Latest / The Empire of Wealth / I Interviewed a US Shark Tank Judge And Didn_t Expect This
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: All right, guys, we're ready to go.
- 0:02Speaker 2: This is Daniel Labetsky.
- 0:04Speaker 3: He's best known for being a shark on Shark Tank,
- 0:06as well as building a company and selling it for
- 0:09over $ 5 billion.
- 0:09Speaker 4: And this is why I've come to Texas.
- 0:11Speaker 3: I wanna understand how he has built such a big
- 0:14company without trading off what's truly valuable to you. Stick
- 0:17around because I didn't realize that Daniel had the plan
- 0:20to turn me into a full-blown Texan.
- 0:23Speaker 5: Hi guys, I'm Daniel Lubetzky, a shark on the US
- 0:26version of Shark Tank.
- 0:27Speaker 3: And I'm Davey Fogarty, a shark on the Australian version
- 0:29of Shark Tank.
- 0:30Speaker 2: What are we doing today?
- 0:31Speaker 1: We're going to turn Davey into an authentic Texan.
- 0:33Speaker 5: Oh, no. And the danger is that it's going to
- 0:35be a Mexican, Texican, confused Mexican, Texan Jew, trying to
- 0:39turn this Australian into a Texan.
- 0:40Speaker 2: But let's see if we pull it off. Let's do it.
- 0:42Have you been here before?
- 0:43Speaker 1: I actually have not been to this store.
- 0:45Speaker 2: It's awesome.
- 0:45Speaker 4: Is this like the authentic Texan experience?
- 0:47Speaker 1: This is probably the iconic.
- 0:49Speaker 4: It's an enormous store.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Yeah. You tell me what to do. You know what
- 0:52they say, right?
- 0:53Speaker 1: Big foot, big shoe. Big feet, big socks. Big feet,
- 0:57big socks.
- 0:57Speaker 5: You know, there's a lot of similarities between Australians and Texans.
- 1:00They're both very down to earth. They're both kind of
- 1:03like chill and live and let live and very adventurous.
- 1:07Speaker 4: What brought you to Texas?
- 1:08Speaker 1: What brought me to Texas?
- 1:08Speaker 5: My dad was born in Riga, Latvia. He was a
- 1:12Holocaust survivor. He was in a concentration camp. liberated by
- 1:16American soldiers. After recuperating and being in a refugee camp,
- 1:19he ended up in Mexico, so he couldn't get anywhere else.
- 1:21And he and my grandfather slowly but surely started building
- 1:25a small business, a jewelry shop, and it grew and
- 1:28it grew and it grew, and eventually they partnered with
- 1:29others and built duty-free shops on the border.
- 1:32Speaker 2: Between Mexico and the United States. And we came to
- 1:35be closer to their business.
- 1:36Speaker 3: So was your dad one of the main inspirations for
- 1:39you getting into business?
- 1:40Speaker 1: No doubt, Mike, one of the main inspirations for everything.
- 1:42Speaker 5: Not just getting into business, but always looking at people's
- 1:45eyes and treating every human being with kindness and respect.
- 1:47In spite of what he went through, he kind of
- 1:49was just like a super positive guy treating everybody with
- 1:53love and humanity. And yes, very successful business plan, but
- 1:56above all, just an incredible human being.
- 1:58Speaker 4: Man, those are insane.
- 1:59Speaker 2: Where did you get those? A friend of mine gave
- 2:02them to me for my birthday many years ago.
- 2:04Speaker 5: As a kid, I was a magician, so they made
- 2:06it the great houdani.
- 2:07Speaker 2: This is the heart of the magician, Empatico, one of the.
- 2:10Speaker 4: You start off as a magician and then- As an
- 2:12eight year old, as an eight year old. Dude, that's incredible.
- 2:14Rule of thumb- Oh my God, that's way too tight.
- 2:18I'm solved. Okay, that's elephant skin.
- 2:23Speaker 2: Is that illegal?
- 2:25Speaker 4: What's not passable by Texans?
- 2:28Speaker 3: How do you instantly spot a tourist?
- 2:29Speaker 4: I would say get the jeans over the top of
- 2:32the boots.
- 2:33Speaker 3: That right there, 100% separates you from the mask.
- 2:37Speaker 2: Texan, Australian.
- 2:38Speaker 1: Texan, Australian.
- 2:40Speaker 2: Gorgeous.
- 2:40Speaker 3: Happy?
- 2:41Speaker 2: Sweet. Good stuff.
- 2:43Speaker 6: What do.
- 2:45Speaker 1: You think, baby? You like it? Or you can always
- 2:52support this one, David.
- 2:53Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
- 2:53Speaker 5: It'll take more money than it's available in the universe
- 2:57for you to.
- 2:57Speaker 1: Get me this. Or you'll lose all your audience. All right, guys.
- 3:00Speaker 2: We're ready to go. Let's go.
- 3:02Speaker 1: We're ready to go.
- 3:03Speaker 2: Let's check out. You like it?
- 3:06Speaker 1: You want to start a trend?
- 3:07Speaker 6: I'm good.
- 3:08Speaker 2: Do you want to start a trend together?
- 3:09Speaker 1: I'm good, but you're good.
- 3:12Speaker 4: That is an eight, yeah.
- 3:14Speaker 6: Love it.
- 3:15Speaker 4: Looks really good. Looks great.
- 3:18Speaker 2: We're just having fun.
- 3:19Speaker 5: Yeah, really.
- 3:20Speaker 1: We were just kidding, guys. We were just kidding. This
- 3:22is not real. Yes!
- 3:25Speaker 6: How are you?
- 3:26Speaker 4: Who's your favorite shark? Who's your favorite shark?
- 3:30Speaker 1: Bravo!
- 3:33Speaker 2: It's $ 5, is that okay? With Dave, it's only $ 6.
- 3:36Speaker 1: It's only $ 1.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Ready?
- 3:39Speaker 1: One, two, three.
- 3:40Speaker 5: Wait, shouldn't I change before you change?
- 3:47Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
- 3:48Speaker 1: I think that's awesome.
- 3:49Speaker 2: What do you think?
- 3:51Speaker 1: Yes or not?
- 3:52Speaker 2: She did not.
- 3:54Speaker 1: No, the first one.
- 3:55Speaker 5: See, it's kind of like Harry Potter. The hat chooses you.
- 3:58He's really, really smart, so his head is gigantic.
- 4:01Speaker 2: Yeah, about 59 centimeters.
- 4:03Speaker 1: So, right above.
- 4:05Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
- 4:07Speaker 1: Now you're talking. Oh, my God.
- 4:10Speaker 2: Sir, do you know what you're doing?
- 4:13Speaker 6: I do, every day.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Look at that. Look at that. Baby, give us a yeehaw.
- 4:16Speaker 6: Yeehaw.
- 4:18Speaker 1: Conor, do you want him to have these like that?
- 4:20You can.
- 4:21Speaker 4: I have some jeans that do that. Usually if I'm
- 4:23gonna do that, I'll have it be like one. Thank God,
- 4:26that could have been embarrassing.
- 4:28Speaker 2: Feels good.
- 4:30Speaker 1: I feel like a new man.
- 4:31Speaker 3: I feel authentically Texas. It doesn't help when people laugh
- 4:34at me, but that's okay. We're gonna go rodeo now.
- 4:38Speaker 1: You're always at a Texan heart.
- 4:39Speaker 4: Let's go.
- 4:41Speaker 3: Having Daniel run around the store with his underwear over
- 4:43his jeans wasn't something that I would have expected when
- 4:46meeting a billionaire, but what interested me was his attitude
- 4:49towards his success. Daniel is incredibly mission-driven, which is what
- 4:52I want to unpack next, because this could change how
- 4:55I look at companies long-term. So tell me the story
- 4:58about how you came up with Kindbar.
- 5:00Speaker 5: So prior to Kind and right after law school, I
- 5:03had started a company called Peaceworks, where for 10 years
- 5:06I was using business as a force for bringing neighbors
- 5:09in conflict regions together. Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Turks, trading
- 5:13with one another. Use business as a force to cement relationships,
- 5:16help people discover each other's humanity. It was very cool,
- 5:19but I was making all the mistakes in the world.
- 5:2110 years of one step forward, two steps back, barely
- 5:25making ends meet. I had a Stanford Law School education.
- 5:27I was paying myself a $ 24, 000 salary.
- 5:30Speaker 1: Waking up at 7 a.m. in the morning to go
- 5:32door by door, knock on the door.
- 5:33Speaker 4: So it was purely philanthropic?
- 5:34Speaker 1: No, no, no.
- 5:35Speaker 2: It was a business with a social mission.
- 5:36Speaker 5: What I coined the term And not only for profit,
- 5:40a business, but with a social mission, not only for profit.
- 5:42Speaker 3: And you just recently sold Kind Bar. How did that feel?
- 5:46And can you run me through how much it was
- 5:48as well?
- 5:48Speaker 2: It was a lot.
- 5:50Speaker 4: And it starts with a B, doesn't it?
- 5:51Speaker 2: It starts with many Bs. Many Bs.
- 5:54Speaker 1: But I didn't do it for the money, right? Like,
- 5:56it's not that I did care about the money. I'm a.
- 5:58Speaker 5: passionate, enlightened capitalist. I really do believe that market forces
- 6:02can help us create value. But there was a bigger purpose, right?
- 6:06I wanted to honor my father. You know, the reason
- 6:08we called it kind is because of my dad, because
- 6:12he was in the Holocaust. He was in a concentration camp.
- 6:15He was 15 and a half years old. He was
- 6:18close to six feet tall and he weighed 70 pounds.
- 6:21So he was almost less than human. And yet he
- 6:24always remembered that he survived because of the kindness of others.
- 6:28He always remembered it was thanks to other people's kindness
- 6:31that he survived. So we named the company Kind after him.
- 6:34Speaker 2: He passed away that year.
- 6:35Speaker 1: The year that we.
- 6:36Speaker 5: Conceived Kind is such a dark year for me and
- 6:39in some ways also one of the brightest years.
- 6:41Speaker 1: It's so weird to explain that. I almost didn't launch Kind.
- 6:45Speaker 2: I lost my dad.
- 6:48Speaker 5: And then all of a sudden, I grew so much
- 6:50internally by meditating and thinking about my father, by thinking,
- 6:54what example would he want me to do for the world?
- 6:57And all of a sudden, things started coming together. I
- 6:59can't even explain it. And then you became a multi-billion
- 7:02dollar company within years. And to your question about, well,
- 7:05how does it feel to sell your baby?
- 7:07Speaker 2: It's very hard.
- 7:08Speaker 5: Because Kind was not just a business enterprise. It's a
- 7:10mission to bring kindness to the world, to people. Do
- 7:13the kind thing for others, one snack and one act
- 7:16at a time. For an entrepreneur, that journey is very
- 7:19difficult to, you know, recognize that your baby is meant
- 7:22to graduate from college, go on, marry somebody else. I
- 7:24don't know what analogy to use, but you still want
- 7:27to be involved in their life. But, you know, they're independent.
- 7:30Speaker 1: They're now independent. They need to make their own way.
- 7:33Speaker 5: Now that we're dressed like Texans, we need to eat
- 7:36like Texans or Mexican Texans, because this is real, my
- 7:39favorite Mexican food in Austin and in Texas, and some
- 7:42of my favorite tacos.
- 7:44Speaker 2: This is Reyna, one of the co-founders.
- 7:45Speaker 5: We're very excited to be with you.
- 7:47Speaker 4: So tell me the story about your first restaurant.
- 7:49Speaker 6: Well, we started in 2008. My sister and I, we
- 7:53started small in a food trailer, 8 by 10, selling
- 7:56snow corn, smoothies, aguas frescas. And then after 17 years,
- 8:02we have eight locations. Almost 10.
- 8:06Speaker 4: Why 8 to 10? Are you opening two at once?
- 8:09Speaker 6: We have a great team now that we can open
- 8:12more than one location a year.
- 8:14Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
- 8:15Speaker 6: Like we have a system and we have the tools
- 8:18to do that now after 17 years.
- 8:21Speaker 5: For me, it's the same thing with people. If I
- 8:23found a person that's like a 10, like a... off
- 8:26the charts person, I tell my team let's hire them
- 8:29even if we haven't found the position. Because such a
- 8:31rare exceptional person or such a rare exceptional location, opportunity,
- 8:35sometimes you need to stretch. And vice versa, sometimes you
- 8:37need to be patient and bide your time till the
- 8:40opportunity presents itself and not open in the wrong location.
- 8:43Speaker 6: Exactly, yeah.
- 8:49Speaker 1: And then we have the mole.
- 8:51Speaker 2: Oh, mole is really good. You're going to have to
- 8:53try it.
- 8:54Speaker 5: Mole is a Mexican sauce that has like 100 ingredients,
- 8:58including chocolate, spices. What?
- 9:00Speaker 2: It's really good.
- 9:01Speaker 1: Rich, nutty flavor.
- 9:06Speaker 2: That sauce is so good.
- 9:07Speaker 4: What's not to love? Cheese, meat, good.
- 9:10Speaker 3: After eating some authentic Mexican Texan food, Daniel had one
- 9:13last test to see if I had really transformed into
- 9:15a Texan.
- 9:16Speaker 5: All right, now that we've dressed like Texans and eaten
- 9:18like Mexican Texans, we're going to put this to the
- 9:21test and see if David can fool some people and
- 9:24answer some questions.
- 9:26Speaker 2: Let's see how he does.
- 9:27Speaker 4: Let's do it, y'all.
- 9:27Speaker 1: I think we might be here for a long time.
- 9:29Speaker 4: Who would come up to someone who's the size of this?
- 9:32Speaker 1: They're like, this is our serial killer. So ask this
- 9:34Texan any question you want.
- 9:36Speaker 2: Why cowboy?
- 9:38Speaker 4: Why cowboy outfit? Yeah, why cowboy? This is just how
- 9:40I was born.
- 9:42Speaker 5: So you're born on a ranch?
- 9:43Speaker 4: Rodeo and BBQ-ing.
- 9:45Speaker 6: Baby what?
- 9:45Speaker 1: BBQ-ing?
- 9:46Speaker 3: No.
- 9:47Speaker 1: Barbecue. Barbecue-ing. I was like, BBQ-ing?
- 9:50Speaker 2: Do you believe he's a Texan?
- 9:51Speaker 1: I don't think so. You can't even fool a French woman.
- 9:57Speaker 3: So we decided instead to answer some business questions and
- 10:00save me from the embarrassment of trying to do a
- 10:02Texan accent.
- 10:03Speaker 2: What's that brand, sorry?
- 10:04Speaker 4: It's called Credamore. It's a medical scrub company.
- 10:06Speaker 2: Oh, awesome.
- 10:07Speaker 4: So similar to Fix, is it?
- 10:08Speaker 6: Yeah, so they're one of our competitors.
- 10:10Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, awesome.
- 10:10Speaker 4: So do you think more people purchase apparel companies on...
- 10:15Facebook versus Instagram versus TikTok? Facebook is always number one.
- 10:18Always number one.
- 10:19Speaker 3: I think a lot of it is the key of
- 10:21like understanding where your competitive landscape is. And are you
- 10:24differentiating through product? Are you differentiating through acquisition strategy? Like
- 10:27one of my friend's brands, he's gonna do 700 million
- 10:31this year.
- 10:31Speaker 4: He's selling a hoodie. His name's Comfort Hoodies.
- 10:33Speaker 3: And he had similar products to other people in the market.
- 10:37It did differentiate through product, like it was an amazing
- 10:39quality product and slightly weighted, but he's number one on
- 10:41TikTok shops.
- 10:42Speaker 4: And that's because.
- 10:42Speaker 3: Nobody that was selling that product was on TikTok shop.
- 10:45So you've got a huge competitor, which you do, that's
- 10:48dominating Facebook. They're just going to ramp the CPMs up.
- 10:51I'll try to innovate through a different channel.
- 10:53Speaker 1: Man, I really am enjoying this. This is like, I'm
- 10:55going to send some business your way.
- 10:57Speaker 4: I have a question, but one more for another.
- 10:59Speaker 3: Regarding email marketing, what is the best tactics as far
- 11:02as the frequency of emails going out? Yeah. It really
- 11:05depends on your brand values. For us, we're quite aggressive
- 11:09with emails. We'll send as much as we can, trying
- 11:11to balance the churn rate while maximizing revenue. For someone
- 11:14that's really trying to be a stylish, beautiful brand, spamming
- 11:17people doesn't align with your brand value.
- 11:19Speaker 4: So you need to play the longer game. You need
- 11:21to know that a dollar.
- 11:21Speaker 3: Today means less in four years simply because that brand.
- 11:26Speaker 5: When I was building Kind, I always was obsessing about
- 11:29not turning off the consumer because I was very long-term oriented.
- 11:33It never crossed my mind that there might be justification
- 11:36in increasing that value. And it's really beautiful the way
- 11:38you answered. It depends on what your brand stands for.
- 11:41If your brand is a hustle brand and consumers don't
- 11:44care or whatever, as long as you understand your value set,
- 11:47then you might have very different strategies.
- 11:49Speaker 1: I really like that point.
- 11:51Speaker 3: So I have this clip that went viral, and it
- 11:53was me walking on stage in school. And I can't
- 11:56remember it, but I said, when I grow up, I
- 11:59want to be a billionaire. And the teachers said it
- 12:01in front of the whole class. And heaps of people
- 12:03laughed at me. I've got to ask, is becoming a
- 12:06billionaire worth it?
- 12:07Speaker 5: I never set out to become a billionaire. I've always
- 12:10wanted financial success. I love business.
- 12:12Speaker 1: I love using.
- 12:14Speaker 2: Market forces to make a difference.
- 12:15Speaker 1: But for me.
- 12:17Speaker 5: What drives me is trying to make this a better
- 12:19world than the way we found it. And that can
- 12:21be through business, by generating jobs, but it can also
- 12:25be through civic change, by building bridges. Or in my
- 12:28ideal worlds, when you combine them and you're able to
- 12:30do good and do well at the same time. That
- 12:32for me is what's given me the more firepower to
- 12:35stay with it and gives me the most meaning. To
- 12:37your point, you and I were having that conversation about
- 12:39once you make made a ton of money, they're like, OK.
- 12:42Speaker 1: Now what?
- 12:43Speaker 5: And if you're just doing it for the money, I
- 12:45think you eventually run out of steam.
- 12:48Speaker 1: You have to do it for deeper reasons, like to
- 12:50help people.
- 12:51Speaker 5: Out, to bring kindness or love to this world, to
- 12:55elevate people, to create something that has not been created.
- 12:58Something that's very special about entrepreneurs. is that we try
- 13:02to create solutions that didn't exist right there try to
- 13:05perfect the mouse trap do something better than others were
- 13:07doing and thereby contribute so solving puzzles is is what
- 13:12drives me so.
- 13:13Speaker 3: You have a lot more money than most people but
- 13:15you don't really spend it you're driving a standard car
- 13:18of what i've heard you are pretty down to earth
- 13:21in terms of your spending what's the most crazy thing
- 13:24you've purchased and why don't you spend as much money
- 13:26as you First.
- 13:27Speaker 5: Of all, most people who would see my lifestyle would
- 13:30think that I I have a pretty good lifestyle.
- 13:33Speaker 1: But yes, I don't feel the need to burn the
- 13:36money for.
- 13:37Speaker 2: A few reasons.
- 13:37Speaker 5: First of all, I have four children and I really
- 13:40want them to learn to live within means because otherwise
- 13:43I'm going to curse them when they're growing up. I
- 13:45do whatever I want to do and I enjoy life.
- 13:47But what gives me the most pleasure is trying to
- 13:50forge change in society. So our foundation, our civic work,
- 13:54probably 20 to 1 in terms of what we spend
- 13:57every Because it's what gives me meaning.
- 13:59Speaker 1: I love magic.
- 14:00Speaker 5: So where I splurge is buying magic tricks.
- 14:04Speaker 1: And magic, history of magic stuff. It's just a lot
- 14:08of fun for me.
- 14:08Speaker 4: What's the most elaborate magic thing you've bought?
- 14:10Speaker 5: I have one book kept in our safe in our
- 14:13bank that is Houdini's book signed by him. And I
- 14:17have a first edition of the history of witchcraft that
- 14:20talks about magic.
- 14:22Speaker 4: That's so cool.
- 14:22Speaker 3: Well, mate, you made me want to do a startup
- 14:25with a purpose and move to Texas.
- 14:28Speaker 2: So pink mission accomplished. I would love for you to
- 14:30go to Texas.
- 14:31Speaker 1: Love it. I was so impressed when you were talking
- 14:34about social media. That was insane. You beat every one
- 14:37of my fellow American sharks. I'm going to reach out
- 14:41to you when we have opportunity.
- 14:42Speaker 2: To work with you.
- 14:43Speaker 1: I look forward to it. That was insane. That was
- 14:44really a masterclass.
- 14:45Speaker 2: Thanks, mate.
- 14:46Speaker 4: Appreciate it.
- 14:49Speaker 3: First impression was this guy's crazy because he was running
- 14:52around the store handing out kind bars. But then you
- 14:55kind of clearly see just how caring he actually is
- 14:58as a person and I think This has actually been
- 15:01really common, probably opposite to what everyone would think. Entrepreneurs
- 15:05that are also on TV, they have this really good
- 15:09balance between understanding that people are everything and being able
- 15:13to lead people, inspire people, but then also being able
- 15:16to entertain people and tell stories and whatnot. And I
- 15:19think Daniel is definitely one of those people. They're not arrogant.
- 15:23They're not like, I've got so much money, look at me.
- 15:25They're just more into being present, and excited with everything
- 15:31that they have, which is including their fame.
- 15:33Speaker 4: I think there's two main takeaways.
- 15:34Speaker 3: The first is if you do something that you love
- 15:37so much, you'll never give up. And it sounds like
- 15:39he's just gone through so much hardship, but because he
- 15:42loves it so much, he was able to push through
- 15:44in one of the most competitive spaces and have a
- 15:46multi-billion dollar exit. The second takeaway is just how lucky
- 15:50young entrepreneurs are that there's people like Daniel that will
- 15:53take them under the wing for the day and just
- 15:55teach them everything and talk to them about their experiences
- 15:58and whatnot. So a lot of people look at what
- 16:00I've achieved. I am 30 years old. Like, I am
- 16:03literally getting started. I've been successful for maybe four years,
- 16:06depending on what your definition of success is. He's double
- 16:10my age. And for them to actually be able to
- 16:13impart wisdom over just a day or even over... you know,
- 16:19a friendship is really just one of the biggest hacks
- 16:21in business. You cannot have a high ego when you're
- 16:24meeting these people and you'll.
- 16:25Speaker 4: Just learn so much and go so much further.
- 16:28Speaker 3: A billion is just a number. It's just, it's not
- 16:30something that I strive for. I have other friends that are,
- 16:33you know, have worth hundreds of millions and they're grinding
- 16:36so hard. They're putting their health at risk. They're spending
- 16:39less time with their family all to get that B
- 16:42in front of how much money they have.
- 16:44Speaker 4: And I just, I don't get it.
- 16:45Speaker 3: I would much rather achieve something like Daniel's done, where
- 16:48the billionaire was the byproduct of doing something that you
- 16:51really care about, but not sacrificing the rest of the
- 16:53pillars of your life.
- 16:56Speaker 1: Hi, Daniel. Are you a professional?
- 16:58Speaker 6: 59 inch head, baby.
- 16:59Speaker 1: Does that make you feel proud?
- 17:00Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 17:00Speaker 2: What's yours?
- 17:01Speaker 3: Six.