbies. So I call it Hobby Hill. And it's like, if they're just meandering around Hobby Hill and they're just reacting to that every day, I think that they will find themselves in a sand pit they don't want to be in, and they should just be as proactive and as planned as they were with their business. They should do that for post exit.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:44:05 - 00:44:11]
So climb a proper mountain and Everest and not a little hill. Not a little hobby hill.
Alex Bean: [00:44:11 - 00:44:50]
Yeah. You know what? So I won't. Let me. I'm trying to think how to phrase this properly. If you think about some of the greatest achievements of all time, they're solving an unsolvable problem, right? Like Elon Musk. Trying to go to Mars is just an. It's an insane problem. If you have an unsolvable mountain or an unconquerable mountain, there is something about chasing that that is really fulfilling to humankind for some reason. And I would say, yes, climb and Everest. Don't walk around the park. You know, like that. That's going to get all pretty good.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:44:50 - 00:45:04]
How brilliant. So you and I, in a separate conversation, talked about how we are both big believers in finding your superpower and having clarity about your superpower. So let's quickly talk about that. What are your thoughts on that?
Alex Bean: [00:45:06 - 00:46:18]
Yeah, so I actually stole this from a buddy of mine who worked with me at Divi, and his name is Sterling, and he would always talk about, what's your superpower? The reason it stuck out to me over the past couple years is, I think, in our society, we tend to think we have to be good at everything. And if we're not, we're some version of a failure. Or, like, I'm not good at that. And I actually think it's better for our psyche and better for whatever we're trying to accomplish, to know I'm not good at those things. And that's okay. But I'm really good at these things. And I actually know what chess piece I am. I know what my moves are, and I know what I'm capable of. And when you know that, there's a confidence to it, and there's also, like, you're going to be able to produce more for, like, I know how to do this thing. Let's go do it. So I, you know, I spoke to college students in a class about a month ago. That was my big thing to them is find your superpower. Find the thing you know you're good at. You can look me in the eye in an interview and say, I'm good at this. If you don't know what that is, then you're going to have a hard time succeeding in life. But if you know what that is, you can start as a. That's a pillar, and you can build off of that for sure.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:46:18 - 00:46:24]
Yeah. And it's very energizing for someone to know they have a superpower. Right. It's very encouraging.
Alex Bean: [00:46:26 - 00:46:29]
A lot of confidence can come from knowing your superhero.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:46:29 - 00:46:35]
So, Alex, this has been absolutely fascinating, and I can't wait to read your book.
Alex Bean: [00:46:35 - 00:46:38]
Hey, that'll make one person who'll read it. That's exciting.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:46:39 - 00:46:52]
No, I'm sure there are lots of people who'd be interested, because it will be your experience, your unique experience. And I think these days, people are looking for direct experiences much more than theories, don't you think?
Alex Bean: [00:46:52 - 00:47:56]
Yeah, I hope so. I talked about my great grandfather, my grandfather, and my experience and a bunch of. It's basically full of just personal experiences with a little bit of structure around it. And my hope, honestly. So this would be. I'll end it with this. The reason I wrote the book is not to sell gajillion copies or whatever. I would actually like to sell the copies, but not for the money. I would like to sell the copies because I think if you look at the world today, there's a lot of successful business owners and post exited founders that are spending time maybe not fulfilling the purpose that they're able to achieve. And if they were motivated to build their own factories for good, the impact that we could have on the world today and on future generations without relying on the government or whatever nonprofits that are out there, the smartest people in the world could really start to have an impact in a way that I think that they're missing to a degree. So, to me, I want as many people to read as possible to hopefully motivate them to build their own factory for good and see the impact go from there.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:47:56 - 00:48:02]
I couldn't agree more. And thank you so much for doing this. I do think it's important, and I'm very, very happy you wrote the book.
Alex Bean: [00:48:04 - 00:48:05]
Hey, thanks for having me.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:48:05 - 00:48:08]
Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day, Alex. Bye.
