Roei Samuel. 'Helping start-ups is my purpose now'
Episode - 31
Roei Samuel. 'Helping start-ups is my purpose now'
Roei Samuel. Six years ago he sold RealSport, a sports content creation platform with over 9 million unique monthly active users.
Today, Roei dedicates his life to helping startup founders connect with investors and advisors through his fast growing platform called connected.
In this episode, we discuss his transition post exit, and why working with founders make him feel alive and gives him purpose.
What We Discussed:
00:00:00: Introduction to the guest and his background
00:00:26: Roei Samuel's transition to helping startup founders
00:01:21: Discussion about Roy's first company, Real Sport
00:02:04: Expansion into sports and gaming content
00:03:04: Personal impact of selling Real Sport
00:04:07: Reflecting on friendships and relationships during business growth
00:04:56: Maintaining relationships post-acquisition
00:05:03: Impact on colleagues with visas during acquisition
00:06:15: Regrets about selling the business
00:06:24: Personal and psychological challenges post-exit
00:07:17: Key lessons learned: leadership
00:08:10: Learning leadership from Gary Cook
00:09:10: Using lessons learned in the new business
00:09:50: Focusing on core competencies and avoiding distractions
00:12:24: Learning from prior business strategies
00:12:38: Investing in and advising others
00:13:40: Stepping away and doing stand-up comedy
00:15:04: Value of stand-up comedy for personal growth and pitching skills
00:16:24: Overcoming insecurities and maintaining humility
00:17:13: Transitioning from founder to CEO
00:18:07: The importance of balance and self-care
00:18:45: Responsibility and pressure of being a founder
00:20:01: Becoming obsessed with stand-up comedy
00:20:47: Founding Connected and shifting focus.
00:21:12: Discussing the nature of competitive environments
00:22:06: Personal insights from a challenging experience
00:23:02: Impacts of ADHD on lifestyle and work
00:24:12: Challenges of newfound financial freedom
00:25:06: Relearning values and seeking happiness
00:28:04: Spirituality and selflessness in business
00:29:38: Motivations for starting various ventures
00:32:12: Vision and success of Connected
00:34:19: Achieving fulfillment through helping others
00:36:39: Managing balance and avoiding burnout
00:39:13: Embracing delegation and control
00:40:06: Reflecting on the addiction to adrenaline and dopamine
00:42:27: Neurodiversity in tech and prison populations
00:43:23: Managing ADHD and dopamine
00:44:47: Meditation and its benefits
00:46:02: Emotional regulation through meditation
00:48:25: Spirituality and connectedness
00:50:02: The essence of true spirituality
00:52:29: ADHD diagnosis and its impact on learning
00:56:13: ADHD and entrepreneurship
00:57:53: Education system and neurodiversity
00:59:04: Personal purpose and helping others
01:02:00: Importance of purpose for motivation
01:02:45: How do you want to be remembered?
01:03:35: Discussing the impact during one's lifetime
01:03:55: Reflecting on the idea of legacy
01:04:06: Conclusion and closing remarks
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Roei Samuel: [00:00:00 - 00:00:14]
Founder, community actor, community, sports communities, where you've got many, many people competing over limited resources. You know, oh, why should be successful? This person's successful. Why am I successful? Same in standard, you know.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:00:14 - 00:00:36]
Roei Samuel. Six years ago, he sold Real Sport, a sports content creation platform with over 9 million unique monthly active users. Today, Roy dedicates his life to helping startup founders connect with investors and advisors through his fast growing platform called Connected.
Roei Samuel: [00:00:37 - 00:00:47]
I know whatever I'm doing now, and any success that I've had today is a vehicle to my long term goal of helping as many people as possible.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:00:47 - 00:01:03]
In this episode, we discuss his transition, forced exit, and why working with founders make him feel alive and gives him purpose. Roei, thank you so much for coming to the show and very, very happy to have you here.
Roei Samuel: [00:01:03 - 00:01:05]
Thanks so much for having me on stage. I appreciate it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:01:06 - 00:01:28]
So you sold your company a real sport six years ago. That's long enough for you to have made enough mistakes for us to dig into in long term. So I hope you'll be an open book with me today and share those lessons. But please tell me about the company a little bit, why you started it, what did it do and why you sold it.
Roei Samuel: [00:01:28 - 00:03:04]
Yeah, of course. And certainly made enough mistakes in the last six years. So I started a business called Student Soc when I was in university. This is like 2010, and I was running club nights, I was running events, I was running student trips. The usual stuff that students do is trying to make money. I just realized if I could build out online content around this, I would be able to distribute those events and those tools in a better way than it was. I started building tools for students to create online content and we rolled out like eight or nine universities. It was really fun, but students don't like to spend money and out of the system like students because they don't want to spend money. So I started looking at other environments to apply those tools. So I started to look at the world sports and gaming, big sports fan, gaming fan. So we essentially built our content creation tools for sports and gaming fans, helping them create podcasts, videos, other types of content, giving them tools to optimize that content for social, which is really standard now. The quite beating edge back in 2013 and we got really fortunate that sports just having a big renaissance on Twitter just after Twitch had launched massive gaming platform quite by Amazon. So lots of people using our tools to create content for those platforms. We ended up working with some of the biggest sports rights holders in the world, the Premier League, the NBA, the NFL. Really exciting journey scaled to about 8 million monthly users were acquired by a gaming company called Gfinity in 2018. And, yeah, really exciting to have any.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:03:04 - 00:03:08]
Okay, so let's go back to that moment that you just saw. How did it feel?
Roei Samuel: [00:03:09 - 00:04:56]
Well, I was 26 years old, and overnight I went from having payday loans to being a self made billionaire at 26 who had never had money. For context, my mom was a primary school teacher. My dad spent most of his twenties as a bus driver. You know, I didn't come from a family that understood financial literacy or well being or health in any means. And I literally had paid a loan at the time we were selling the company because I didn't know to pay myself properly. I didn't really have 25, 26 with no idea. So it was amazing, terrifying, and the start of a really interesting personal growth and learning journey. But on the night when we sold the company, we threw a bit of a party with my co founders, of course, and we had actually a really lovely hotel not too far from here. We were out on the balcony and there's a few of us. One of my friends said to me, this is the most depressed I've ever seen you, which was interesting. And, you know, I think there's many resets. Well, you know what it takes to build a business. And when you're in your early twenties, that's made us still forming friendships and relationships and all of those things. And probably because of not having. Growing up, racing and thinking that getting exit, getting liquidity was the only thing I wanted in life. You sacrifice relationships because then I. The success of my business was the end of a seven year relationship. You lose lots of friends along that way because you stop investing in frontage, because all of your time gets invested into business.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:04:56 - 00:05:08]
Yeah, of course. So when you sold the business, did you stay in touch with the people you worked with? Because I assumed they were your relationships, because you sacrificed everything else?
Roei Samuel: [00:05:08 - 00:06:15]
Pretty much, yeah. Do you know what? There's some of them who are still amazing friends. We also had some difficult situations. We had, one of the most actually upset in situations was one of my best friends at the time, who's also the CEO of that company. He was with us, American Car, and we brought him over and he was with us on a visa. But as you may know, when you sell your company is change of control, actually, you lose the rights to your people with visas or working with visas, so you have to leave the country. He has this two year relationship. So all these really weird situations which are just going around us, but absolutely. And some of the proudest moments are people that I know who joined me at 1920 years old, who stayed in the company, who acquired us. It's a Plc, heading departments. And it's amazing to see that people who are joining you out of uni or maybe a few years out of university who totally changed their lives alongside us. So, yeah, there's been lots of really positive things. My brother worked for that company. I hired my brother into that company. So lots of really nice stories like that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:06:15 - 00:06:20]
But was it ever so bad that you regretted selling the business?
Roei Samuel: [00:06:24 - 00:07:17]
There was a period of time after we completed our lock in and I didn't know what I was going to do next. And in that six month period, that identity crisis, ego crisis, however you want to see it, that was really, really difficult. And I felt that I took many steps backwards, personally and psychologically during that period. And that was very difficult. As soon as I started the next business, and that was nearly two years after we sold the last one. I was so grateful for all the earnings and all of those. Yeah, all those learnings, all those lessons I could then consolidate and integrate and take forward into the next business. And then it was like, amazing. That was the best thing ever. Zero regrets, because I'm able to now use those things as springboard for the next one. But in that transition period, there, of course, there's a regret.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:07:17 - 00:07:27]
So let's talk about those lessons. Which one do you think is the most impactful, looking back for you today?
Roei Samuel: [00:07:27 - 00:08:40]
I think a lot of them are lessons in leadership. A lot of them are lessons in leadership. I don't think I was a great leader in the first business because there goes enough confidence, you know, maybe why certain experience, that's for sure. I didn't have confidence. I don't think I understood what people needed in a founder as CEO. And a lot of that actually came through the exit because the CEO of the company who acquired us was a guy called Gary Cook. And Gary was the CEO of Manchester City during their acquisition. He was on the board of Nike. Such a leader. And actually learning from him for a year was incredible. And, you know, some of those lessons that came from the accent, those types of things where it's like, okay, that's a real game changer. Especially a guy like Gary's chief entity was maybe 400 people. It wasn't the size of a Nike or a man city. So getting to work with him on a day to day basis, I mean, that was an incredible lesson to learn. So I think many of those lessons was to do with leadership. But I think that the founders journey, I'm sure you've experienced this as well. It's especially probably the first time. It's as much like learning about your own psyche as it is about everything else.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:08:41 - 00:08:45]
Definitely. Okay, so lessons of leadership. What else?
Roei Samuel: [00:08:46 - 00:08:49]
As in lessons from that excel, lessons from that business.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:08:50 - 00:09:10]
Any lessons? Because you mentioned before that today when you're running a new company and talk more about that one, you're using lots of those lessons you learned during the two years in between the businesses. So I'd love to dig deep in those two years and what happened to you and what you've learned and what it is we can learn from you.
Roei Samuel: [00:09:10 - 00:09:17]
Yeah, well, I think one of the biggest things is looking after yourself. I did not look after myself in the slightest during that first business.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:09:17 - 00:09:18]
I'm not surprised.
Roei Samuel: [00:09:18 - 00:12:39]
Right, right. And, you know, early twenties. So you're trying to balance all the things that we do in our early twenties and burning the candle in both ends and in the middle of. So I think that was really important when I'm looking after yourself. And I actually think part of that transition from founder to CEO, which I would say we've done now, is connected at the stage and size of the business. A lot of that is looking after yourself and showing to your team that you can make the transition and showing to the team that you do need to evolve with the business as the business grows. And the things that the business need from you day one are not the things that business need from you. After year four, for example, I think your role changes significantly and actually leading by example in having a bit more balance, in learning how to show up in the right circumstances, in the right way is really important as a CEO, whereas actually as a founder, maybe it's more of a slog. I think those things change quite drastically as well. I would say another key lesson is really the way that you have to focus on the most core leaders of your business. I think with real thoughts, sometimes we have Magpie syndrome. You run into the shining thing and it's because if you can execute on that opportunity. So an example of this, it would be the summer of 2016, and real sport was around 2 million users a month. So I was getting into a really good spot, learned something great there, and we had a massive opportunity for the Premier League where we were going to host the first ever EU Premier League. So every single sports team was going to have a FIFA Tonneau internally, and the winner of that FIFA tournament would represent each Premier League team, and then they would go into an e Premier League and this was amazing opportunity for us. It was going to be our biggest revenue opportunity by far in terms of a single contract. It was massive for us and we went incredibly far down the line. We had, I think seven or eight of the Premier League clubs had signed with us to do this. It was great, so much learning on that side and we took our eyes off the ball a little bit with the platform and the platform suffered a bit because, you know, we didn't have the resources to execute on everything as it's the case and we didn't prioritize in a sense of a way. And eventually EA pulled the whole thing because EA basically, EA is the game publisher behind the game. They realized they could joke themselves in the house. So they were just like, yeah, we're going to do that. So we lost a lot of time, we lost a lot of cognitive load and cognitive space from growing our bread and butter, growing our most important streams and most important products to focus on opportunity that was incredibly speculative and could have moved things forward in a drastic way, but we just didn't, we weren't sensible enough with downside protection at that time and we divested too much resource from what was working incredibly well. And now when I look at connected, you know, we had opportunities to expand into different territories much earlier, we had opportunities to launch new products earlier and we didn't do them even though they were great opportunities and we had the right partners because of those. Exactly.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:12:40 - 00:12:48]
So during those two years between your businesses, did you intentionally go and process the lessons like that from your previous business?
Roei Samuel: [00:12:49 - 00:13:52]
Yes, and mainly through investing in others and trying to work with that. So for example, first business I invested in, post real sport, was a mental health platform because of the mental health journey I've been going on as a family business, as I know you're aware as well, it was a mental health technology company called Telera. They were helping employers improve the mental wellbeing of their employees and invested quite heavily into that company, far more heavily than they should have, as I think is the way post exit from those gatherers and lost a whole lot, I'm not afraid to tell you, and just getting involved with them, became a non exec for them as I did with a couple of other businesses and went in as an advisor. And that was really that consolidation process. And again, you know, the biggest leadership, how do you advise other founders? I mean, when, you know, very difficult to coach at times. So I think that was a big part of that consolidation and then it stepped away for a while. You know, I stepped away, went to stand up for six months, which was a lot of fun.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:13:55 - 00:14:06]
I know, obviously, that you did that, exactly. But I love to hear why you did that and what it gave you. I know what it gave your audience, a lot of laughter.
Roei Samuel: [00:14:06 - 00:15:35]
Sometimes. Sometimes. I'll tell you what, stand up is something I think every single individual should do, because the lessons you learn are phenomenal. And they're lessons in humility. There are lessons in resilience. They are lessons in optimization and iteration more than anything else, because the feedback loop is brutally immediate. Everything goes badly. You really feel it. I mean, and on the other side, I have, I. You will never be nervous going to a pitch or a meeting again, because if you can't pitch a business, I mean, what you're doing as a founder, trying to make people laugh and fail, I mean, that is a good one. To deflate the ego post exit, for sure. I would suggest everyone do that, and a lot of good lessons there. But generally, I remember the first big vc pitch that I did post Covid and interconnected. It was amazing. I had this moment where there was sort of a general partner and three associates around this table, and I was pitching and they were just lapping it up. They were just loving everything. And I had the exact same feeling I used to get if you're killing in a room on standby. And it was so funny. It was like this. Oh, you just know what's landing and just those connections that you make are amazing. So I think if you need to get good at pitching, which any founder does, stand up, I highly recommend it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:15:35 - 00:15:43]
Makes me think of the conversation we had before about overcoming insecurities. But maybe that's the most brutal but most efficient way to do that.
Roei Samuel: [00:15:44 - 00:15:52]
Do you know what? I didn't think about that. But you're right. You were talking about posting online and doing personal branding. Why are you putting yourself out then?
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:15:53 - 00:16:30]
Because in our post exit community, what I see a lot is people actually hiding from the spotlight. And a lot of people learned the lesson to humility a bit too well. They say it was due to luck that I became so successful due to other people. And without often, without noticing that they end up hiding for a bit too long, a bit too much. And that interferes with their net success. Or, you know, even if their contributors are something innate into the world, but they're too modest.
Roei Samuel: [00:16:30 - 00:17:05]
Yeah, it's not helpful. Which is a shame, because I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. And especially now in 2024, where content, the personal brand, is so much about authenticity, talking about those things is so valuable. And I would say the ability to be vulnerable as part of the brand and say, well, look, there was a lot of luck along the way. And talking about that, it would resonate so many people. Right. So I think as long as you're speaking from an authentic place, I think you can still be humble and put yourself out there.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:17:05 - 00:17:12]
Yeah, it's an art form, though. Okay. So for you, it was very helpful in the sense to do stand up comedy.
Roei Samuel: [00:17:12 - 00:18:10]
Yeah, exactly that. And I look at other founders I know who edited who, mainly from a ego perspective. I don't mean that in a negative way, I just mean in pure sense, don't like having the lack of identity and jump straight back into founding something immediately. And it's so tempting to do because we all don't, none of us like to feel lost. We all like to feel saved in identity, of course. And I think that's a really good way of burning out quickly because you need to give yourself a break, you know? I don't need a break. Sitting your feet up, doing nothing. If you're family tight, it's unlikely you're going to be able to do that. But before saying, I'm going to commit the next 5678 years of my life to a project, I think giving yourself that time to reflect and just get some head space is so important. So, yeah, stand up was a big problem.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:18:10 - 00:18:40]
What I find fascinating about the story is that many people I talk to are saying, I took very good care of myself. I healed, I went to silent meditation retreats, I did this and the other thing. But you seem to have chosen something that actually sounds very scary and brutal. Right, so you're saying I did take good care of myself and then I put myself out there in a situation that's potentially extremely uncomfortable psychologically. So what was the logic for doing that?
Roei Samuel: [00:18:40 - 00:19:33]
Well, that's interesting, because I think, although you're right, it can be traumatic. You don't understand that. Absolutely, but it's totally different. I think when you're a founder, you have the pressure of feeding 100 mouths, you have the pressure of investors, at least with stand up, if you bomb, you bomb. Everyone else is fine, no one cares. So I still think, you know, the level of pressure is there, but it's totally different. And I think to me especially, you know, what it's like at the early days of building. It's you and you're accountable to yourself and your results are based on you. And if you like building, that's great. By the time you get to exit, you're not building, you're managing, you know, you're moving complex structures you're going through. So actually going back to like, just being me and I can iterate my script and I don't need to do this by committee and do that. That was amazing. Like, I loved that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:19:33 - 00:19:59]
Yeah, lots of people are saying that I would love to be do something, but I don't want any responsibility for employees. I have that too. That was the biggest fear, being responsible for other people again. So when you decided to do send committee, did you think it would be your new career, your new path for a long time or you actually did it as an exercise, a short term exercise.
Roei Samuel: [00:19:59 - 00:21:17]
I mean, we talked about this before. I think prevalence of addictive personality within entrepreneurs is pretty high. I became obsessed with stand up. I was like, this is me, 100%. I went from being, I'm gonna try to 810 times a week sometimes couple times when I write in three, 4 hours a day. I mean, it became an obsession. Like, you can turn anything into addiction, right? If you're that type of personality. So it absolutely was an obsession. And to be honest, I think it was just found and connected. And it's funny, like, I think I founded connected, probably out of ego. Probably out of ego saying that I need to do something again in the commercial world, which maintains my track record, builds my track record and all of those things. But I realized as soon as I found connected, I'm all in. I think the last day I went on stage was the day before we launched our mvp for connected. Because I knew you couldn't do both at once because the type of all in personality. So I think yes. For six, seven months, I thought this is making.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:21:17 - 00:21:17]
I loved it.
Roei Samuel: [00:21:17 - 00:21:59]
It's so much fun, but it is brutal. It's quite toxic environment. It's quite toxic. Yeah. I think in many ways it could be a bit similar to founder communities, actor communities, sports communities, where you've got many, many people competing over limited resources and maybe feelings of envy, maybe feelings of, you know, oh, well, I should be successful. This person's successful. Why am I not successful? Same in stand up, you know, it's same in acting communities, I'm sure. So it was actually quite toxic community, to be fair. So I was quite glad to be out.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:21:59 - 00:22:05]
So what did you learn about yourself through that process that you didn't know before?
Roei Samuel: [00:22:06 - 00:22:53]
I thought I cared what people think about much more than I do, what people think of me much more than I do. I was shocked that actually I could go up on stage without, and on many occasions, no one laughing at my jokes. And, yeah, I know, it's pretty brutal. It's funny. My first show went so well, and my second, my third, my fourth, and I was like, oh, please. And then my fifth show is one of the most traumatic days when I. It was beyond bogging. I mean, other comedians were making jokes at my expense for laughs. Like, that's how bad it was by the end of that show. So. But I didn't care. And I was so surprised. I thought my ego was much more fragile than it is, which was.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:22:54 - 00:22:55]
That probably gave you some confidence.
Roei Samuel: [00:22:55 - 00:22:57]
Yeah, yeah.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:22:58 - 00:23:02]
Okay, so what else did you do to take care of yourself?
Roei Samuel: [00:23:02 - 00:25:18]
So during real school, I put on a lot of weight. I put on a lot of weight because I stopped taking care of myself in that way. ADHD. ADHD is a amazing tool, but also can be a big crutch. So the way that the ADHD brain regulates task and focus is through dopamine. So we need dopamine in order to focus. And you can get dopamine through exercise. You can get dopamine through high risk situations, which is why, again, probably such high prevalence of entrepreneurialism. But you, sugary foods, ultra high processed foods and all of these things, which are easy to go to to get their soybean, Russia. So I was living a very unhealthy lifestyle. So I did start, I was just training five, six times a week. Going really hard in there. Really enjoyed that side of it. Doing all the usual work life stuff, which is great. Spent a lot of time trying to repair relationships as well. Spent some good time traveling and yeah, just trying to manage the. Also the difficulties of having disposable income for the first time in my life. I think when you grow up with being deprived in certain areas, your brain will always create them as a reward center. And when you go from that payday loan to having that, suddenly you're just going to go a bit crazy and you're going to buy the things and you always wanted to buy that you certainly do not need. And there's the weekends of Vegas, there are weekends in Shanghai which as a 26 year old seemed like this is the reason that make me happy, but they don't, and they're very, very empty. And ultimately, some of the lowest points are when you're there being like, oh, I've spent 25, 26 years imagining that this will be my happiness to then be like, oh, there is no happiness. There's no happiness there for me. Anyway, for that type of thing. And it was just a lot of relearning, like, what are your values? What are the things that might make you happy? What is your value system? What are the things that actually make this worth it? And I think that's a big part of learning as well.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:25:18 - 00:25:30]
Okay, so let's slow down because I think it's very important. So what helped you understand what actually makes you happy once you realize what you used to think was wrong?
Roei Samuel: [00:25:32 - 00:25:36]
I think a lot of problem, error and certainly a lot.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:25:36 - 00:25:37]
Found a way of learning.
Roei Samuel: [00:25:37 - 00:26:53]
As we discussed before, I'm expensive as well. I'm expensive. I'm learning. I think it was probably only 18 months ago that actually I've learned what makes me happy, or at least what allows me to justify the amount of time I'll spend in pursuit of something. And that is genuinely trying to have positive impact on some other people's lives. Because we spoke about this at length before. Right. We live in a world where maybe it's really difficult to make big impact nationally or globally, and there's so many vested interests and so many different things that actually the most effective way of improving people's lives, the people will let you touch the people in your closest environment, and that can be your employees, your customers, your team, the people around you. In that way, I think it was almost going back to basics and practicing that gratitude. Where can we just be good to each other? How can we have a positive impact on this person who we're going to interact with in this day? Because I think it's. I don't know. I don't think there is happiness in the grandiose. I think you need to find the happiness in simplicity. Yeah.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:26:53 - 00:26:57]
It also sounds like you became happier but became less selfish.
Roei Samuel: [00:26:57 - 00:27:02]
Yes. Yeah. 100%. 100%.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:27:03 - 00:27:21]
It's not easy, but I also think that when we exit businesses, it gives us a chance to have a shortcut to that place where we realize that this is what makes us happy. Because otherwise it's very easy to continue being very self focused and lisp.
Roei Samuel: [00:27:21 - 00:27:48]
Yeah, definitely. And I think that's probably one of the biggest blessings of getting an early exit, is probably most people will spend a really long part of their lives pursuing those commercial and financial aims behind that. That would be the happiness part. And if you can bring that forward and have that realization early and then almost to not sound too pretentious, but transcends to that realization that it's about other, not self, is definitely one of the biggest benefits.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:27:49 - 00:28:15]
I like that you corrected yourself that you don't want to be too pretentious, because it's actually very sad that our society thinks that talking about being unselfish is pretentious, but pursuing materialistic goals is not. I notice when you use words like spirituality, unselfishness, selflessness, people feel uncomfortable. We don't use these words normally, and it's actually sad.
Roei Samuel: [00:28:16 - 00:28:23]
Absolutely. And can I ask, did you. I don't know if you're. If you're all happy to talk about this stuff, but did you go through a spiritual element?
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:28:24 - 00:28:52]
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And at some point, I did realize that probably not for the exit, it would have taken me a very, very long time. And even at first, I was quite upset that I spent a lot of money learning these lessons. Like you, like many other people in our community, I now think that it was still the cheapest way to get to a happier place, because it was the fastest, and time is our most important currency.
Roei Samuel: [00:28:53 - 00:29:04]
Yeah, I'm saying. Yeah, that's so true. You're right. Many people will realize it at a point where they might feel it was too late to realize.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:29:05 - 00:29:13]
I guess, you know, some people just die, then we have less time of that, more full feeling, more contributing life.
Roei Samuel: [00:29:13 - 00:29:33]
Absolutely. And I must say, one of the things which has been part of my journey on this side has been plant medicines in certain way. And to be honest, that's one of the things which in the future I would love to contribute to in terms of broader understanding, awareness, because I think it is such an important part of that journey.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:29:33 - 00:29:56]
Yeah, absolutely. Can we compare the motivations? If we can just look at what motivated you to start real sport, what motivated you to go to stand up comedy? We talked about it, but I want you now to compare the three. And what motivated you to start connected and still motivate you every day?
Roei Samuel: [00:29:56 - 00:30:23]
Like, everything came together in that moment to tell me that's what I should be doing, just because it's clear that. So the companies that I was investing in, there was that obvious outcome for them when they were following these behaviors. And there was almost something which many people being excluded from understanding these behaviors. Strong investor reporting, how you manage relationships with investors.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:30:23 - 00:30:43]
So, Roy, our audience doesn't know what connected is, so we need to explain it. But can you explain it through how you said everything came together to create that company? So tell me what the company is and then what it is that came together.
Roei Samuel: [00:30:43 - 00:32:41]
Yeah, absolutely. So I can probably explain this simultaneously. So when I started investing in startups, I could see a very strong positive correlation between specific behaviors these startups were making and the outcomes they were having in terms of the performance, in terms of the growth, in terms of their ability to attract funding. Those behaviors were fundamentally twofold. One was the quality and frequency of their investor reporting, and by extension, the strength of their investor relations. And the second was their ability to access expert networks. Neither of these things are rocket science by any means, but it was amazing to see how many founders, how many businesses didn't have that knowledge, didn't have that education, and they're going for secret sauce and doing all these amazing type of things, which you have to do as a startup, but missing out on these fundamentals, which seem to predicate success, at least from what I could see and other investors have speak to. So we just became really passionate about helping as many founders, investors and experts as possible to take part in these behaviors in a really frictionless way. So it just came together in that way that we could just see this really clear trend building. Mvp is iterating. And it was just like, yeah, this works. And it was just moving really quickly. So we found ourselves after three years, with sort of 6 million ARR paying customers in 1516 countries. And that was a different type of validation to what we had with real support, because with real support, we were just brilliant at marketing, because we just understood social, we just understood how to distribute what we were doing through social and then help other people distribute it through social. But this just felt more like a validation of the solution in a way that was not marketing led.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:32:41 - 00:32:42]
It was more of a product market fit.
Roei Samuel: [00:32:42 - 00:32:44]
Exactly, exactly.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:32:44 - 00:32:49]
Rather than pushing people to market. And you enjoyed that feeling?
Roei Samuel: [00:32:50 - 00:32:51]
Totally.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:32:52 - 00:33:00]
Okay, so what are your plans with this company going forward? On the personal level?
Roei Samuel: [00:33:00 - 00:34:09]
On a personal level, I feel so grateful to the team. I just think, you know what it's like. You've been on this journey and texted four times. So grateful to that team for giving some of the best years of their lives to come and build division with you and contribute to that vision and take it to the next level. And might seem the young average age of 28, 29, being able to get them an amazing outcome which can put them on the best trajectory, that's the stuff that really excites me, and I would love to just get as many people this knowledge as possible, get as many people the tools for success at the early stage as we can. Ultimately, we're not trying to do anything prohibitive for startups, not taking equity in startups, we're not taking commissions on fundraisers or anything like that. We just want to plug in best practice so that people can grow and have the best opportunity to facilitate that growth as possible. So I think that's the thing that personally really excites me. And then, yeah, it's a business that we'll build to exit in the next period of time and when the times are able to do that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:34:09 - 00:34:19]
And this business gives you more happiness and fulfillment than the previous two because I include your standard copy into a business of one.
Roei Samuel: [00:34:19 - 00:36:19]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. It was a business of one. We actually started some podcast networks around that. It's funny, like, so much of my business has seemed more podcasts in some way or another. I don't know why. So glad to be here. Sports is a. Have you ever been all the sports world sports market? It's a really, really fun market. It's a real passion economy stuff. You know, the level of passion that people have in sports is not the same level of passion that people have. Fintech, you know, it feels very, very different. Right, right. And the perks of it, you know, we went to the NBA championships and the single role and all that. So that was really fun. It was very different. Connected is much more fulfilling in terms of it's doing more good. You know, one of the startups who uses connected recently, also I spoke to recently called limitless travel, and they're doing awesome work. Founder there was working in the city. He was diagnosed with Ms, sort of 25 years old. Realized his life was not going to look how he thought it was going to look. Left the city, left the job, and then spent a year traveling. When he was traveling, he realized that when the effects of the multiple sclerosis had kicked in, he wouldn't be able to do those things. He came back and built a business called limitless travel, which is helping differently able people have amazing travel opportunities around the world. Some of their testimonials. I read a testimonial from one of their customers recently, who says she can go hang riding Tenerife with more dignity than she can go shopping at her local assets, like amazing things like that. And with connected, he built out some amazing stuff connected to some people who have helped him launch incredible tv campaigns down helping so many more people. So I don't think for a second connected is doing anything like that. But if we can help businesses like that facilitate their journey and grow, then we can indirectly do lots of good. So definitely that feels really great.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:36:19 - 00:36:39]
So many of our conference are reluctant to start a new business because they're very scared of that burnout and that sacrifice that you also feel, as I mentioned before, how do you manage to balance your life now having learned what you've learned from the first experience?
Roei Samuel: [00:36:39 - 00:39:11]
Well, it's a really good question. And I made some same mistakes again. So real school was the end of a seven year relationship connected to the end of a four year relationship. So there you go. Maybe I'm failing faster. Maybe that's a good thing because. Yeah, because regardless of how many lessons you learn, I think all around us know this is years one and two are going to be all consuming. You know, there's no way of getting around that. I think that's just the reality of it. So if I had kids or I was at a different stage, I mean, I was. How do I guess I was 29, 28 when I found connected, I still jumped out. Right. I'm not going to sacrifice too much, but I can certainly see that starting a company again at 40 x, whatever, would be difficult. I think that the difference this time is with real sport. I sacrificed everything I could from day one till the exit. With connected, it's. I sacrificed everything I had to until the minute I didn't. And then I started to pull back. So for year one and year two again, all the lost relationship, all the usual seven mistakes. But then actually, as we got to year three, it was like, okay, the company's going to be better served by me looking after myself and getting in shape and having more energy and doing all those things. I made that switch. I was always in an EA before doing real sport again because I was just like, I sleep in the office, I was doing all those things which make you just feel like you should because that's the picture of the founder. And then you learn after you've had some success or you didn't need to do those things. So I think it's having a bit more respect for myself, a bit more respect for my health, for my time, and then realizing that you lead by example in that way and you risk a team burning out. And I think we had that real sport. I think we really had to have real support because me and my co founder Scott, we were pushing ourselves to burn out. And then your team feel they have to push themselves to burn out and it's a bit of a vicious cycle. So I think it's having more respect for the time, building a better infrastructure, having an EA, delegating faster. I was never a micro manager at real sport, but I still wanted to oversight into things I didn't need oversight into because I felt if I didn't, I would lose something. It would be done as good. So it's all those things.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:39:13 - 00:39:25]
So less control, you would say, definitely. How did you help yourself? Release control. That's hard for entrepreneurial types, isn't it?
Roei Samuel: [00:39:25 - 00:40:00]
I actually think that's when angel investing was such a great asset. Because you're investing. The first investment I made was the biggest edge of the vessel I made. And that went to zero within twelve months. And that experience of being like, well, it's out of my hands and I have to trust another family to do those things. I think that was such an easy way of saying, hey, sometimes you just couldn't let control. You trusted this person and now you have to continue to empower them. Yes, advice and do what you can, but you can't microbial, not your business.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:40:01 - 00:40:06]
But did you find angel investing as exciting as having a round business?
Roei Samuel: [00:40:06 - 00:40:58]
No, definitely not. Definitely not. It was really fun. I met some amazing people. Claudia, my CEO, connected. She was a founder. I invested in that business didn't work, but I made her CEO of Glenn. She'd been awesome. So there's some really fulfilling parts about it. But yeah, I wonder if. So Ben White, who we mentioned before, who's on my podcast, he talks about the adrenaline thresholds that are pushed when you're a founder. I think it's very difficult to replicate those. I think that's why I also post exit. Like people do the crazy stuff like I did the Vegas, the Shanghai, all these crazy situations you get yourself into because your adrenaline threshold is so high, your risk threshold is so high. So, yeah, I don't think anything compares. I'm guessing that's why you did fall. That's why you're five times boundary.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:40:59 - 00:41:47]
Well, they call adrenaline thing again, it's something you and I discussed before. It's also a form of addiction, don't you think? We do become addicted to that level of dopamine and adrenaline and it's very hard to not have it yet. I found that during that period after an exit, it's extremely important to release that and be comfortable with more serotonin levels and less adrenaline levels to just appreciate that we have enough. We are okay. Before going to that next business, would you say you relate to that or you continue this kind of dopamine driven journey through the whole period between your businesses?
Roei Samuel: [00:41:47 - 00:43:23]
I mean, if I was creating a cv right now, the first thing you would say is dopamine Hunter. I mean, that is certainly I did not learn that lesson. I wish I had. And I think I still continue with that. I think that ADHD is such a compounding effect on it because of the way that ADHD brain desires don't mean to focus, and I think it's why. So John Abel, who is the technical director of the CTO's office at Google, I was with him at an event recently. It was a neurodiversity event run by Google, and he's on the board of the British Dyslexic association, and he talks a lot about neurodiversity. And he gave the most incredible stance, which is there's the prevalence of neurodiversity in the tech population. That is, those who work in the tech ecosystem is two and a half times greater than the general population. But the prevalence of neurodiversity in the prison population is five to six times what it is in the general population. And as someone. Yeah. Yes, John told us, wow. But as someone who is on the verge of being kicked out of school 14 and got involved with the wrong crowds and all those things, I can see how adhd, dopamine, pursue all of these things, if not pointed in the right direction, can be incredibly destructive, self sabotaging all of those things. So I think my relationship with dopamine is a complex, not a perfect one by any means. And certainly I still need to learn that lesson.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:43:23 - 00:43:26]
How do you, how do you manage meditation today?
Roei Samuel: [00:43:27 - 00:44:46]
I have to train. I have to weight train five, six times a week on the days I don't. I'm almost destined to go for, like, cheap versions of dopamine, whether that be like high processed foods, caffeine. I could have seven or eight, nine, cognizant. I'm an endless pit for caffeine, all of those things. So I think it's. You have to try and seek out the healthy forms, especially the long arc releases of dopamine, which you get from exercise. The best one for me, but otherwise, it's challenge. I speak to many ADHD entrepreneurs. Our biggest fear? Weekends, you know, when downtime. Oh, God, that's terrifying. Exactly. But meditation, all of those things which I have built into practice, help you do that? Yeah. Yeah. I started meditating December 2016, clearly, because I was going through a really difficult period where I was trying to medicate myself in many, many ways. And someone suggested meditation to me. And it's been. It was on and off for a few years, but periods of meditating every day for three months and then not touching it for a while and coming back to it. My practice has been really strong. Let's say, for the last year and a half, two years, which is. Which is really important for me.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:44:46 - 00:44:49]
How do you do it? Once a day, twice a day?
Roei Samuel: [00:44:49 - 00:44:57]
Once a day. Ideally when I wake up more often than not, just before I go to bed. And I don't know if you do anything.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:44:57 - 00:45:12]
Yeah. I also had the on and off relationship, but then every time, I am just shocked how efficient it is. I think it's actually the most efficient thing to achieve clarity and contentment and all these things.
Roei Samuel: [00:45:12 - 00:45:14]
Yeah, absolutely.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:45:14 - 00:45:16]
But I haven't been perfect for them.
Roei Samuel: [00:45:16 - 00:45:41]
Yeah, well, it's funny, like, for something which is ten minutes a day, I don't know why it's so difficult to commit to doing every day. And it's funny, so many people I speak to say the same thing, which is like, it's so effective, it's so powerful. I still struggle to do it every day. And there's a great app, by the way. I don't know if you've tried waking up app. I know it's amazing. It really deepened my practice, personally, and.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:45:41 - 00:45:43]
I thought it's fantastic.
Roei Samuel: [00:45:43 - 00:46:02]
Worth trying. And I think one of the biggest founder challenges is the regulation of emotions when certain situations pop up. Not getting too high. Not getting too low. I think meditation has been key to helping me navigate those peaks and drops.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:46:02 - 00:46:29]
Yeah, I also use it, trying to do it every day, twice a day. But for me, it's also perfect tool to use to make an important decision. And if I'm not sure, because every time, I'm surprised that the decision becomes very clear after 20 minutes of meditation, which basically means that it's this noise that kind of prevents me from making the decision faster.
Roei Samuel: [00:46:30 - 00:47:02]
That's really interesting, and it makes a lot of sense because something I've read now, you know, I don't know about the scientific validity of this, but it felt. It seemed to be quite legitimate. But talking about the amygdala, which is the fight and flight center of the brain, and lots of studies that have been done on the brains of people who meditate show a shrunken amygdala. That is, the ability to make decisions with less fight or flight improves with more meditation. So I think that makes. That makes a lot of sense.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:47:02 - 00:47:23]
Yeah. Just talking about leadership, at the end of the day, it's all about the quality of your decision. So if we just prioritize everything, that's really impactful for the quality of our decisions, by definition, everything else becomes better. So that's my logic. And I found that meditation is the most amazing tool. Exercise is another one.
Roei Samuel: [00:47:23 - 00:47:39]
Yeah. And do you think there is a, without going to esoteric here, do you think there is a spiritual element to meditation, helping with decision making and almost like being guided in a way. Do you ever get that feeling?
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:47:40 - 00:48:06]
I have different explanation for it because I also observed that it almost feels like there is a power energy coming from somewhere else through meditation that helps you. But I think that it's just the moment when we really feel connected with the rest of the universe. We almost plug in and then once the energy flowing when we plug in. So it is esoteric in a way, but it's there.
Roei Samuel: [00:48:07 - 00:48:08]
I certainly feel it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:48:09 - 00:48:26]
I definitely think meditation has a huge spiritual meaning because it makes you stop and connect. And spirituality at the end of the day, simply connectedness with other things. And this is exactly what makes us.
Roei Samuel: [00:48:27 - 00:48:31]
I love that as an explanation of strangers and connectedness of things.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:48:31 - 00:48:52]
That's really nice, but that's all it is. Because I think people confuse spirituality with mysticism and with religions, with religions. They simply tempted to wrap up this wisdom of spirituality into stories. And now we look at these stories and we don't believe them. But the wisdom is the same across religions.
Roei Samuel: [00:48:52 - 00:48:53]
Yes.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:48:53 - 00:48:55]
And mysticism just has nothing to do with any of that.
Roei Samuel: [00:48:55 - 00:48:56]
Yes.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:48:56 - 00:49:46]
And pure spirituality to me is that connectedness. And then we connect in different ways. We're connecting when we are present, we connect when we meditate, and we connect intellectually because we understand that we are part of a bigger universe. And it always calms me down when I think, oh, I'm not alone. If I feel anxiety and stress, just understand, you know, I'm just part of something bigger. And I find that practice in it is very, very helpful in just becoming a better person. At the end of the day, when you're, when you know, you becoming a better person, you can't help but feel much better about yourself. And if you feel better about yourself, you feel happier and more fulfilled that there's more meaning in life because you're growing.
Roei Samuel: [00:49:46 - 00:49:47]
Yeah.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:49:47 - 00:49:50]
Attribute it's the right direction generally for our lives.
Roei Samuel: [00:49:51 - 00:50:41]
Totally. I think that's, I think that's beautiful as well. And you're right. And I also think that when you feel that connectedness with other, it's also difficult to do bad things for other people. Of course, you know, because you actually feel it. You actually feel that pain. And I generally think, if anything, and I don't want to go controversial here at all, but some of the sectarians and some of the religious conflicts that we see feel so far removed from spirituality because of spirituality, as you put it, is the connectedness of things that conflict in many ways is just not congruent with those, those teachings of what are fundamentally very similar, which is treat other people well, do good by others. But this is. We're probably getting quite a bit of tangent about a very valuable conversation nonetheless.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:50:42 - 00:51:35]
But, you know, I think generally, if the population of people who are very conscious about fitness also incorporate spiritual fitness into their practice in a very similar way, learning a little bit about it as we do about our physical fitness and then just making a habit out of it, we would very quickly realize that we can get this dopamine or other serotonin maybe, which also makes us feel very good. Right. It's often ignored the neurotransmitter, which actually gives us this contentment. If we just incorporated a little bit of very nonsensical, sorry, very common sense spiritual practice like meditation or just gratitude. Right. We all would have much more happiness inside.
Roei Samuel: [00:51:35 - 00:52:27]
Totally, totally. And we talk about lessons and changes. I think a big difference between myself, connected myself during real sport is during real sport I was mind and maybe mind and body, whereas now certainly much more mind, body, soul in that way, and not ignoring that part. And I know people will possibly. It's easy for you to say gratitude comes from these types of things, but genuinely, I think it is, you know, in difficult moments and painful moments which we all go through, and personal difficulties and all of those things, it totally does help you come back to a place of appreciation and always remembering that, you know, you could be good to others and. And not be ruled by emotion that way. So. Yeah, I love you said that.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:52:29 - 00:52:37]
So when were you diagnosed with ADHD? It's such a common topic that just pops up, really.
Roei Samuel: [00:52:38 - 00:52:42]
You see a lot of interlinking between ADHD and entrepreneurialism.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:52:43 - 00:53:13]
I suspect. I don't have any statistics to support that. That's just my personal observation. But I've talked to literally hundreds of exited, hundreds of Exeter founders now, I think those who become successful enough to sell a company are even more likely to have ADHD. So I'm leaning towards HDHD being a superpower, as long as you can learn how to manage it. School of thought, that's where I'm leaning towards, just based on that observation, that it can bring me success.
Roei Samuel: [00:53:13 - 00:56:24]
I think makes total sense. And I also think a trend that I've seen with successful founders is taking big bets, taking big bets to push things forward in a way that you have to do to move the needle in a powerful way. And if ADHD and dopamine are linked and we build dopamine from reward centers, that is the outcomes of big risks, the drive for the biggest risk, the biggest overween payoff, and ADHD makes sense. So I think you're totally right. I think you're totally right on that. The ADHD journey for me, I was diagnosed with dyslexia at nine years old because I was struggling to read and write. And then I was basically failing school because I couldn't concentrate. I was distracting everyone, which I totally understand. My teachers were right in their sense. And just then, you know, you get. I think you get tired of the brush, right? This person will badly behave, so then your attention would be able to badly behave kids. And then, you know, it becomes a bit of a self prophecy. But I got very fortunate that my school had a really forward thinking special education department. And at that point, ADHD was seen as part of special needs. That's what it was. Which is interesting to. To think about now, I'm sure. I assume it's seen as part of a different bracket now, but, yeah, so I was going through special education at that time, getting support in that way, and got a psychiatrist as a resource from the school, all those things. And that led to ADHD diagnosis. And that was a light bulb moment, because I think so much of ADHD is frustration. I think I'm smart, but I'm getting terrible grades, I can't concentrate, I can't learn. And then you get open up to a world of basically almost what you see down workplace, which is like hybrid learning, of being able to learn in your own way. And actually, when you learn to go to lessons and maybe you can do these things and actually read that way, and that was something I carried over to university. So I went from nearly being kicked out of school to then just scraping through to university, then getting a first class honours and doing really well because you could be much more flexible with the way that you learn. So I would just never go to a lecture, but then in the three weeks for exams, I would go so deep into learning and enjoyed it and pick multiples I really loved. So I think. I think my experience with ADHD points more to a failure of the traditional education system to accommodate for different styles of learning. Then it does speak to the negativity of ADHD. But I think my inability to fit in in school and to follow the rules in school meant for a very young age. I was like, Becky, I can't be a lawyer, I can't be an accountant, I can't be a doctor. I'm not going to be able to do any of the, these traditional things. So it was always going to be entrepreneurial. So I knew from early on, it's like, cool. I have to figure out different ways of making money.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:56:24 - 00:57:06]
Yeah, because you have to, you have to build your own world with your own rules that actually excite you. So you would follow them, because you can only follow your own rules if you are that type of person. Speaking about the education system, I actually think that children who are diagnosed with ADHD should be encouraged to pursue entrepreneurial path. This is, in my observation, limited one, but still the likeliest path to bring that person to a happier life and having control of their lives and also contributing.
Roei Samuel: [00:57:06 - 00:57:33]
Yeah, totally. And Simon Squid, who his good friend, talks at length about this, about the way the education system is failing kids who find it difficult to follow that traditional system. And I agree, it lends itself to entrepreneurialism very well. And I think, if anything, the bending of the rules, of the reinterpretation of, let's say, is a core path. Entrepreneurialism. Right. It's all about seeing opportunities, but it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:57:33 - 00:57:34]
Needs to be managed.
Roei Samuel: [00:57:34 - 00:57:34]
Right.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:57:34 - 00:57:43]
Because if it's not managed, then these people may end up in prison. You educated me today, the likelihood is worth five, $0.06.
Roei Samuel: [00:57:43 - 00:57:44]
Yeah.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:57:44 - 00:58:12]
For that. So I think it's just such an important topic because entrepreneurs contribute so much to the society. So everything that actually helps someone to become more successful entrepreneur, including neurodiversity, needs to be understood properly and managed by the education system. That's my opinion. I feel strongly about it. I'm mother of three kids, and I think at least two of them have some kind of neurodiversity.
Roei Samuel: [00:58:12 - 00:58:52]
Well, this is it. And also, I'd love to meet this neurotypical person. Right. Who's the ground zero for all of us to be divergent from vignette, we're totally right. And I also think the smartest organization, the ones who are going to do the best over the next 10, 15, 20 years are the ones who can create that accommodation within the workplace. Well, because if you don't create those accommodations, you're not going to harness the amazing superpowers that come with neurodiversity. And I think that is a generational trend as well. And more and more people want those accommodations, whether they're neurodiverse or not. So I think the companies that are going to stay the most innovative are the ones who can develop it. That way.
Anastasia Koroleva: [00:58:53 - 00:58:56]
So tell me, Roei, do you have a sense of purpose?
Roei Samuel: [00:58:58 - 01:00:08]
My long term goal is to. I know that whatever I'm doing now and any success that I've had today is a vehicle to my long term goal of helping as many people as possible. I know that I've only been given these opportunities for success to build a platform, to eventually build something that will help as many people as I can. That's the only way I can make sense of it. When we live in a world where there is a lot of unjust everything, where as much as we want to say that anyone can get themselves from one place to another, and there's certainly a lot that can be done there as people. If you look at what's going on in the world today, there is so much unfair suffering. The only way that I can make sense of being given some opportunities and give a good brain all those things is to eventually utilize this for a much bigger purpose than myself. And it's got to be helping as many people as possible. And that is something which is the only thing that's allowed me to make peace with some of the things that have happened to it.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:00:08 - 01:00:13]
By contributing to helping others, basically.
Roei Samuel: [01:00:13 - 01:00:14]
Yeah.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:00:14 - 01:00:20]
We talked about guilt earlier. I guess that helps you overcome the constant guilt you feel.
Roei Samuel: [01:00:20 - 01:01:09]
Absolutely. Yeah. Massively. So if I look at, like, even the life of my parents, like, it's a struggle. My mom's life has been brutal in terms of. My parents were prisoners, prisoners of war. And then, you know, all these things, such difficult. The most difficult. She took me to the house. She grew up in Budapest. And, I mean, there's six of them in box, where it was difficult and, you know, and just, you know, all those substantial things and, yeah, it's the only way that I've had success. 26. I'm clearly so fortunate. Lucky in all those things. Yes. I'd have to feel guilty if there was an eventual love. Yes. This has got to go back in spades on the back end. Does that make sense?
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:01:09 - 01:01:43]
A lot? Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense. And I'm so happy to see that you're so young and you have this clarity. And I can't help but think that what you mentioned before, that you have the luck, or whatever it is, to sell your company so early, to learn what it is that did not make you happy, brought you where you're here, where you're so clear. You're on this path to real purpose, much more fulfilling life and, you know, hard work, but the kind of work that inspires you at least this is.
Roei Samuel: [01:01:44 - 01:02:03]
How I see it, definitely. And I try to bring that in now to all of my team, as well as other founders I speak to and sort of say, well, look, of course we could pursue these things and achieve these things, but it can't be all about that. We have to have purpose in outcomes for our customers. Whatever it is, we have to have them because it can't just be about.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:02:03 - 01:02:29]
Biomatric app because you wouldn't be energized as you are, because you are. You have so much energy. I hope it's obvious from the show, but in real life, you burst with energy and it has to come from a place like that where a given place, because when we release energy, it's generosity. It's dealing as a post, you know, taking well.
Roei Samuel: [01:02:29 - 01:02:37]
So if you've ever met an energy vampire, which I'm sure we'll have, that's a few. Yeah, we certainly know him. Probably when you meet him, you know.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:02:37 - 01:02:47]
But it's the opposite of you. You also know when the person is given energy. Roy, that takes me to my last question. How do you want to be remembered?
Roei Samuel: [01:02:48 - 01:03:59]
Oh, that is a challenging question. I remembered. Do you know what? I think the idea of being remembered is a really strange one when we think about some of the most impactful people, you know, celebrities who are so loved and all these things that was like, well, five years after they go to. And, you know, I did meet your grandparents, right? Well, I think my last grandparent passed away when I was like four or five years old. And, you know, it just makes you realize that actually the. The memory of you posts you is very fickle. So I guess it's. I think for me it's more about like, having impact when you're alive. What can we do to have impact when we're alive and just trying positive influence on people in the present. And I guess that would be a nice way to be remembered. But also I think the idea of legacy is a complex one, right. Not something that drives you. Not so much. But I'm also 32 maybe in x amount of years.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:03:59 - 01:04:03]
I don't know how to try to. That's perfectly fine. I just wanted to challenge you with it.
Roei Samuel: [01:04:03 - 01:04:03]
Right then.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:04:03 - 01:04:04]
There is no right answer.
Roei Samuel: [01:04:04 - 01:04:05]
Yeah.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:04:06 - 01:04:13]
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. Thank you. That was fun.
Roei Samuel: [01:04:13 - 01:04:14]
Yeah. Is that okay for you?
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:04:15 - 01:04:15]
Of course.
Roei Samuel: [01:04:15 - 01:04:18]
No. Yeah, I love that. Amazing. Awesome. Thanks.
Anastasia Koroleva: [01:04:18 - 01:04:29]
I love the whole story with stand up commentary because I haven't had it yet. Mind. Like, I find something like this and put it in my precious collection.
Roei Samuel: [01:04:29 - 01:04:40]
Amazing. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for that. And also so great talk about spiritual side of things. I didn't know that was something your world. It's one of the reasons I love podcasting, learning about others.
