SAXX Founder Trent Kitsch on Business Exits, Timing & Identity (#207) — Transcript
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 207
What happens to ambition after you’ve already built and sold successful businesses? Trent Kitsch joins Dustin Serviss to discuss exits, timing, identity and how priorities change after success, drawing on his experience building SAXX, DOJA and Kitsch Wines.
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Dustin Serviss: What happens to ambition after you've already won? Trent Kitsch has built companies, sold companies, and taken some very big swings from SAXX Underwear to DOJA to Kitsch wines. But one thing he said in our conversation stuck with me. He said the jar of ambition is just as full, but the name on the front has changed. That might be the part of business exits we don't talk about enough. We spend years thinking about valuation buyers, timing, and the deal. But eventually, the bigger question becomes, what do you want all the success to make possible? Trent and I got into exits, timing, risk, AI, building companies, and how priorities change when you've already accomplished some of the things you once thought
[00:00:38] Dustin Serviss: were the whole goal. I really enjoyed this one. One. I hope you do too.
[00:01:03] Trent Kitsch: I definitely definitely am always still searching historic buildings and abandoned buildings and, projects that are beautiful. It blows my mind how many beautiful historic buildings there are in downtown Los Angeles or, like you look at the revitalization of Detroit and different beautiful buildings. But, yeah, I love historic buildings. I love the historic resorts and places like that on different lakes or waterfalls around the world. So I'm always searching around. And I think the next place that's totally on the come up that I would love to check out is... Or I've heard at least is Montenegro. Okay. Maybe some cool abandoned resort in Montenegro
[00:01:50] Trent Kitsch: we could dust off together. I don't know. But, yeah, I still got the goals cards and the dreams cards always working, and the magic, however that works, continues to work.
[00:02:02] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. It's... So what is still on there? What is not? Have you removed anything since we visited a few years ago because of Yeah. You basically mentality upgrades or delays rates?
[00:02:16] Trent Kitsch: Reduce things over time. Maybe there was more things by volume in earlier decades. Now there's less things by volume, but greater import, fathering, husbanding, superdadding. Those are the top of my list. And then, for example, like this morning, people who wanna help with their ideas and businesses reach out to me, and I try to help by either advising or connecting, sharing some lessons that I've learned to help them and then also oftentimes people, if, fit is right, will offer me equity for a piece of their business. So I'm doing some of that. And then just trying to stay curious, stay interested on what's going on. It's hard to stay up the day in real terms....
[00:03:15] Trent Kitsch: Thing they're moving right now. No. It is. But
[00:03:18] Dustin Serviss: You're at the heart of it, California. It's like I would maybe catch it for a second to say, how do you... The people you're around, the rooms you're in, the... What they're saying, how do you not have massive FOMO without spending hours tinkering and playing? And then if you've looked at the last eight months, what AI stuff are you still using or you're like, man, I gotta stop just diving down all these rabbit holes because, really, it all changes so fast.
[00:03:46] Trent Kitsch: A year ago, I went to the first time to the all in summit and Okay. Royce Hall here in LA. So I listened to the all in podcast pretty much every week to Yeah. Hear what they're thinking. And then one of my friends went this year to the all in summit. And then I've watched all the presentations on YouTube since then. Another example, like, yesterday morning, I watched the Mark Zuckerberg presentation. This morning, I watched the demo day presentation and then the product reveal presentations. And then this morning, I watched the OpenAI dots one because I saw, like, Elon Musk on x, like, making fun of the direct kind of relationship to how closely they look like the grog
[00:04:35] Trent Kitsch: bot icons. But Yep. From my, like, actual fingers in the mix, so to speak, where I'm using AI the most right now is in video generation, and I'm still trying to understand and stay current with video generation. It's really amazing what can be done through complete video generation, but also adapting a photograph. So taking a picture of someone or of a scene and then saying, add this in. I'm doing that a lot more
[00:05:10] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:05:10] Trent Kitsch: Than actually just using AI to do the thing. I'm bridging it or using a mix of it and the real world is what I'm seeing as my most successful use cases right now. And then I'm really just fascinated by the stock market as well and
[00:05:29] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:05:29] Trent Kitsch: The question marks of whether it does do what it's gonna do financially for all these companies. So I'm trying to pay attention to it from a few different angles.
[00:05:41] Dustin Serviss: If you run businesses, you've had businesses on the market, is it just so big and so unknown, it's hard to even quantify if the forecast and the guesses are right? Because you're dealing with humans, and it's so foreign that we don't know. I know. I... I've just had some breakthroughs this week. And so when you start seeing those... And I had them in the the field of art. Like, in what you're saying is that you're doing videos. I'm talking about a podcast land just before you had seven different layers of tech. Now it's just one thing, and you can get what you want, and you can blend things. So it was major unlock. So you... Do we... Do you think we don't know really the capability?
[00:06:25] Dustin Serviss: And so those valuations might not be out out of lunch?
[00:06:30] Trent Kitsch: I just am always fascinated because I I guess Jason talked about on the last pod there, the free or the options from open source and the price difference for, let's say, the same thing or arguably similar models. Again, I'm not an expert at it, but just from a CPG perspective or a business perspective, if you can have the product that can buy in there somewhat interchangeable and one is ten, the price. A lot of customers are gonna be interested in that product. Right? Let's not call it AI or anything. So that, it fascinates me. I'm just curious. That's the interesting to me is to where that actually ends up. And then also I'm fascinated with the wearable
[00:07:21] Trent Kitsch: part of how all of this is going. And, yeah, it's just really front edge or... And it's obviously really special when it can help a person like me create a CPG brand or create a website, for example, in in, honestly, a day or two days if you know what steps need to be done and tech... The things that need to be taken. But is it sacrificing the quality of the product, or is it sacrificing the experience? Those are things that I'm interested in for sure. And then just how does it help you iterate to make the product better, faster? That's something I think is really great for how many months and weeks it took me to create one thing back when I was starting Saks.
[00:08:11] Trent Kitsch: Or now you can accomplish the same thing yourself versus back in the day, I'd might have to have two, three, four people involved in one thing. So I hope it's not taking away the opportunities for people. Hopefully, it's creating more opportunities by just being able to create the product faster and then using those same three or four people, but just in a more expert way further along down the line that is more effective. I'm still working with those three or four people that I would have created or went to, but now I'm going to them with a much more polished thing. So it's... We're still working together, but it's just better and faster right now.
[00:08:56] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. I've... I, cute story on my... So a different company, Arzen Labs website. I've I've... Someone told me, oh, you gotta get Manus. This is nine months ago. And Manus listener is, was Facebook, has a... Is AI. It's free muse. But Manus, you go on, you just create whatever you want. So I was like, oh, why am I paying for hosting for my website? Over here, I'll just create it on Manus. And then it was like, you need to host it somewhere, so you host it on CloudFlare or Fair or what a cloud... It's like a website, but it... You can't manipulate the website like all the other Wix or WordPress. It's like you gotta send code there, which I'm not a coder.
[00:09:35] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Like, this is great. I canceled my subscription on Wix. I drafted up this website to look good. I put it on the... This cloud hosting site, and I went to the website. Like, oh, it works good. And so I canceled my subscription to Manus. I'm like, oh, it's already built. So then I went back to the website. It doesn't work. So now what... How it... Like, the unpacking, you know, for a week and a half, I was building website. I was... Do plug in features and... Because you can do really amazing things. But where my point is, that stuff's great, but still having that designer or still having that person to connect with for that last ten percent
[00:10:14] Dustin Serviss: of, hey. I need this help is so crucial, which if you're curious and experimenting, you're gonna run into that stuff.
[00:10:21] Trent Kitsch: Yeah. Yeah. People should keep on experimenting, keep on trying things, and I wish them all huge successes.
[00:10:30] Dustin Serviss: Thanks, Trent. That was, kind of a tangent, but it's on point. So I reached out to you this time on the theme of sort of this season of the show is on exits. And where it stems from is over the summer, I took a private equity course. To some people, that's a bad word. Other people, it's just capital markets. Oxford University in the UK, it was great. Met lots of great people.
[00:10:53] Trent Kitsch: Awesome.
[00:10:54] Dustin Serviss: But the exit for people Yeah. Is there's a lot going on there, and I wanted to hear it from your mouth of what it's like. And listener, it's episode one thirty. Trent and I had a visit that would be the preshow to this. But maybe, Trent, give us two minutes Yeah. Sort of companies you built and then the exit, and then we'll dive into just that that point in the exit. I do wanna unpack a couple specifics.
[00:11:24] Trent Kitsch: So I started Saks Underwear back in two thousand and seven and created that business from a concept in my brain to the real world and started learning many of the consumer package good lessons on the ground, little lily pads, one thing to the next, so to speak, and went into the stores and sold it to get it into the first store, the two hundredth store, and so on. So I've been in lots of vans. Before I started, I worked for Labatt's there and did my undergrad at ULD in business and my master's in MBA at Richard Ivy School of Business. So that was my precursor to starting my own business. Two thousand and seven, I started Saks, and then found a distributor, like, long story short, and was
[00:12:18] Trent Kitsch: successful in growing the business. They ended up acquiring a majority of the business. I kept the piece, and then, ultimately, I sold my last ten percent a few years ago, maybe five years ago now or so, maybe more. The result of that was a really amazing success and by a byproduct of successful business is the success exit and a value that was significant. And then I created the idea of a DOJA cannabis company, and that was a medical marijuana, federally legal biz in Canada when Canada went legal. This is, like, two thousand sixteen period, two thousand nineteen period. And we were lucky enough to take that company public and have a really unique strategy,
[00:13:13] Trent Kitsch: and we're acquired by Canopy Growth. That was a really great lesson in taking company public, you know, those lessons learned. Then after that, we started Pitch Wines, which was another CPG company, a winery in Kelowna, BC. Learned lots of lessons in that industry as well, and just had a great experience overall. And then I've been able to kind of exit a few businesses along the way and learn lots of lessons about exits. So happy to share any jewels I can while I'm here today.
[00:13:54] Dustin Serviss: I think what's a big mystery is, and in sort of the wealth space that that I've been in previously in, met with clients in, say, businesses that are somewhere between fifty million and, I'll say, three million. So the Okanagan, there'd be a lot of businesses that would fall in there. There would be some under ten, some under twenty.
[00:14:17] Trent Kitsch: Lot of different businesses. Yep.
[00:14:19] Dustin Serviss: Well, and still just a founder. Yeah. So just a founder, they have a business. It's worth twenty three million. And the thought... That's a big business for just the right hand guy or Who knows? Guy off the street. That's
[00:14:33] Trent Kitsch: a big business no matter what.
[00:14:35] Dustin Serviss: Yep. He's gonna buy it. He's not gonna buy it. So then you're gonna have to entertain a third party to come in and buy, which is scary, which it sounds scary when you kinda just, oh, who are these people? There's just so many questions around it. So the goal of this sort of season was to bring some of that d... Demystify who are these people? At the end of the day, there there is a person. There's usually a person, and there's usually a company that has some cash, and they're gonna buy or they use a combination of debt and equity to acquire some or all the business. So for you, do you remember the first conversation you had in in... Whether a distinct conversation in Saks or...
[00:15:19] Dustin Serviss: Those are a little different because you were public. But maybe just the first conversation where somebody that you didn't know approached you and said, I wanna buy your business, and this is how it would look. And maybe not give us a specific On
[00:15:34] Trent Kitsch: my perspective, it usually... When I'm, like, starting a biz, I'm trying to think about the future of who's gonna buy it from the start on the whiteboard in a ideal scenario because that's my philosophy at least. You can create a lot of value if you take something from nothing to something and zero to millions in sales. I think that's a really valuable part of the value chain, let's say. And so from the very start, I'm really trying to think about who am I gonna sell it to in the future. And from the very start, I'm going, it's a company's name or it's in my mind's eye. I'm thinking about it from the start, and I'm usually trying to think about
[00:16:15] Trent Kitsch: it in a three to five year period from the time I start the business. And that's just my philosophy. A lot of other people wanna start a business and run it their entire lives, which is cool. Yeah. But that's just... I've done that too. I've ran businesses for a long time, and I've been in real estate development for decades. So I'm into that too. But I just feel like the most value you can find is just creating something from nothing. It's like infinite. Right? You put zero dollars in or tens of thousands, and you create something worth millions or hundreds of millions. Billions nowadays, a lot of times with these
[00:16:52] Dustin Serviss: Mhmm.
[00:16:52] Trent Kitsch: With g brands too. So let's do that. But, yeah, I think that's something I think of right from the start. And then a lot of entrepreneurs approach me. I'm talking to one right now who wants to do a raise, but they're not really familiar with capital structure. They don't really even know how many shares they have in their company. They don't know about issuing more shares, pre money, post money. The... And I agree. Those are all foreign words or new words that business owners wanna get acquainted with, but they don't have to feel intimidated by. It's really simple if you can break it down and say, okay. You have a hundred shares in your company right now.
[00:17:30] Trent Kitsch: We're gonna do a raise. We're recapitalizing. We're gonna issue more shares. Pro rata, you're gonna have this many shares. You wanna sell ten percent of your company. This is the amount of shares you're gonna have. What was your sales last year? So let's look at private and public comps and get a range for what that says, and then let's talk to the business owner. And what do they feel like it's worth of where this is triangulating on an area now? So those are the the steps that I usually walk an entrepreneur through to feel about what is the... That number. And then what a lot of entrepreneurs do, I think, is they do another raise or they do another raise trying in the future to
[00:18:16] Trent Kitsch: get rich or trying in the future to sell the business without recognizing that every time they do a raise, there's new expectations and mathematical requirements for them to get the same amount of money as they would have just sold the business today. So I think that's a mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make is that they try to do a number of raises or infinite raises when maybe they should just sell the business at whatever stage they feel like is their skill set or their desired outcome. Or then, like you said, on the public side, that's another entirely different animal because if you don't own more than fifty percent of your shares in a public company or
[00:19:03] Trent Kitsch: the management somehow controls fifty percent, be it other co founders or super voting shares or something like that, then you're always for sale. You're essentially always available for sale. And so every day the market is telling you what your company's worth, and then you apply your average market premium to that. And then that'll say, approximately, to acquire company x, it's a hundred million dollars. And in the industry, it's about fifteen percent acquisition premium right now. The price today of that company is approximately one fifteen. I think if I was approaching a business owner who had a three million, fifty million dollar asset anywhere, if it's the open Oregon or
[00:19:46] Trent Kitsch: Los Angeles, I would send them to an arm blank business valuation company, people that I trust. And then if it's a larger company, you know, we're talking about maybe investment banking firm or, like, a larger bank, things like that to get, independent fairness opinion. But, ultimately, as a business is only worth what someone's willing to pay for it, so that's important. And then understanding terms as well, if it's a private business, are you getting paid out today? Stick around as a manager for a certain period. A lot of details to iron out. It's probably one of the biggest opportunities there is in the market today.
[00:20:34] Dustin Serviss: Is exit. Or is there's there's appetite for it.
[00:20:37] Trent Kitsch: Such is succession. Is the Yeah. Vacancy of succession. Mhmm. There's there's a lot of good small and medium sized businesses that are not selling or are not even going up for sale as well.
[00:20:54] Dustin Serviss: Part of that is that I just did the last episode was deep on seller psychology and the stuff that's going on and a lot of self sabotage stuff. But in your... Like, in listener, I'm kind of holding my hands up like a three bubbles, like a Venn diagram. You got three circles.
[00:21:08] Trent Kitsch: Yeah.
[00:21:09] Dustin Serviss: And in each circle, there's you, there's your business, and there's the market. In a perfect world, the market's hot, your business is hot, and you are in the right stage of life, and you have this little thing in the middle. And often, I think that's what people have envisioned is going to be their exit, Where some people you'll approach and they'll say, hey. Like, your sector is so hot right now. And they'll say, yeah. But I'm only forty eight. It's like, I know your retirement plan you thought you were gonna retire at sixty, but right now, you would get double or triple. They're like, yeah. I could make that in the next few years. But what you what you said kinda made me think of this.
[00:21:51] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. In your worlds, did you ever have to make a compromise on one of those three things? Either your business
[00:21:59] Trent Kitsch: Like, what you're describing is what I describe when I do public speaking is this combination of people think their business is worth a dollar. It's worth this much money. But, actually, your business is worth a third of whatever your business is, a third of timing. Right? What is... What you spoke to, the industry happening around you, And then a third of luck, which I would put in the category of things that have happened to me would be equal in that category of lucky, but also that can happen. So if you can combine those three things at one time, that's the best case scenario that I've ever seen. And then I think a big mistake entrepreneurs make is they
[00:22:42] Trent Kitsch: think their business is worth a dollar when really it's worth thirty three cents. The other stuff is actually worth more if you get it right.
[00:22:51] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. For sure. We... I'll use it levers. There's a bunch of different levers in any deal. And you mentioned real estate, same thing. You kinda look at your levers. If you're the buyer, you'd have these levers and then the seller, it's basically the opposite. So you're trying to
[00:23:03] Trent Kitsch: We're seeing it we're seeing it in... We would say today, a lot of trades are unfortunately going negative because of what's happened, whether it's in the office market or in the residential market. But, yeah, timing timing is business, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. And then anybody who's looking to do exits to the psychology of exits, you should definitely have a period on it. It's the same as raising money. You can get very distracted as a business owner or as a capital alligator raiser by, just being unlimited. If you wanna sell your company, try to have a mandate that you're gonna try to do it for this period, ninety to a hundred days or something.
[00:23:47] Trent Kitsch: Or if you're gonna do a raise, you're trying to have it closed by x. And here's my schedule. I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs make those mistakes too. And if you can, I've always had great advisers every time I've ever put a business up for sale or sold a business. So I... From the jump, I've always had a great account. Kevin Santos from Grant or... And Grant Thornton has been really great for a long time.
[00:24:16] Dustin Serviss: I've dealt with him for a long time too on multiple files. That's funny you said it. I didn't know it. Yeah.
[00:24:22] Trent Kitsch: And then another guy, Ben Vandergrat, who's a lawyer who I've worked with for a long time. And I think that's important as well. You wanna have advisors who are there and advising you the whole time, not too late or too early to do that.
[00:24:41] Dustin Serviss: Did you have... So in the capital markets, m and a, what do you wanna call it? Private equity, there's financial advice for companies. And so did you have somebody probably in the DOJA one because that was quite a bit bigger than Saks, if I'm
[00:24:57] Trent Kitsch: not mistaken. But it's like
[00:24:59] Dustin Serviss: that had more moving parts. Did you have a team that was outside sort of accountant lawyer that was like, hey. These are the negotiating things that you're going to do, or this is what you need to make sure you have dialed in because this is what the buyer is going to ask you for, and it needs to look good. Can you talk about any of that stuff?
[00:25:20] Trent Kitsch: Yeah. Yeah. The arms length fairness opinion was part of the real part for the public company things. For sure, that'd be, like, giving me appraisal, so to speak, to get down finance in a real estate deal. And then at that level, we have a board. There's number of people who have to agree, and so that was also part and parcel of it.
[00:25:45] Dustin Serviss: So You're not just selling Ria, your wife, that this is a good idea. You gotta sell a whole bunch of other people that, hey, this is, this is the right move.
[00:25:52] Trent Kitsch: Yeah. There's a a lot of people involved for sure. And a lot of great people on the team inside too, people that I'd worked with. But, I think you can't not surround yourself with enough great people. The more people that get take on it, that's the best for you. And then nowadays, I basically run everything through Gemini as well. Yeah. For another example, I ran an advisory agreement through Gemini this morning. Rule points out a bunch of things, and then I still send it to my advisors, but I'm like, here's the first take. Yeah. So I'm still sending it to those guys, but I'm mostly putting it up on the tee for them to look at it through their expert lens,
[00:26:34] Trent Kitsch: saving them a lot of time.
[00:26:36] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Is there any stories where you went through, I don't wanna say, hoarding with a buyer and then didn't move through and had to kinda digest that as... I'm not asking about the specifics of the deal. I'm more asking about what you felt.
[00:26:52] Trent Kitsch: I think it's I think it's somehow prequalifying them as serious. If it's, like, real estate, for example, do they even have the money to close? I've dealt with that numerous times where people imply they have the money to close and they flex like they do, and then they then go out and try to raise the money, and you get pitch of them trying to raise money on your land in your inbox from friends of people who are like, hey. So I think that happens a lot. And then in business side of things that I think people miss the opportunity to double check their people they're doing business with through their advisors. So you can check out if the company is legit pretty quickly, who
[00:27:35] Trent Kitsch: they're doing their banking with, who's their lawyers, who's their advisers. And then, hopefully, you have colleagues or people who can double check if everything's on the up and up. So lots of transactions that I've been involved with were because different investment bank relationships had different relationships with the company, or different board members had different S
[00:28:13] Dustin Serviss: Saks or DOJA, was... Is there any specific one that was better or worse in any sort of way?
[00:28:20] Trent Kitsch: I think the thing entrepreneurs miss is, like, it's supposed to be such a great time, but also it's really mentally taxing. So it can be physically draining, or it can be really stressful time as well. So just try to stay nourished. Just the old, like, face fundamental advice of trying to not get, distracted, stay focused on the important ones, be cautious of last minute changes or switches, stay on your ground, stay,
[00:28:53] Dustin Serviss: Do you ever fear making the wrong mistake or making a mistake?
[00:28:58] Trent Kitsch: Yeah. Definitely. I think that we're all nervous of that, but I think you try to just make the best decision you can in the time that you have it. Obviously, try to leave some meat on the bone for the other party. I have general philosophies or some principles that I use or have used. That would be another one. Trying to understand the transaction from the other party side. Do I sell this for two million bucks, or do I sell it for one point eight seven five times many times, or do I sell zero at two million? So you have to figure that out. Like, I'm always talking to the customer. How does my math fit into their math to sell on to whoever or to provide our combined service?
[00:29:50] Trent Kitsch: So, yeah, I'm very much an an advocate of trying to understand the b to b wholesale side of things.
[00:29:57] Dustin Serviss: You stay... You stayed on with both of those things after the major transactions happened.
[00:30:04] Trent Kitsch: Right? Yeah. For a period of time as... And that's great as well. I always like to learn from these new people and other experts, let's say. But then also, I'm always interested in what's happening in the news and things like that. So I'm just always curious and ready to act on the new idea. That's the
[00:30:28] Dustin Serviss: But you got more money in your bank account, but does your decision process change now when you look at opportunities than it did when you're with Saks? Or do you have the same sort of, I'm getting this right. I'm not screwing this up. Or do you have a little bit more leeway where you're like, this might My criteria is very similar. The way I'd evaluate ideas is
[00:30:45] Trent Kitsch: really similar, but now The way I'd evaluate ideas is really similar, but now I have a lot of other great entrepreneurs or people who I can double check it with, what they think about it. I'll do that a lot. I've got some great mentors. I still definitely double check with and talk to all of them, but really, I'm prioritizing being a dad, prioritizing being a husband, and helping other entrepreneurs and championing my own business right now again. But I I will do that, or I will be the wind under the wings of Britain's family, the next generation. I'm doing a lot of that. I'm helping out people. So that's where I'm at right now, but I definitely still have a lot
[00:31:31] Trent Kitsch: of ideas. What I need more is people who are, like, operators, executors.
[00:31:36] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:31:36] Trent Kitsch: They're in in the future. I see myself more be involved in venture studio, launching some more brands and some more companies, but that's just in the development stage right now.
[00:31:52] Dustin Serviss: Do you find still that you have a lot of ambition? Or... Because you mentioned a couple things where it's... You're going to more acts of service. And as of Wayne Dyer is the guy that I've read his stuff and power of intention, and he's got a book called the shift where it talks about as people get older, you have ambition, ego, and kind of drives a lot of stuff
[00:32:16] Trent Kitsch: said, but then it changes. Yeah.
[00:32:17] Dustin Serviss: Then... So then all of a sudden, you know, yeah, you start going, why? Like, you you wake up and you're kinda like, why do I need this crazy car? I enjoy cars. And you kind of... Then then, like, it has a long tail. Like, it kinda like Yeah. Still have, like, you still have No. I agree.
[00:32:32] Trent Kitsch: Hundred percent. I agree. Hundred percent.
[00:32:33] Dustin Serviss: Maybe it's also
[00:32:34] Trent Kitsch: part of, like, getting a little older too. Like, I'm not that old necessarily, but I'll be forty seven in a couple months. And I think it's priorities for sure. Priorities make decisions really easy. Right? If you know where you wanna go or you know what's important to you and work backwards from those things, life and decisions are really easy to make. And then I have worked really hard to get to the spot I am, and I've definitely taken a lot of risk. And then also, like I said earlier, had been lucky along the way and a few times. So I feel like I'm in a great spot, but, yeah, you're totally right. My ambitions have changed. I'm just... The the jar of ambition is just as full, but the name on the
[00:33:21] Trent Kitsch: front has definitely changed and, you know, rubbed off a few times. We're in the twenties. It would have been only, like, the word of a business on there, or there's times in my life where that was the most important thing, a hundred percent. Yeah. But, yeah, my ambition is still huge, but I'm trying to allocate it differently.
[00:33:42] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. For sure. Is there any, enclosed... You're... You mentioned, so the all in podcast, that's Jason Casales. And, it's... They're pretty tech, but a very good panel of sort of four speakers on different things. What are you most excited about right now? Whatever pops in your head, could be investments, could be No. There's been stuff that
[00:34:03] Trent Kitsch: I listened to the Joseph Carlson show. He's a Hey.
[00:34:07] Dustin Serviss: What's this, Travis? I don't know him.
[00:34:08] Trent Kitsch: He's a guy who just has his portfolio, out there. This is what I'm investing in, and he kinda gets his thesis. I like that type of messaging. And then I love all the people who are helping people. I love watching those shows. I think it's incredible to see people making other people's lives better. So I love watching all those variety people. And then locally, obviously, I'm trumpeting our buddy, Dan Martel, and Okay. Yeah. The things he's doing, create experiences and the founder's site and that stuff. It's amazing. So, yeah, I just... I'm trying to also pay attention to what's going on. El Segundo right beside me is an incredible place for innovation.
[00:34:54] Trent Kitsch: I just I just took a trip up to Sloan Ford for a baseball camp for my son. I'd never been there before. And just walking around Palo Alto is so inspiring. And It's a Yeah. Going into computer science hall of fame and going to the Hewlett Packard garage and I'm just that, like, I'm in Yeah. I'm the kind of a nerd about founders and history. And so that stuff's really inspiring. And I think we're in a really interesting, inspiring time right now. If I was myself in my twenties or someone out there trying to start their first business, what a cool time to do it.
[00:35:33] Dustin Serviss: Well, You could build... There's, like, a guy that did his... Whether you love GLP business or not, but it was, like, a a billion dollar business, and it's him and his brother-in-law or somebody. It's a website. It's, like, all built on AI and different use cases.
[00:35:47] Trent Kitsch: Just respect all your experience in investing and entrepreneurship, and great that you're spreading knowledge and bringing together your community to help others, man.
[00:35:57] Dustin Serviss: It takes people like you. So thanks for coming on again. I'll be always... Hopefully, we don't take three years for the
[00:36:03] Trent Kitsch: next one. No. No problem.
[00:36:06] Dustin Serviss: I really enjoyed the chat, Trent.
[00:36:08] Trent Kitsch: Thank you, man. Thank you so much, and we'll be back in in one or less.
[00:36:13] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Talk soon.
[00:36:15] Trent Kitsch: Okay.