I Turned Down a Job That Would Have Made Me $50 Million
I Turned Down a Job That Would Have Made Me $50 Million. In this interview, serial entrepreneur Rom Lakritz shares the story of turning down a co-CEO role at an early-stage startup that is now pre-IPO—a decision that cost him a potential $50 million payday. He discusses the psychology behind making such decisions, why he believes integrity is more important than honesty, and the differences between bootstrapping and raising $15 million in venture capital. Rom reveals when it's appropriate to hide problems from your investors, how to manage investor expectations, and how to know when it's time to shut your company down. Drawing from his experience starting businesses since age 12, Rom offers insights on the agony of selling your "baby," how to react to market chaos, and his personal evolution as a CEO learning self-control. This conversation provides a rare glimpse into the mind of a seasoned entrepreneur who prioritizes principles over profit.
Guest
Rom Lakritz
CEO & Co-founder, Anchor
Chapters
Full Transcript
Sean Weisbrot: So this is an interview with Rom Lakritz. And today we're gonna be talking a little bit more about. Your psychology with how you started companies, run, companies, how you think about yourself and, and how you've evolved through all of that. So why don't you tell everyone just a little about yourself in case they haven't seen number 96 yet, and that way, uh, we can go from there.
Rom Lakritz: First of all, I encourage everyone to go to, uh, um, uh, chapter 96 and, and, and hear. The basis of of building a startup. Um, I've been an entrepreneur for over 10 years. Uh, I've done, uh, a few companies. I, uh, I got, uh, the chance to, uh, be acquired, uh, for one of these companies. I took a company public to the main market, to the London Stock Exchange, and I also have another, uh, company running today. Uh, each one in a different industry. Uh, in a different role. So I've seen a lot and have, uh, a lot of angles on this journey, and I'm happy to participate.
Sean Weisbrot: All right. Thank you very much. So your current business is anchor.
Rom Lakritz: Exactly. So today I'm, uh, I'm the CEO of anchor. Anchor is automating billing and collection for small businesses, um, you know, hassle free on time payments, just like software gets paid. That's actually one of the, uh, types of pitches that, that we have. I'm also on the board of a company called Omics, developing new antibiotics against resistant bacteria, which I founded with my partners in, uh, 2013.
Sean Weisbrot: Okay. So what made you wanna be an entrepreneur?
Rom Lakritz: So, so this, this, uh, episode, if I take it seriously, is something that if you take an entrepreneur throughout his journey, changes every. I'll say couple of periods, um, couple of years, couple of months. You learn things every day. I was born to be an entrepreneur. Uh, I guess I, I opened my first business when I was, uh, 12 year, 12 years old. I bought flowers, um, made them into bouquets and sent French to sell them, uh, uh, across the, the town I was growing up. And then I did something very similar with, uh, babysitting. I, I moved house to house. I found the houses that, um, you. Girlfriends of mine to do that babysitting. I was, uh, 14 and then I've done parties and, um, always tried to solve problems and, um, and, um, um, build things. So I, I dunno if it was a decision or something that just, you know, drives me towards like, like, uh, um, someone that serves waves or someone that wants to manage a lot of people, um, each one feels calling in a, in a different way.
Sean Weisbrot: Is anyone in your family an entrepreneur? That may have been like a reason how you kind of saw, oh, this is something that we can do.
Rom Lakritz: Um, so both of my brothers are entrepreneurs, each one with his own, uh, project. Uh, my father was actually in the, uh, um, military for a long time. And, uh, but he has the entrepreneurial spirit. Um, and, and also, uh, my mother, but I guess that everybody knows that in Israel, uh, being. And that's just the way, like we, we, we live in the culture here and it grows in the army and throughout our life's journey.
Sean Weisbrot: So of all of the businesses you've done so far, which one have you been the most excited about and why? So,
Rom Lakritz: um, okay, that's a, that's a good question. Um, it's a good question. Um, I think that, uh, um. The company that I'm most excited about is, is Anchor. Um, it's solving a pain that I had, um, as, as a, as a business owner. Um, and I really see the, the amount of value that we can bring to people and, and really help and, and make a dent on how, um. So if the first pitch is, you know, let them pay just like they pay the software. The second is that there were three generations of documents. There was Document 1.0 that's paper document 2.0 that's DocuSign, that the document is, um, is digital, but document 3.0 is anchor. It's an actual online document. It's not really a document. And then once you do that, that, that, um, online agreement, it's live it. Derive so much value out of it that, um, that the potential is, it's just, it's, it's just enormous. Um, I will say that the second runner up is, is omics. Where, where we're, you know, saving lives and, uh, actually tackling, um, um. Bacteria that today kills 50% of the people that, um, it touches. It has a hundred percent resistance. So, so it's a, it's a hard fight.
Sean Weisbrot: Well, it would make sense that the things you're most passionate about are the things that you're doing right now.
Rom Lakritz: Yeah. That, that, that's also true. If, if we wanna say, if we wanna talk, uh, psychology.
Sean Weisbrot: So normally in these interviews, I ask people. To mention what their current revenue is from the company that they're running. In your case, I feel like I don't need to ask that because you have a company that's gone public and you've sold a few companies, so I'm sure that they've done over a million dollars a year in revenue in order to be capable of doing that. Um, is anchor at a point where it's already crossed a million dollars a year in revenue?
Rom Lakritz: No. So we've not yet. We're on the way. Um, we're still, um, not still, but we're building it in a way that, um, that's more mature. Then, uh, then, I dunno, first timer or se second time, we wanna build this cookie cutter, uh, from day one and not, you know, reach a million dollars and then raise more funds in order to build the, the, the cookie cutter and the repeatable business. We're trying to do it from the beginning. Um, so we're concentrating not only on, on reaching the, the, the million dollar mark, but also building in such a. Explode exponentially once we get there and it'll be part of the explosion. And not Prior to the explosion,
Sean Weisbrot: you mentioned raising more money. So did you already get outside investment for this company? For Anchor?
Rom Lakritz: Yes. Yeah, of course. Uh, for Anchor we raised $15 million up to date.
Sean Weisbrot: I'll, I'll, I've spoken to a number of entrepreneurs who always insist on bootstrapping their businesses, but I also hear of investors. Uh, I also hear entrepreneurs that say. Why put my own money into it when I can get other people to put their money in and I can just spend their money to grow the company. What was your thought process for that, for anchor? Because I, I have people that refuse investor money and I have people who like investor money, so I'm curious where your head is there.
Rom Lakritz: Okay. So, so it's, it's really, um, it's really a strategic, uh, question. Um, I think that what we're trying to do here is super big. Um, but it's based a lot of on on common sense and, and, you know, knowledge that you, um, that we, uh, understood from the past couple of years. For me, when we started Anchor, I funded the company for the past, for the first, I guess, 12 to 18 months, uh, before we raised funds. It was really important for me to know that we're touching on a real problem. The solution works that we can get clients and we reached our first, um, dozen clients, um, bootstrapped once we did that, and we, and we learned more. The only way to expand it, uh, and, and move faster in, in a market that moves super fast like FinTech is, is raise, is raise funds. And, and a lot of it. It has a lot of, um, advantages and a lot of disadvantages. There are a lot of things that after you raise funds you deal with and need to work, not only specifically with investors and, and uh, um, maintaining the relationship, but, um, growing fast has its challenges. Uh, recruiting FAST has its challenges and, and it does add a lot of, um, friction to the process Intra. In what we're doing in Anchor, um, would've taken us, I dunno, five years to get to the point where we're at now. And it, and it wasn't worth it. Um, in my head though, my next company would be bootstrapped. And, um, and we'll take it all the way. Uh, bootstrapped,
Sean Weisbrot: do you mind saying how much you spent on Anchor before you decided to raise funds and how many employees you have now? And after that, speak to the challenges of investors and growing fast and all that.
Rom Lakritz: So before we raised funds, I probably invested, um, somewhere around a hundred thousand dollars, um, give or take on, on travel and design and building the product and infrastructure and stuff like that. We were, uh, three partners. Uh, so it's not including, you know, three salaries. That's, that's another. Ma with, with a level of people, another million dollars, um, which was invested just within time. And, uh, and if you look at most startups, um, from the idea in, in the regular, um, um, life, not, not in, uh, 2021, invest between, um, I'll say six to 12 months from the moment. They have an idea and start working until they find, find a partner and figure out what they're doing and being able to pitch it and talk to customers and, and really build a company around it. So it's, uh, it's not, um, I, I don't think it was something special. We just wanted to take it maybe a bit further than, than, uh, then it's taken. Usually we wanted to get to first clients without, you know, without funds. Um, in terms of work with, with investors. So. Each investor is, is a, is a whole world. And, um, and you need to maintain and you want to maintain a relationship. You wanna both learn from, from his experience, and you need to build trust. Uh, that starts, um, with him saying, I'll invest in you and I believe in you, and then you need to, uh, uh, believe in him. I, I, I do believe, and I do, I work with startups and I also make, uh. A lot of entrepreneurs that look at that relationship as I need to sell something to the investors. I need to show them always that everything is. I would say it's, it's actually a small part of it. Um, but it's act, it's also each person and his personality and how, you know, how he builds relationships and how, um, how he grows. And, um, you can learn a lot from, from, uh, a professional investor and, and of course an investors like we have. They've done tens, if not hundreds of investments. And they've seen this and they've seen this journey so many times, they can really help you focus and, um, just save time and, and, um, and failures. That is part of your life as an entrepreneur.
Sean Weisbrot: Now I have several investors. I've got five. Three of them don't respond to my messages, but I, I kind of assume that might happen. The other two are very responsive. And with both of them, one of them I've known for seven years, so I knew him for years before he invested. The other one, I met him for the purpose of, of investing and uh, we talked for about two years before he finally invested because we weren't ready when we first started talking. And my. Thought process with them is, I should be as honest with them as I am with my team and my parents, and basically anyone that I have a relationship with. It's always blunt honesty. I refuse to like, withhold any, any of the truth from anybody. Um,
Rom Lakritz: that's actually, if you want psychology, I'm sorry that I'm, that I'm cutting you off, but there is
Sean Weisbrot: no go for it.
Rom Lakritz: There is honesty and, um, the word, uh, slipped out of my mind in Hebrew and in English. It will get back to me in a second. I'll, I'll take that point. It's actually, it's an you, it's an interesting point. Um, ah, there is honesty and there is integrity. Okay. And, and integrity. Integrity is actually above honesty. And, and I can give you an example if, if you want, um, a, a clear example on why this is true. So you can picture yourself, you can picture, um, a mother walking with, uh, with two of her daughters and let's say in the middle of a, of a war. And the soldier comes in and tells her, listen, if these two girls are yours, I'm gonna kill you. One. But if one of them is, is a friend of yours, then you can just go and then the instinct would be, ah, this is mine, this is my friends. And she can go. She wasn't honest.
Sean Weisbrot: So you're saying a woman has integrity. She tells the person this is, uh, not my child, et
Rom Lakritz: cetera. So, so it wasn't honest. Her daughter there, uh, she was just told that, you know, that she's not her daughter, but integrity wise, she did the right thing. And when you build your integrity. Um, you, you build it around your values, your own values, and, um, and then with your investors, you need to understand where, where your integrity is. Um, and it's the same with your team, and it's the same with with anyone you meet in your life. But it's not, it's not, I think that that's what you're saying as well, but it's not only honesty, it's, you know, sometimes you, you, you get mad and you're mad at someone, and honestly, you hate. But it's, it doesn't matter five minutes after, so you just don't say it. So that's another example of how integrity is, is um, is higher.
Sean Weisbrot: I believe I maintain integrity, but I guess what I was trying to get at was if there's a problem, I won't hide it from them. Because they've given me money and it, I think it's fair for them to know, even if it's something that we know how to solve, I think they should be aware of it, at least now in the early stages because we haven't launched yet. I think as we launch and we get users and things change, maybe it'll be slightly different where there's less that they need to hear about on a daily basis, but right now things are, you know, they're moving a little bit slower than they should and. Money's not coming in as fast as it should and things like that. I don't know. What do you think? It's not as,
Rom Lakritz: things just take much, much more time than people think. It's, there is no should or, or, or could. Things take a a lot of time, and what I do in these cases is there has to be a goal, there has to be some job to be done. There has to be a, a, a reason why, um. Why you wanna, um, you know, do something. And it's the same thing with, with investors, if you wanna, and, and I'm, I'm actually also open as a book and, uh, integrity is super high and, and honesty as well. Um, but if I don't know, we'll take Niks. If there was an experiment that didn't work and you know the reason in a week later it works. I don't know if I see a real reason to, you know. Hurt that relationship or make him make the, the investor, um, more stressed out for something that, that that's not there. If we had a bug in, in anchor, um, it's not, the first thing I do is not call my, my investors and tell them I, I had a bug. I fix it. I understand what's, uh, you know, what's, what's happening and if it's interesting or important and uh, I think it may have long-term effects, then, then I will call and actually ask how, how they think I can solve it and how they can help me. So I'll have a goal in it. It's not, not just for the, you know, being honest.
Sean Weisbrot: Yeah. I mean, I don't tell 'em all of that stuff. I get that there's no reason for them to know, oh, we've got 300 bugs for this new feature. Yeah. Like, no, that, that's not helpful. Um. But I think because of the stage we're in, I think we need a little bit more support right now. But I think as we, as we launch and get users, it'll be a different conversation, I think. Yeah. So I'm curious if you ever regretted starting any of your businesses?
Rom Lakritz: No, but that's, I, I don't regret anything that, that I've done. Um, I learned throughout life that you can't really, um, try to, um, um. If a decision was right or the fact. You have the information you have doing that, that the time that, that you made a decision. And if things changed after a year or a year and a half, it doesn't matter. Um, with investments, with opening things, with, I dunno, picking your, your, uh, uh, chosen one with, with whatever you, you, you act with what, with the knowledge you have at the same,
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Rom Lakritz: same moment that you took the decision. So it's like clean and clear for me.
Sean Weisbrot: Okay. Have you ever thought about stopping any of the businesses you'd ever started?
Rom Lakritz: Um, so, uh, uh, my first startup, um, we had. Um, it was a, um, location based service, uh, back in 2012. And the whole location based, um, industry, uh, actually collapsed. There was a, a big postmortem about it. And if you look today, you know, nobody really uses check-ins and foursquare and events on Facebook. It's, it's not really a thing. Nobody really. Connected between the real world and the social world in the location based, um, um, data. Because theoretically you have so much data of who goes where and what type of people and what they're doing and, and what hours it's full or not. And nobody, nobody really figured it out and use it. People are still trying. Um, so. We got to a point that we had a few hundred of thousand of dollars in the bank account and, um, and we chose to, uh, to, to stop. And then there was a, a suggestion to take the, the technology and try to do the same thing like, uh, in dating, um, similar to to Bumble and uh, and Tinder, but actually. With more information and, and, and even, uh, better. And there was a, a dis discussions between my two partners and I, and at the end of the day, we cho we, we chose to back down and not, uh, keep going because that's, it wa it didn't feel like that was our calling in life if we were talking about calling in the beginning of the conversation.
Sean Weisbrot: Fair enough. I've, I've stopped a few businesses because. I just felt like it wasn't the right thing anymore, so I get it. It makes sense. What has been the hardest decision you've ever had to make related to any of your businesses?
Rom Lakritz: Um, okay, so. I, I'll start with, with people. Sometimes you have to let people go and, um, generally it's the hardest thing to, to do always. I'm, um, I'm, I'm an optimist and I like to, to teach and I like to help people grow, but at some point, um, you understand that it's, um, that it's not really all about you and that you can do anything. So letting people go, um. Is is always hard. Even when, even when you know it's the best thing for them as well. Um, 'cause they can can't grow, uh, with you anymore. Um, another hard decision was, um, was actually, um, selling the company. Um, and, um, and, you know, and, and giving your, your baby away. Um, it had, it, its benefits, uh, but it, but at the time we had a lot of discussions if it's, uh, if it's the right decision or not. Um, and, uh, it, it kept us from, from sleeping a few nights.
Sean Weisbrot: What was the hardest thing about selling that company for you?
Rom Lakritz: Um, that you, I felt that we can do more and we can succeed more. And, and, and, you know, and we were just getting started. The company was three years. The, the feeling is that we just got started and, and, uh, can, can take this journey more.
Sean Weisbrot: So what was, what, what happened in that discussion that kind of allowed you to accept it?
Rom Lakritz: Um, what happened is that, um, we actually said no, uh, the first time and they came back when, uh, pretty much tripled the, the amount. And then you're like, okay, that's like economically. No matter how you look at it, it's, it's, uh, it's a, it's, it's an, it's an amazing deal. So, you know, it's, it, it was a, um, you, you couldn't really say, say no. It was, but it was hard 'cause, you know, um, all, all of the, uh, reasons I just, um, described.
Sean Weisbrot: Did you think about saying no again to see if they would increase it one more time?
Rom Lakritz: No, no, no. But I can tell you that with a different company. We also got an offer, um, and we signed the term sheet and we kept going. And at some point, uh, we did the economics and, and we backed down. Um, while we were, uh, advancing to, uh, definitive agreements, we decided not to sell the company and it still exists.
Sean Weisbrot: Was there a penalty, like, so for example, Elon Musk had a, an agreement for a billion dollars if he backed out and now they're suing him and they're trying to get him to go through with it. Did you have to pay a fee for backing out?
Rom Lakritz: No, no, no. It wasn't that big of a okay. Of, of a deal.
Sean Weisbrot: Okay. Well, I mean, even if it was like a hundred thousand something that like Yeah. You know, to, to pay for their lawyer's fees or anything like that. Okay. What has been your most expensive mistake?
Rom Lakritz: My most expense. And how much was it? My most extensive mistake was, um, so. Privately, so it was not selling, uh, shares in, in one of my companies when I could, and I lost somewhere around $3 million.
Sean Weisbrot: You, you have the most expensive mistakes so far. Of all the people I've, I've done this with, the, the next most expensive was a million.
Rom Lakritz: Yeah. That, that's, that, that, that was mine though. It wasn't like a, um, company's mistake or something.
Sean Weisbrot: Hmm, well, I've never shared this publicly, but I'll, I'll say it here because nor normally it's not something that you should think about, obviously. But, uh, I made a decision to invest in my company Nerve. I, I invested 650,000. I've said that before, publicly. If I hadn't invested in nerve 650,000, would today be worth about 20 million with another decision I could have made instead. And that's in a five year period. So I think, okay. I've probably won so far expensive.
Rom Lakritz: I, I, I have another decision is, um, before Anchor I, I got an, uh, a really good offer from a early stage startup, uh, to be, uh, like, um, uh, co CEO President and I turn it down, um, the company. Is pre IPO now, and the valuation of of that is, yeah, it's in the $50 million range.
Sean Weisbrot: You mean in terms of how much you would've had in terms of equity?
Rom Lakritz: Yeah. Wow.
Sean Weisbrot: Okay. All right. You are again, fair.
Rom Lakritz: I don't have anything bigger than,
Sean Weisbrot: than mine,
Rom Lakritz: but, but, but let's see. I, I hope I made the right decision. Um, and at Ancor we feel that we are, uh, bringing a change, that people are open to that change and customers. Want to work with the product and are happy with the product. If you look at LinkedIn and, and messages of, uh, of new clients coming on board and seeing how it really changes the way they've done things until now and how much, uh, impact and, and challenges it, it solves for them.
Sean Weisbrot: How do you anticipate problems, not just with the, the people side of your businesses, but also the market? So like the internal and the external pressures?
Rom Lakritz: F first of all, I don't anticipate all the, all the problems or probably most of the, of the problems, um, beforehand. I do, uh, look at the market, um, steadily and I do talk, uh, with investors and entrepreneurs and, you know, check the. All the time. So I'll know what is happening in, in our industry. And um, and you know, with all that's going on now, it's, it's, uh, it's a good question 'cause nobody can really tell you, um, if the, you know, if we're going into a depression or, or it's, uh, will come back. Uh, in, in general, everything will be okay. What we do, uh, uh, do fast is react. So if we see that something is not working, then we start iterating around solutions and try new things, um, and um, and, and solve things, uh, relatively quickly and, and, uh, efficiently.
Sean Weisbrot: How do you build the foundation of a company that allows you to make that kind of a test really quickly? 'cause everybody talks about you need to move fast, but how do you actually do that
Rom Lakritz: fast? So, so first of all, the company is in its culture looking how to improve. Um, it's how we manage, um, how we relationship with one another in the management with the investors, um, with employees, the managers, with their employees. Um, try to. Improve from, from day one. So the first, so in the interview, uh, one of the questions we, we ask is, if, if you had a coach, what would you wanna work with him on and what would you want to improve? And then when, if, if he starts working at the company, we actually go back to that and said, okay, let's, let's start doing it. Let's do. That's, there is a lot of methodologies to do that, but let's do your strength, your weaknesses. Let's see how you grow. Let's see how the company grows. Let's improve together the whole, the uh, um. Point here is, is to grow in our journey, um, as human beings, as a company, as a group. Um, so it's, it's just, you know, so, so it's just part of the language and how we see things and how we do things. So once there is a, an issue and something is, has a lot of friction, everybody starts, okay, how do we solve this? How, let's, let's improve, let's move this to the right, let's change process. Company wide initiative.
Sean Weisbrot: So does that come from you though? Are you like, okay, we need to make a change. I've seen this thing happening. Or like, is your marketing, you know, director or your, your CMO coming up with this? Like, I, I guess I'm just trying to find out like, how does your organization know that? Something has to change.
Rom Lakritz: So, and
Sean Weisbrot: how, how do you implement that change so quickly? So, so at, at the end, just going deeper than the culture side.
Rom Lakritz: At, at the end of the day, everything that happens in the company comes from, from you or from the, the founders or the high level management? It's, it depends on, on, on the size. I'm a type of person that, um, that sees problems and I wanna solve everything. Uh, and I believe I can solve everything. So I, so I. Um, and then you are the, um, you are the lighthouse. So if you act that way, then everyone else around you would act that way and everybody around them would act that way. So if I see something on the floor. I'll pick it up and put in the garbage. If something bugs me in how the door works, then I'll, I'll, I'll go and fix that. And then if someone sees that, he understands, okay, this is, this is what we're supposed to do. Like this is how it works. We'll try to improve. That's why I said it's a company wide initiative. When I have, I have one-on-ones with all the team, uh, once a quarter and, um, I come with a, an agenda and they come with an agenda. Most of the discussion is how we can get better, um, what are the issues they see, how we can improve. Um, and, and it has its downsides because, um, because you're always around how you can improve and not, you know, enjoying what you've done and how good you do do things. So actually the, the. The, uh, important thing here is to know how to balance that. And that's something I'm, I personally am still working on. Uh, also know, you know, how to enjoy, uh, success and how to enjoy the little things. And, um, and, and in our company, we still need to balance it better. And that's also at the end of the day for me,
Sean Weisbrot: I've always wanted to move fast and I've, I've learned from talking to other people who are running companies that sometimes moving fast is not the right decision. But I also see from my team that they act as a buffer against my a DD. And they're like, look, we know you want to do this, but stop. Like we just can't. We need to go and fix this other stuff first. This is a, this is a good idea, but like maybe in six months we'll have the resources to handle it. So as much as I wanna move fast, my team kind of doesn't let me move the company fast.
Rom Lakritz: I, I think it boils down to the definition of fast because they don't see them as slowing you down. They see them as. We wanna get from point A to point B. We can run around. Do it thoroughly, have less mistakes and actually get here in six months. And then the definition is in fast is just not, it's, it's not just moving fast. 'cause you can, you know, in a, um, in a marathon, if you start the fastest possible, you, you, you, you won't finish. So, so, and, and we are also in, in the company now working on defining what we want and improving the process. Process in every company, probably always as a recommendation for you. It's, it's really, you know, listening and trying to understand what you are trying to achieve and how you are trying to achieve it, and why you are trying to achieve it and, and, and then see the quickest way, um, to do that the quickest way. Sometimes takes three days to, to think about, but then you have an answer that takes two days in a a week.
Sean Weisbrot: Yeah, I, I agree with what you said. Where I think they see it as if they let me be in charge of like. Executing it, it'll take a year to do, because sometimes I go, oh, shiny object. But if I give them a plan and they execute it, and I kind of step back and leave them alone to do it, it might take six months only. I think that's what they, I think that's the way they feel about it, because before I hired them all, it did take forever to get things done because I didn't know what I was doing. And then I hired them and they did know what they're doing and then they're like, look, just give us the plan and we'll do it. And then I feel sometimes like I have nothing to do.
Rom Lakritz: I am waiting for that moment to.
Sean Weisbrot: Well, I know once we launch, then I'll be back in it like talking to prospective customers and getting customer feedback and doing customer service. And so I know there's like a shit storm of stuff for me to do. Like I know I'll be really busy for the next few years after we launch, but until we launch I'm just kind of waiting around. So I'm curious how you have had to change yourself throughout the process of starting growing. Uh, and some, and exiting some of these companies.
Rom Lakritz: I don't know if something is left from, from the old, from 2011. Uh, everything, everything changed, you know? A lot of, um, growing up and, and maturity and self-control. Um, you know, breathing, listening, answering. There is a, when, when, when you talk, um, when you're a leader and, and you talk, every word counts and, um, people can interpret it differently. So, like we just said, fast, you say fast, you hear one thing, someone else can hear another thing. It happens. All the time in commun communication, it's actually the basis of, um, it's, it's, it's, it's the basis of most of, um, challenges and struggles and wars and, and whatever is, it's just communication And, um, so, so I've learned to control, um, to control myself to be. To not allow, you know, that, that, that feeling. The, ah, I'm mad at something. So, so I'm acting it out. Um,
Sean Weisbrot: oh yeah.
Rom Lakritz: So, um, so a lot
Sean Weisbrot: I'm working on that.
Rom Lakritz: So, so a lot of that and, uh, and you know, as, as I grow and I, and I see another angle and learn another industry, all that experience, you know, it, it, it, it comes to, to really knowing how to look at a problem and solve it in, in a lot of different ways. Uh. People, if it's, uh, someone that wants to grow, if it's in the product sales, you, you just gain so much experience, um, that, that you can give others and, and, uh, keep on improving.
Sean Weisbrot: Last question I have for you. What advice would you give to anyone listening?
Rom Lakritz: What advice did I give last time?
Sean Weisbrot: I don't remember.
Rom Lakritz: Um, so for today, um, if, if you are, if you're a founder, um. The name of the game is Greek. Um, if, if, uh, people know, know exactly what it means, it's this positive mindset, uh, resilience, persistence, uh, determination and, and focusing on, on what you wanna do. And, um, my half second advice would be to define really, really well everything that you want, do, every meeting, every goal, why you wanna achieve. You know, at the end of the day you wanna get from point A to point B. What's, what's point B? The better you define it, um, the more chances you have to, to reach it.
Sean Weisbrot: Fantastic advice. Thank you, Rom.
Rom Lakritz: Perfect. Thank you Sean.




