Guy Reams (00:00.098)
All right, welcome. here with the founders journey and we're interviewing today, Christina Carl, who's the CEO of Edify and Steve Walsh, who is also an angel investor. Christina, it's great to have you on the show today. Why don't you give us a brief introduction to yourself and to Edify? Thanks for having me, Guy. You know, it's always a great opportunity when we get to talk about what we're building, right? So thanks for the platform. Well,
Edify started actually because when we were in the Philippines, my co -founder and I, Vanessa, realized that there was really this need for a way for us to help the current people who are looking for opportunities to go abroad within the hospitality industry. But there was still this gap, you know, from university to industry. And so we were providing that training. At first, it was just providing the path.
pathway and then we started to create online modules and such and training. And of course, when the pandemic hit, there was no more travel and that created a whole different set of challenges for us. And our clients, then universities, asked us to provide a solution. And that's when we ended up with Edify and it really became our mission to bridge the gap in hospitality training.
and focus to provide those opportunities for immigrants, new American learners. And little by little it evolved and before we knew it, we had VR modules and an AI powered platform that was goals based. And now here we are, fresh off of our funding ground and ready to grow. So that's a little bit about how we started and where we're at now.
That's great. Well, I want to dig into a little bit about a couple of things you said, but before we do so, I'd like to introduce Steve. Steve, obviously you seem to have been an investor for a while now. You actually have your own thing you call Hands on Angel. saw your website. So I'd like to hear a little bit about you. Obviously we want to get into how you met Christina. I'm sure you're part of the her initial fundraising round. So why don't you introduce yourself, Steve? Great. Thanks for having me.
Guy Reams (02:22.03)
guy. yeah, I've been doing this going on almost seven years, I like to call myself a recovering operator turned angel investor and entrepreneur. I had a 25 year career mostly in the US broadband and telecom space. I helped a couple of companies that everybody loves to hate and Cox and Comcast start B2B divisions from scratch and grew them into multi billions of dollars in both cases. So that was fun. Left about seven years ago, and I really had
a passion for helping early stage founders sort of helping that next generation of founders grow and build companies. And I wanted to get exposure or more exposure to alternative assets like startups. And because I was a pretty patient investor, I had a very long term thesis. And what I realized pretty quickly was, you know, old dudes know a lot of crap and a lot of people. And that could be pretty valuable to early stage funders and founders because they need connections, they need funding.
but they also need at times business guidance from someone that maybe has done it before or built companies or built enterprise sales organizations. So that's what I started doing. And I started with this thesis of do no harm and see how helpful I can be. And I started to write small checks into early stage companies and areas that I knew about or cared about. And that included B2B SaaS, FinTech, because I know how money moves, EdTech, my dad was a principal for 35 years. So right in Christina's spot.
And over the last six years, I've built a company called Hands on Angel, which is an early stage ecosystem for founders. I help them raise money, work in their pitch deck, introduce investors, and I invest in them as well. And over the last six years, I've backed 66 companies. Those 66 companies, 35 of them have gotten to series A, eight of them have exited in some form or fashion, public, get aqua hired. And those 66 companies have raised over a billion dollars combined.
extremely proud to say my friend Christina here is one of my portfolio companies. I'm in her current round, helped her raise around. And to your question about how I met Christina, I was extremely fortunate about a year and a half ago, a mutual friend of ours, Sid Rao at the Capital Factory out of Austin, Texas, which is where Christina lives when she's not in the Philippines, called me and said, Hey, I do deal flow with with that team. And he said, I have everything you love. I go, what do I love? He goes, I have a immigrant
Guy Reams (04:41.442)
female founder, badass building an awesome company in Ed Tech. She's got traction, she's profitable. She kills it. and she went to Yale. She's the three time restaurant, exited founder. like, okay, what's the, and he showed me the revenue and everything. And I'm like, okay, what's the problem? He goes, she doesn't know how to raise money. She's never done it before. And I think you'd love her if you met her and I think you can help her. And that's how we got connected. And one thing led to another.
And I fell in love with what Christina was building. And more importantly, the team she was building and how hard she works and how humble she is and how smart she is. And about a third of my portfolio is actually founders that look like Christina. They don't look like me. They're not middle -aged white dudes. They might be immigrants. They could be female founders. And what I realized pretty quickly, Guy, and you know this from being an angel investor, founders that look like Christina, no matter how good they are and how smart they are and how great their company is, just have a harder time raising capital.
which I think is ridiculous. So I've made it part of my mission to give access to those founders. So that's how we met. That's how I got here. And it's truly been a blessing to get to know Christina, her family and the unbelievable company she's building at Edify. She's humble in how she describes it. It is one of those companies that, you don't know it till you see it. But when you see it, you're like, holy crap, well, I saw it and it looks like Edify. That's great.
Sounds like you and I have a similar background in that I was an executive for a while and then I decided to try my hand at helping out early stage companies. EdTech is all... Isn't this so much more fun? it is. It is a blast. It really is. And here's my problem. I, like you said, older guys know a lot and we could add a lot of value. My problem is that sometimes I add too much.
Like I can't keep my mouth shut. I like, like you don't know where to stop. Like you just start giving advice and giving ideas and ideas. And maybe sometimes it's just too much, right? I don't know if you have that same experience, but that's my problem. You can ask my founder here that that question. I have a big mouth. I'll tell you for me, it's really important to get founders who are coachable and coachable doesn't mean they do anything that I say.
Guy Reams (07:00.558)
It means that they're open to other ideas and they're willing this to learn. I really look for founders like that. Like Christina is incredibly capable and incredibly smart. She doesn't need my help, but she wants it because she thinks that it can help Edify go faster. And that's really why we click. I look for founders that not just need my help, but are open to new ideas. Cause that's really what I think someone like you and I guy can bring to the table is just here's 10 things you tell me which ones apply to Edify and we'll go execute on.
You know, that has been a reoccurring theme in our last few interviews we've done. The reoccurring theme is that a lot of angel investors, the number one attribute they're looking for is an element of humility, willing to listen, willing to learn, willing to grow, willing to take risks, but seek encouragement along the way. That seems to be a pretty reoccurring thing. So Christina, tell us about your
So you had a little bit of background in the food and beverage and the hospitality industry. So Christina, you have a little bit of background in, it seems like, think you went to the Institute of Culinary Education or something like that. So you, and then you went and worked in hospitality. So what, where did you make the leap from working in hospitality to deciding to go do something to try to improve it? Well,
to take you back to the start of that, you could imagine that when I graduated and told my parents, I'm going to go cook, know, graduating from Yale was the peak of their excitement for me. And they thought, well, we've set her up for success. And then now I'm saying, I'm going to go cook in New York and some of those kitchens. was just, you know, they were devastated, but they soon realized my passion for it. You know, and I spent the better part of a year
washing dishes really, you know, when I started. And I really started to learn from the bottom up. And part of that was understanding who made up the heart of the industry. And that's people that look like me, immigrants, new American learners, people looking for a new start, a leg up in America, in the industry. But I always saw this sort of recurring theme of either
Guy Reams (09:23.246)
people not knowing how to sort of carve out a career in the industry, or people just getting stuck in one position. Either they're forgotten or they just don't have the ability to use the training that's being given. They don't know where to look for it, that sort of thing. So as I worked my way through the industry, as I became a leader, I met my husband who's also in the industry, because if you work in the industry,
that's probably the only people that you meet. And when we started a family, we ended up thinking, well, we should go back to the Philippines. Maybe it'll be easier. We'll have a little bit of help. That was a little bit after I went into remission and recovered from a bout of cancer as well. So it just seemed like the right thing to do. So we came back here to the Philippines and immediately we decided that we open up three restaurants somehow.
And in two years, we opened up three restaurants. That was definitely not easier. But it was quite the ride and definitely a wonderful education, right? But we got to see up close the people who made up the industry and how it kind of evolves from the nexus, right, from the Philippines. And these are the people who end up going to America, for example, in the programs that we had administrated while we were in those hotels.
And that's how sort of the idea of Edify started. And we started to see, we can really make a difference here. We can really affect change and start to make a difference in how people take that leap, right? Not getting stuck in one position, actually becoming a leader, figuring out their own path in the industry.
maybe even taking the skills that are most important from the industry, right? Those soft skills, people skills and using it to help them forge their own path. So that's really at that point where we were able to sell the restaurants. We were very lucky right before about 2018. And that's when that decision was really made. Hey, it's time to really start on this path of helping. So.
Guy Reams (11:48.866)
That's where the story starts of Edify. Seems like the Edify is a reflection of your experience. Like what would you have needed to have gotten into this faster or gotten a quicker step into the hospitality business? Absolutely. So many times where I found myself sort of held back maybe because I didn't know who to turn to.
I wasn't as proactive as I should have been. But then as I became a leader and understanding my own experiences, I also felt that I didn't have enough tools. I didn't have the time. know, the industry suffers perennially from not having enough people, right? And so everyone's just overstretched constantly. So we're basically building one, what we wished we had.
Our whole team, a lot of us are from hospitality, but two, what we constantly hear from our customers and what they need. And as Steve said, when we first met, we were already profitable, but that's why, because we always led with what do the customers need? Let's build that, right? Because we couldn't not, we had to make things that would generate revenue from the very beginning. And so that's sort of how we've
built from day one. You know, I've heard this more than once, and I'm not a bet beyond this myself. Your opinion of what mom and dad thought of your career choice, has that improved now? Because I've heard this more than once, by the way. You're not the only one to say that. Like, I decided to go do this, and mom and dad were freaking out. And by the way, that's the same thing that happened in my life, too. So there's no difference here.
Is mom and dad like looking at you with a little bit more pride now or? You know, they're Asian parents, so. That's like a forever life long thing, but you know, we've kind of gotten through that. They understand a little more about what I'm building. Of course, trying to explain what I'm doing now is probably even more challenging, right? With all the with all the tech that's that's buried into what we're
Guy Reams (14:13.39)
So I think that part makes it a little more fun, the conversation certainly. What exactly is it? How does that happen? But for sure, them seeing the evolution, right, of the business, of the team, how it's all grown, that definitely gives them pride. But I think also the biggest thing where
they really see it as the change that they see of people that go through it, right? Of course, they go through the Facebook and the Instagram and such. And when they see those stories come to life and they know those lives, right? They grew up around that. They see it every day. So that's really where I think they start to say, that's really cool. you got involved in the Capital Foundry. I want to make the connection to Steve.
So Christina, how did you get involved with the Capital Factory in Austin? Walk us through that. What got you there? What got you introduced there? know, just like everything else, a series of combination of luck inside. I moved to Austin after the pandemic because my husband was offered a job there in hospitality and.
I saw this thing called Austin Startup Week. It happened to be at the Capital Factory. I now know that it's because they're the ones that put it together. I was standing at the lunch line on the day where I chose to go on a day where it was all about women founders and web three and all of that. So it was super interesting. I was standing on the lunch line waiting for my turn and
A really nice lady came up and said, hey, what do you do? And I explained it, we got to talking and she said, well, can we connect on LinkedIn? And it was quite busy. It was hard to really concentrate, so we did connect. And a week later, she called me up and she said, by the way, I'm a venture associate here at Capital Factory. We'd love to get your deck and talk about getting you to be part of our portfolio.
Guy Reams (16:31.854)
That was really at a time when we were just trying to create these modules and trying to figure out how we could serve as many people as possible. It may not have 100 % dawned on us that we had a startup on our hands at that point yet, but she certainly saw the potential. She was the first person that saw the potential. And it really went from there. That was October.
We got to talking by the time it was South by Southwest the next year. We were part of the portfolio, part of some of the programming that they put together. So it happened really quickly. And I started to learn about fundraising and the mechanics of it and how that really works and accelerators. And Sid was one of the people that was part of the
the venture team that helped founders fundraise. And really at that time, we were very ill -prepared for it. We didn't have, we needed to know, learn the ABCs of fundraising. We didn't have the mise en place to get something that was off the, to get something off the ground that would be successful. But Sid stepped in, started introducing us. And then one of the introductions was with Steve.
Like he says, we hit it off pretty quickly. That was May. Every year I come up during the summer to the Philippines, because obviously we have a large team here. I was here. He started introducing me to all these people, one of which was Courtney Levy, is the MD of Techstars Boston. Before I knew it, we were part of Techstars Boston, and it just kind of went from there, right?
It was really fast. It was such a fast transition from realizing, are we going to do this? we a startup? gosh, yeah, that's, yep, we are. That's what we did. then Steve helped, like, how do we put this together? And having that kind of partner who was just so confident and understood what we needed and didn't take it against us that we
Guy Reams (18:53.784)
didn't know enough about the process and just just did that. We were operators, right? That's what we know. We know our business. But there are so many other things to learn outside of that, right? To be successful and to put yourself in a place where you're giving yourself the best chances to win. that's how we started. So Steve, walk us through.
Obviously, your network is part of, you have this network of deal flow kind of angel firms that you've been involved with. so obviously Capital Factory is one of them. So walk us through the first impression, the connection with Christina. She's obviously not even knowing if she's gonna do this for real, which by the way, I've heard this story more than one time. They're just kind of kicking the tires, not quite sure.
And then suddenly they're involved in an angel network and then there they go. So walk us through that first impression. we just, were having a conversation and about her business and it was right. was transitioning from this consulting business to these modules and customers. And when you meet a founder like Christina, who I think at times undersells what she's done and the accomplishments. When I get to sort of the traction, I was expecting.
I see you got a couple of MVPs got a couple maybe a custom beta customers, maybe university or two, some students. Let's just walk through that. And she's like, Yeah, I think we just passed five. And I'm like, five, what five students 50500. She's like, no, think 5000. And then she and Vanessa Sarcovich, like, Vanessa, did we just pass 5000 students? Like, I'm sorry, did you say 5000? She's like, Yeah. And I'm like, how many university partners you have one or two? She's like,
think we're up to and at the time it was like 25. I go I'm sorry, you have 25 universities. I'm like, okay, I go, what and this was, it's 2024. So this was 20. This was like the May of May, April, May of 23. I'm like, what are you what are you gonna do? What'd you do in revenue last year? She's like last year and six 700 ,000. I'm like, what? I'm like, what are you gonna do this year? She's like, I don't know million million and a half. I'm like, any chance to be profitable is like, we've been profitable since day one. I'm like,
Guy Reams (21:08.398)
Who are you? Like, this isn't what you normally see at this founder that's like, yeah, we might have a startup here. Maybe we'll raise money. I'm like, are you shitting me? I'd love to have, like, can you go talk to 20 other founders I'm mentoring right now that don't understand that having a path to profitability might be important someday? And that's how it all started. And, you know, the Techstar story Christina told, which she didn't know at the time. So I'm a mentor in residence with Techstars in Boston. Kurti, who's the managing director, is a good friend of mine.
This the fall cohort was closed. We had already done all the interviews and there's thousands of applicants and we had chosen our 12 companies that were going to be in the fall cohort. So like the top 1 % gets chosen. But I had started to work with Christina and I was with at a cocktail reception for Kerti and I said, look, I know the cohorts chosen, but I have this founder that I've been spending time with and I just think she's really special. And even if you don't let her in, I would just love you to talk to her because I think your eyes are just going to open up wide.
She goes, I'll talk to her tomorrow. So she does a call with Christina the next day. Kurti calls me and goes, the cohorts closed. I don't care. I'm putting her in. Like she has to be in this cohort. that, it was like a holy crap moment. She's like, she's unbelievable, Steve. And I go, I told you. so like, and it's one of those things you just, it was the combination of her background, her experience, but really the grit of just building a product people want, understanding how to make it profitable, how to grind. she,
This is the round we're closing right now is the first money she's ever raised. Company's three and a half years old. Like she's never raised money prior to now. And I think founders miss that. Like they think that, hey, I'm building my MVP. The company's like two months old. Let's go raise money before they have anything. Christina did it the other way. And when you ask her why she's like, well, where I come from, you build real companies with real revenue before you ever ask strangers for money. That's just the right way to do it. And I just think there's such a lesson there.
for founders nowadays about how to build. I just, especially nowadays, Guy, where founders are having to have more traction than ever to raise money, I think her model is the model that wins right now and not the model of, have no paying customers, we don't know our revenue model and we're raising two on 20. So I have to, I want to stop there because I think I want to pause there and just double click on this because this is a theme that's coming up a lot.
Guy Reams (23:34.252)
And I think you're exactly right. When an angel or a VC looks at a company that's already bringing in revenue before they ever go to fundraise, they're already demonstrating revenue. They're already demonstrating some level of profitability. They've proven they can go get checks from customers. There's a stamp of approval. There's an amount of credibility there that's above and beyond anything you can put on a slide deck. mean, founders are always worried. I don't know if you were nervous about this, Christina.
But founders are always worried about what are people going to think of my idea? Are they going to be like, this is just stupid? mean, they're always a little bit worried about how my idea is going to land when I show it to people. But I can tell you this, if the idea is producing money, then it's going to land well, generally. Nine times out of 10, if it's producing money, it's going to land well.
Right. I mean, what were your thoughts, Christina? Were you nervous the first time you had to give that pitch to Steve? What was going through your mind? You know, the first thing is by the time I spoke to Steve, I had spoken to a whole bunch of people. Right. And the funny thing about having traction sometimes is that people are like, you're too late. We want day one investments. Right. Or sometimes there's also some mixed messages.
You know, we want to invest early, but also what's your attraction? Right. And so I think parsing that out, that was the important part of learning from Steve. What does that mean really? Right. Sometimes the feedback that we're getting, we really need to learn how to take it apart and understand it and then use it, you know, to grow and figure out what our next steps are.
because sometimes you're just not ready, right? Maybe it's truly not the time or sometimes I had to learn as well how to present our ideas so that it made a little more sense to people because it does have a lot of moving parts, right? We've obviously evolved the business and so that was a challenge for us and wrapping that into a story that made sense that people could connect with and could see sort of
Guy Reams (25:55.88)
what we were after and what we were building from a foundation that started in a completely different area, right? So it was always really interesting to see what people thought, but I'm an immigrant, I'm a girl. And I've learned that not everyone's going to like what I'm going to say or what I think. And that's okay. You know, there's something to learn from that too.
Right? If someone gives feedback, I try to make sure that I take something from every conversation. And even if it is a positive conversation where someone's saying, hey, this is great, I try to really pick that apart and think about, you know, how could it have been better? How can I make sure that I'm making a better connection and helping people kind of understand it more? you know, I think it's just that.
making sure that you're trying to get something out of every conversation, right? Because a lot of people truly, if you're working with people like Steve, who really want to help people, their network is filled with people who just want to help founders, right? And whether or not someone invests in you, that's another story, right? That's thesis, timing, do you fit in with their portfolio?
Is there someone so another one that's too much like you? So you know that's something else completely, but. One thing that you can control is making sure that you do take something out of every conversation and give when when you obviously can. It's hard when when you're just starting, but as you start moving along, you know, being able to give us well has been great. What I've noticed Steve and Christina is that.
A lot of early founders, especially people that have never been involved in this before, think that there's a way to do things. They think that there's a recipe or a formula to follow. To use your cooking analogy, Christina, they think there's a way to do it. And then they get what you referred to as mixed messages because what they learn is there is no way. It's very loose. There's no guaranteed path. There's no...
Guy Reams (28:17.868)
You go from A to Z. It's never that way. It's never elegant. It's never clean. It's never, it's never a clean path. so you do get mixed messages. What, what some people miss confused as what some people confuse as mixed messages are actually just negotiation tactics. Because honestly, investors are looking to negotiate oftentimes to get into a better position. And sometimes early stage founders will misread that as.
different advice. And so it's just always confusing. Steve, have you detected this type of thing? I mean, what have been your advice to people like Christine? Yeah, I think there's two things. One is I think the industry as a whole needs more transparency. I think one of the things that Christina and I are aligned on is that there isn't anything I can't say to her. Nothing. Good, bad or indifferent. I can give her good feedback. Like there isn't anything I can't say to her and she won't take offense. I think there and one of the things I get from my founders that they really like about me
is that I don't tell them their deck's good when it's not. I don't tell them they're doing a good job when they're not. I don't tell them they should raise more when they shouldn't. In fact, a lot of times I'm telling them the opposite. I'm telling them we need to redo the deck. We need to extend runway. We need to have a path to profitability, which is counter to what the industry tells them, Guy, which is money's all green. Take as much as you can. Extend runway as far as you can. And I just think that's the wrong guidance. I don't think that's in the founder's best interest.
So I think we need more transparency like that. And the other is where I think I have worked with Christina to help is you got to find your tribe. She and I talk about this all the time. You have to find your people. And I think the one thing that I've tried to do consciously with Christina is always put her in front of people where the first 30 minutes were not going to be her trying to validate that she can do this as a woman. Like that's just a waste of her time. So I put her in front of people that are going to look at her as a founder and a great founder.
and not so much, look at the interesting immigrant that can maybe build a company. They're gonna look at her as an awesome founder who's incredibly intelligent, who's building a world -class company. So you gotta find your tribe. And sometimes that's different funds that have a thesis like our mutual friend, Hot and his friends at CrossOcean, back immigrant founders. Maybe it's someone like a Gangell's, which is the largest underrepresented founder fund in the world who I've done a ton of business with. Could be folks like the Capital Factory.
Guy Reams (30:41.986)
Whoever, but you gotta find your tribe. I think for a founder like Christina, the hard thing is not everybody is as transparent about what they like and what they don't like, because they're afraid of offending everybody. I would just rather you tell me that you don't like to back first time founders or immigrant founders or female founders. Just tell me, I'm a big kid, I can take it. Because we're just gonna go find the people that can. We're gonna go find our tribe. So I think that's something that Christina and I have consciously worked at.
is we just want people in the boat that get what she does and get who she is, and we have no time for anything else. I've thought a lot about this concept of, is the angel or early stage VC community, I don't know if they're necessarily against female founders or immigrant founders. I think it's the ideas are always different and it's just new to them. They're not, when you come at the, Christina, your idea is different. mean, I'm not saying.
This is a different area, but it took somebody coming from your background to understand this problem at a level that nobody else would have understood. So the problem I think is not necessarily a bias against immigrant founders. I think it's a bias against ideas that are just different than what they're used to thinking about. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know, but that's been my impression. Has it been hard to communicate a different new idea like this to...
To investors, Christine, have you found it's been hard to get the, to help them understand the problem? I think sometimes, but that's both ways, right? In my journey of pitching, there are definitely days where I could do better. That's just the truth of it, right? I mean, sometimes it's just, I'm just not communicating as well as I know I should be. And sometimes.
It's learning from that and moving forward, right? And figuring it out for the next time. The challenges and I think the pressure of making sure that you're making the most out of every conversation sometimes adds to that. So you've got to be able to put that aside. And that's something that I had to do, tell myself early on in the process is.
Guy Reams (33:01.824)
As Steve always says, you've just got to be yourself. No one knows it better than you do. Make sure that you get that across and then the rest will fall into place. Because again, I think every novel idea, right? Sometimes it just sounds so out of this world until the founder does enough with it that you're saying, wow, yeah, okay, this is a great idea. So everything that
kind of is industry shifting, industry changing, or you're creating a whole new industry for yourself, then it's always going to sound a little bit crazy and different and difficult. But I guess that's the job of a founder, right? That's to make sure that you're communicating well, that that's your job, to be able to make sure people understand what you're doing, and then to believe in it.
as much as you do. But as what Steve said, I think is pretty important. Just because one group or one person doesn't click with you doesn't mean that there's not a whole tribe of people out there that will click with you. You just got to find them. So really it's not about, I think it's an exercise in communicating your idea clearly, but it's also an exercise of finding the people that you'll gel with.
And I wouldn't accept one closed door as a final conclusion on the viability of your product. It's really finding the right people that will listen. sure. mean, yeah, that's a good point. All too often founders underestimate how hard this is. Christina is a great example. So Christina, ridiculous revenue growth.
profitable doesn't need to raise this money is raising it to go faster and grow. Christina, keep me honest, the rounds taken seven months and probably we're over 200 conversations at this point. And she's the exception guy. She has more traction, more revenue, more profitability than anyone I've ever seen in the last six years. And it's hard for her. So if it's hard for her, imagine that founder that doesn't have her traction isn't profitable, doesn't have a product in mind, like founders are like,
Guy Reams (35:28.886)
Wow, it's gonna take like six months to do this and hundreds of conversations. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, here's my friend Christina, go ask her how hard this has been. And she went through one of the best accelerators in the world in tech stars. She had the power of tech stars behind her and it's still been this hard. I think founders dramatically underestimate how hard this is, which is why everybody can't do it. You're exactly right. I think that even with all of the positive signs,
you're really talking to other people. And so you're trying to establish rapport and trust with people. And when you're taking somebody who, as you described, Steve, is different than those people, it takes a while to build trust. And that trust building, I mean, how long does it take to build a friendship?
I mean, I can tell that you and Christina would be considered friends at this point. I mean, you trust each other, right? But how long does it take for trust to build? I mean, sometimes we just have this unhealthy attitude about how much you should trust somebody. I mean, at what point do you just decide, I'm going to trust somebody, I'm going to give them a bunch of money, or I'm going to trust somebody, I'm going to listen to everything they say and follow their advice. I mean, at what point do you decide, yes, I do trust this person? I mean, that takes time.
It just takes energy. takes effort. I'm in a relationship with my wife that took 27 years to build. That was a long effort. This didn't happen overnight. We have this weird attitude when it comes to fundraising that we expect to walk in with the Cinderella story and some VC firm give us a bunch of money overnight. This is just not a reality that I've ever seen happen. Christina, the group that's leading Christina's round, Christina, what are we on probably?
five months and would you say 20 to 25 conversations with them? for sure. mean, the relationship actually started at demo day in December, where one of the members saw our demo day pitch and, you know, conversation kept evolving from there. So definitely a long, you know, runway to where we got to. But
Guy Reams (37:46.606)
I mean, if you think about it, it should be hard, right? On both sides. You want to make sure that you're getting investors that make sense for you and your company. And investors should feel comfortable with you. As a founder, you want that. Otherwise, that relationship could really make an impact that you don't want in your company, you know, as the future comes, right? And things kind of unfold because
It's tough. Building a company is tough. Building a startup where things are faster, more as expected is even tougher. So just as building a startup is tough, know, raising money, shouldn't really be a surprise. Sometimes for sure it gets frustrating because, you know, for me, that became my full -time job, right? And I was lucky because I've got a really great team.
and a really great co -founder who said, go focus on that and we'll focus on operations. So I was spoiled. Not everyone has that luxury, but it truly is a full -time job that takes everything inside of you to get through it, right? But at the end of the day, I don't think I ever expected it to be easy, but definitely had sort of
the peaks and valleys that maybe some are higher than I thought and some lower than I thought, know, as things always turn out to be, but very akin to building a startup. I think we've kind of concluded that this is a process and it takes time to build relationships and to, because honestly, the relationship you have with your early investors is going to be very important to your success, right? I mean, it just is.
So we heard Steve talk about the attributes of a founder, openness, humility, willingness to learn grit. Christina, obviously one of the attributes I'm getting from Steve just right off the gate is his openness and transparency, his willingness to tell you what you may not want to hear. Are there any other attributes that you thought were really good and the people that have invested in your company early on? Well, I've got ex -founders, right? So people who are curious.
Guy Reams (40:13.504)
open to new ideas and willing to take a risk, right? mean, founders obviously have this slant towards being able to take more risk on and gritting that through, right? So putting all of those attributes together. So having ex founders is a really great thing as early investors, because a lot of times it's not just
pushing through those tough times, but it's about embracing the messiness and the unpredictability of that journey. So having ex -founders is very helpful because they can kind of help you through that. But not only that, they also understand and expect it as well. So being able to go through that and still find a way to learn from all of that.
laugh at it half the time, you know, and get back up those really key attributes that are very helpful in early investors in your company. So Steve, the audience for this podcast is primarily going to be early stage founders that are looking to understand more about this world so they can go ask for money. So what advice would you give
that Christina did well, advice that you would give to early stage founders looking to connect with people like yourself. I think be patient, because this is a journey that's a long one, the journey on average, if I look at my head exits, it's five to 10 years. So be patient with yourself, with your employees, with your investors. You said it earlier, guy, be humble. Have humility that you probably, even though you might have gone to Yale and had 20 years in the industry.
You may not know everything about everything and that's okay. You're not supposed to and have the humility to be able to raise your hand and ask for help. I think those are the two things. You know, I say it all the time. The reason my company is called Hands on Angel is I'm not looking to be dumb money. I'm not looking to write a check and walk away from the founder. And I tell every founder that I invest in my goal in life is to make you wildly successful. So if you're not up for that and you're not up for me asking questions and finding
Guy Reams (42:37.09)
how many introductions I can make to the point where you almost say no mass, I'm good, then don't take my money. Don't take my money because I'm not that kind of investor. I have a fiduciary responsibility to myself and to my family whose money I took to invest in your company to make you widely successful. So we're aligned. So when you win, I win. And I think that would be my guidance to anybody that's thinking about going down this journey. That's great. Christina, we'll wrap up with the final word about Edify. Obviously,
both you and Steve are equally invested in Edify success. I understand a little bit about the value proposition in terms of the person wanting to understand and learn the hospitality business so they can work in it. But maybe you can walk me through what the value is from a company's perspective. What would a company get from utilizing Edify? What value would they get out of your product? Absolutely. So...
for our company to use our platform, that means that the hotel now has an evergreen pipeline of talent that has purposefully looked for a career in the industry, right? Because a lot of times it's second, third and fourth jobs, but no, this talent is some people looking for a career in this industry, trained in this industry. But also on the other side of that, a way for them
to continue to support this talent by figuring out what the goals are of the people that are in their company and giving them the ability to get more training, pairing them up with mentors, giving them the tools they need to really advance and grow. Training is really hard to do in the industry, right? It's expensive. It takes a lot of time.
In an industry where the turnover rate is 300 % and it has the highest quit rate of any industry, that training becomes a gargantuan task that just is really difficult. So we're giving an option here and a solution that is flexible on demand and really personalized to each employee, which really up to now couldn't be done, right?
Guy Reams (44:58.254)
because of the number of people who work in the industry. If you think about it, there are 300 million people in the industry. It's the second largest by industry. having the ability to do it flexibly anytime, anywhere, doing it in a personalized way and making it so that it can also understand in the different languages of
everyone who's in the industry, Those are ways that companies can really use our platform to help them retain the talent that they need so badly and continue to help them grow the careers that they're looking for in the industry. Are you seeing that the VR headsets are actually providing a practical reality for hands -on training that works? For sure.
As we've seen it in university students, for example, the schools are reporting a lot higher retention rates and just the efficacy and efficiency of being able to do it in headset has been a game changer for a lot of these universities. Being able to train catastrophic scenarios
emergency scenarios, fire, earthquake drills, that sort of thing. That's really difficult to do in person. So being able to recreate those scenarios and constantly train and retrain, that's the only way you're actually going to be good at responding to it when it happens, right? You can read about it and do a one day training on it every quarter or once a year even.
But unless you're constantly training it and it becomes muscle memory, you're not really going to be as confident when it happens. So this is a really great way to do it as well. So we've seen really great response from the users that we've had using the headset. Wow, great. Well, that sounds like exciting. I haven't seen too many effective practical applications of VR headsets. It's nice to hear that you found one.
Guy Reams (47:22.234)
Well, hey, it's been great talking to you too, Christina. It's wonderful to meet you. Sounds like you're on the path to success. I really hope this continues to be successful for you. I know there's a real big need for companies to have a better training outlet, especially for hiring people from overseas. So that's great. Steve, wonderful to meet you as well. Appreciate the time today. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you for being on today. so much for time. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Founder's Journey.
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