Ugochi Owo 1:19
Okay. Hi, I'm Ugochi. Oh, I'm the CEO and founder of Flindel. And also working on another project.
Cory McKane 1:27
What is the other project? What are you guys currently doing? And how is that all working? Yeah, so
Ugochi Owo 1:31
the project is run by one of our advisors. And he is a really, really good guy. His name is Coach Saxena, and he's was formerly an executive at MasterCard and is now working at a division of Santander Bank. And he's just like a really incredible dude with the passion for entrepreneurs. And yeah, he's working on a fund slash, accelerator, incubator rich thing that specifically focused on emerging market deals. So giving founders that are based in other markets like Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, the opportunity to thrive.
Cory McKane 2:08
Very cool. Very cool. Very cool. Very cool. Okay, so what is your I don't know, you can't say too much like, what is your role going to be?
Ugochi Owo 2:17
Um, I can't see a lot but like, I'm just involved in like, like, just the cheerleader. Yeah, a cheerleader. Like, who knows what it'll be?
Cory McKane 2:27
Wait, what is? What is your background? Are you from the States? Or where are you from?
Ugochi Owo 2:31
Yeah, I was born in Houston. Okay. And then I went to high school in Canada, and lived in Canada for like, like, 10 ish, like a little bit over 10 years. And then I would spend time between both Toronto and the states. Very cool. And in that time, it became Canadian. So I am Canadian, American and Nigerian. So ethnicities Nigerian.
Cory McKane 2:57
Very cool. So it's a lot of your family from Nigeria that are like, yeah,
Ugochi Owo 3:01
yeah. My siblings. No, no, I was. Canada. Yeah, maybe? Yeah. No, my siblings. They all live in different states. So my parents like kind of shuffled between this while they're moving back to the States. So you know? Yeah,
Cory McKane 3:15
very cool. Okay. I don't know enough about Nigeria. So be honest. Any random fact I should know when in fact, the number one exporter were super great as soccer. I knew that though. I know that very, very good. We
Ugochi Owo 3:27
have a team called the Super Eagles. School Name. What else is there Nigerians are very hardworking and very disciplined. So typically, we are the way that we grew up, is very, very, very, like education is first. And you know, like, eager to learn and like you can't give up like my mom and my dad would always say growing up like, near cannot kill a bird. So means like, absolutely what they would say nearer cannot kill a vernier. Yeah, okay, so means that if you have a rock, it's a very, very valid description. If you have a rock, and you're throwing it at a verb, if you got near to it, it's not going to kill the bird. But if you like actually hit the bird on target, and you'll make it Yeah, so with my siblings, and I growing up, they'd be like, oh, like, you need to like shoot for like this, like the sun. Because even if you don't make it, you'll like land amongst like the stars class. And that was that was just how we were
Cory McKane 4:18
very cool. I'm gonna be honest, I don't know a lot about your, the space itself. Yeah, so I have a ton of questions, but they're not really about what you're doing. It's about everything else. Yeah, that's fine. You guys do it's pronounced Flynn Dell. Right.
Ugochi Owo 4:32
Yeah, it sounds Lindell.
Cory McKane 4:33
What do you guys working on? What are you doing? Why are your Why are your advisors so successful? Like why is your company have such cool people around it? Like what's going on? Tell me story.
Ugochi Owo 4:42
It's like a top secret I'm getting um, yeah, we have been working on figuring out the issue with the logistics space but specifically in terms of reverse logistics, which is like the returns aspect of life. And for me, I'm the kind of person that as a kid if I had a puzzle. And there was a piece missing and it wasn't in the box. I wouldn't need to go to the store and get the exact same puzzle box and find the one missing piece and put it in like I'm like like that.
Cory McKane 5:10
Would you open the box and take the piece out or you'd buy the other puzzle and then didn't
Ugochi Owo 5:15
get the other puzzle and then bring it home. Because that other part it's like illegal, but like
Cory McKane 5:22
missing a PC
Ugochi Owo 5:23
Rajit I'm like at Walmart on like cutting it open with like yeah, that'd be like the puzzle stealer. Like,
Cory McKane 5:33
if you took one piece at it every puzzle, how frustrated with the world? There'll be an incredible cry
Ugochi Owo 5:42
coming to you 2023 But um, ya know, I like I can't stand like puzzles like like missing like there's something is missing. I can't see it. And when it came to Flinders specifically, like I I didn't wake up in the morning with a passion for logistics because Logistics is not a sexy word. And it's not a sexy industry, but like logistics here.
Cory McKane 6:03
So yeah, that's, that's pretty good. There you go.
Ugochi Owo 6:06
Just this is not a sexy word at all. It's like, for me, I am a Costco member in my 20s. Like, just let that sink in. And cost of being vegan could be like Costco is like amazing, because at Costco, right? You
Cory McKane 6:24
can go to Costco and
Ugochi Owo 6:28
Costco, Costco. Remember? I
Cory McKane 6:30
just fantastic. Yeah,
Ugochi Owo 6:32
I love I love Costco. And I've always loved Costco. I've always been like, I get everything in Costco. And the reason behind that is because Costco has an incredible returns experience, right? Which means that like, at Costco, if you ate a steak, and you were not feeling it anymore, you can return like the piece that's left of the steak and bring it to the lady and be like, I was not happy about the steak and you'll get your money back. Will you do that? And nine times out of 10 No, but then because the experience is so great with Costco, you're encouraged to spend more money at Costco, you're encouraged to tell everyone to shop at Costco, and you're encouraged to keep coming back to Costco. Right. And specifically in the retail space returns has always been like a broken experience for E commerce. So meaning that like the beauty of e Commerce today is that you know, you have companies like Shopify and big commerce that have like, done really, really well for themselves and really liberated entrepreneurship and made entrepreneurship accessible for like everyone, everyday Joe, we can just decide to sell stocks tomorrow to work. But the thing about it is that you can be in Australia, and have customers all over the world. When it comes to returning that stuff. You're still in Australia. So everything still has to be shipped back to Australia. And for over 70% of E commerce merchants outside of Amazon. They can't afford to pay for your return shipping. So customers have to pay, customers have to pay for it. So like as a consumer, if you're being told, like, hey, you need to pay additional money to be able to return the socks that you're pissed off about, you're not going to pay extra money to ship it and have it be delivered tomorrow. What ends up happening is that like it comes like weeks later simply because you chose the cheapest shipping option. And for you, you get your circle back your refund or whatever, weeks later on the merchant side that items decreased in value by over 35 by over 45% Not because it's Ramadan, not because it was short, but simply because of the fact that like it took so long to get to their home, I'm afraid to get to their warehouse on our end. We believe in a future very, very similar to the Jetsons, where everything happens and it's integrated into the consumers lifestyle. So what we're building off Lindell on the consumer side of things is, you'll be able to return things from your house like without having to leave your home and get your money back the same day and that's the future that we're working on. So we believe that five years from now, the idea of having to go to any store, whether it's a brick and mortar store to go to the post office to return anything no longer exists, but it's integrated into your home and into your daily you know, routine
Cory McKane 9:02
camp, so okay, I have one really big question. Yeah. Do you mean like you're physically building a system that will do that or what? No, no, you take a photo I've dreamed us what do they do? I've heard this before we get them in here really quick.
Ugochi Owo 9:15
Okay. Wow, we're gonna have we're gonna have a crossover episode.
Cory McKane 9:22
So give give give Garrett give Gary a full pitch you just gave me and then I want to talk about
Ugochi Owo 9:31
microspore born or like, I prefer I was born years ago. Um, no, I we asked Linda what we do is that we are focused on reverse logistics. So customers, they really need to be able to return anything from their home, as opposed to having to like go to a store or post office and get their money back the same day and it's free returns experience for the consumer. And the reason why we're tackling this problem. tackling this problem is because So the fact that like, on the E commerce side, the beauty of E commerce is that you can be in Australian customers all around the world. Yeah, because of the columns that you are still in Australia. Yeah. So when it comes to the reverse logistics, things still have to return back to Australia. And there's no current way to be able to aggregate return products for the merchant. And when you look at the differences between E commerce and brick and mortar, the advantage that brick and mortars historically how to read commerce is that if you're going to Costco to return something, you take it to Costco, and it's not going to go back to the central Costco No, be put back on the shelf. If you don't want the item, the next customer coming behind you does and will be able to purchase it I nearly around the same rate. What happens today in E commerce is that like, because as consumer over 70% of like E commerce items, like for merchants, outside of Amazon, have to be paid for by the consumer, you're not going to choose like get it tomorrow to be shipped back to the retailer. But what you will do is you'll look for the cheapest possible shipping method, which ends up sacrificing the price of your package. So here's the materials warehouse, and like weeks later, and on your end, you're like how can I refund back retailers and man, this item is worth like 45% less because it's now in like the secondary sales window. So for us, what we figured out is that there's a way to be able to do this process for E commerce returns without necessarily having to do the obvious answer. The obvious answer is that there's a ton of companies that have tried to be in the space that it's very, very tough very, very super time. It's
Garrett Scott 11:33
the holy grail of logistics. Yes, yeah.
Ugochi Owo 11:35
Once you get reverse logistics, you're good. But like it's very, very, very tough. And it's so tough that like when you're starting a company, ie an E commerce company, Shopify, Bigcommerce Magento will tell you forget about your return. Yeah, exactly. Like if it's for sure. It's gonna be hard, like, like, just like, forget
Garrett Scott 11:52
about Amazon's usually like, hey, just keep it. That's the problem.
Ugochi Owo 11:55
And for us, what we realized, like the obvious answer is that in order for return to make sense, you have to give the same experience for online merchants that you do for brick and mortar, which is having hyper local centers and every single city and things being returned to that city, and we reintroduced via software into that market. And we actually built that software. And then we were like, wait a minute, this is going to cost us like over $200 million to be able to do this in the US alone, not talk off, talk less of any other place in the world. And there's all of these different factors that go into it. And the aha moment for us as a company was when we realized, Oh, crap, if someone's returning to TV, it's probably not outside. Yeah, exactly. So we were like, there's a way for us to be able to decentralize warehousing. But on the reverse logistics side, by having the consumers residents or their domain, beat the warehouse. And then we figured out we were like, Ah, shit, yeah.
Garrett Scott 12:58
That is amazing. Yeah. So let's say like, I have my se t shirt. I ordered it. I love the design, it just doesn't fit. Right. Yeah. So I'm gonna like, Okay, I'm gonna return it. So I submit a return. And then it's like, sits in my house for like, a day until that store, find someone else who needs one. And you like, get it to them? Or they come pick it up?
Ugochi Owo 13:18
Yeah. So the way that it works, right? So we use artificial intelligence to be able to diagnose the item. So what we realize is that and a lot of customers don't know this, right? We live in reverse logistics isn't sexy. And so you get into the space, kind of interesting. Logistics. And basically, what happens at a warehouse, a lot of people don't know is like, you're shipping your item to the retailer, and you're paying for it to be shipped to see if the item qualifies. And you're paying for that. And that's the whole process to see it. Right. And when you the item goes to like a retailer's warehouse or whatever you think it's a fancy smash you process no one's an 18 year old kid being like, Yo, yeah, this seems legit. checks off and box. Yeah. And circles back. On our end, we realized that our smartphones cameras have gotten so much better these days, that you can actually diagnose the problem by treating it that this is what a cracked iPhone looks like. That's what a red t shirt looks like. This is what this looks like. And you can get like, you can do the exact same thing from the comfort of your home with your phone. And we can tell you yes, we're going to take it no, we're not going to take it without us having to even touch on with the product. That's amazing. And then we were like, okay, things are things are moving like this, this, this makes sense. And that's kind of like where did the centralization of it came from? Because we would be able to serve as customers not only in Austin, but like everywhere nationwide, and then also in Canada and Europe and other markets without us having to lift much of a finger. Yeah, totally. And that's when we were like okay, and then what happens is that when we accept an item, we use the theorems blockchain to be able to issue out the refund which means that like smart contract smart contracts means that all the conditions of the contracts have to be fulfilled in order for funds to be released. Right. So whatever conditions it you crack the TV since you told us about it, we come to your home, we pick up the item. And then we like in the seven days. So we scheduled a pickup date within seven days and the seven day window like you get your refund instantly, but it shows us pending immediately. But in the seven day window that we've scheduled for the return pickup, we've actually listed those items on over 6000 Different liquidation sites. So sites like nationwide sites like B stock to like local sites like Facebook marketplace, etc. Or meta marketplace, etc. And we with a strong preference to local sites. If the item gets sold locally at Austin, at the time, and within that seven day window, it gets picked up from your home and then gets delivered to customers home in Austin versus being shipped back to another place in the ship back to the
Garrett Scott 15:46
place. Yeah, totally.
Cory McKane 15:48
Who knows the pickup.
Ugochi Owo 15:50
A cool partner that we just partnered with, that will announce in a formal post in a couple of weeks. But like it's an issue. Yeah.
Garrett Scott 16:02
Oh, let's go. Yeah, that's amazing. That's it? Yeah. It's like the Holy Grail of logistics. Logistics, like makes everything easier. Yeah. Not just from like, Yeah, I mean, you know, this, but like, not just from a return standpoint, but unlocks like new types of E commerce that you're able to do and
Ugochi Owo 16:16
you get so much data, like the data that you get, and not like data to disrupt anyone's privacy. The data that you get on consumer behavior, the data you get on like, what's happening in that market? Maybe in Nebraska, people don't like air conditioners. Let's see why. Like there's so many things that can happen, but then also taking it a step further like for us. I like, I'm not a crypto person, right. I'm not naturally a crypto person. I never woke up and I was like crypto was sexy. But the reason why I got into the crypto space and the reason why like we started to, because we actually issue a refunds back on the blockchain with a stable coin, right. But then, from a consumers perspective, it's like we're giving you a universal store credit. So mean that we have a marketplace that all of a sudden just go to as well. So you can buy it and you can transact and buy. Yeah, some of the stuff from Yes, yes, you can turn jacked it up and get those items in up. And then the cool thing about that is that it gives crypto like the first time ever, you can buy things with crypto and like it actually means something to right. So like I was saying, I'm not naturally a crypto person, like one of our advisors is isn't even a guy named Michael Arrington, and he's the founder of TechCrunch. But most importantly, like now he's like, really, really focused on the crypto space. And about a year ago, he had like been urging me to like look into crypto and like he goes, You should really be reading things like the Bitcoin standard. And I was, you know, it was like being like a bratty kid and I was like, blah, blah, I don't care. And one day, his fiancee called me and she was like, negotiate, you need to, like, get into the space and I read the Bitcoin standard. And I prior to that, I only saw cryptocurrency as like, I put some money into this, y'all. I must have been Dogecoin q4 2020. So a few $1,000 turned into God knows what. Because I came in at point 003 to a nice time and like I left in March and like, I Yeah, yeah, they
Garrett Scott 18:20
were just pulled up. But this is so interesting.
Ugochi Owo 18:22
Yeah. So I am, I invest or whatever. And then I only see it as an investment vehicle. And then I read the Bitcoin standard. I'm like, Oh, wait, this is supposed to be money. And I started meeting, I lived in Miami for a couple of months, like explore that space. And I started meeting all these people that were like heavy hitters in the crypto space. And I'm like, Oh, this is supposed to be money. And I said, Oh, wow, there's so many different benefits to the space Long story short, when it comes to the merchants or the retailer side of things we want to encourage merchants to adopt cryptocurrency transactions are really more so more more or less like blockchain transactions, why peer to peer no chargeback fraud. So as a consumer, you buy an iPhone from Apple, you come home, you're like Tim, that hurt my pockets. You call JPMorgan or you call like whatever bank you bank with. And then you say, hey, Chase, I didn't feel comfortable this phone. Chase takes the money from Apple's account without giving them the ability to resolve the issue directly with the consumer. And for merchants, they lose three times they lose on the product, because you don't have to give it back. They lose the money because it's been taken from an account. And they also get charged between $20 to $200 per chargeback. And if it's enough $20,000 Fine, man, and if enough of those they get their account, either suspended or have to do a high risk account.
Garrett Scott 19:41
Oh my gosh. Alright, so yeah, I got a bounce. But like, right, right before, of course, folic acid is but like, what's the number one thing that people would help you with right now?
Ugochi Owo 19:52
Number one thing that people would help me with like, like what kind of like are you live in Austin? Like, can we use this? You can use it towards the end of the year. Nice. Okay.
Garrett Scott 20:00
I'm so excited. I'm gonna be your number one customer. I love returning stuff. That sounds weird, but I love buying stuff online and I hate not having to return stuff. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna switch. Awesome. It's great to meet you
Cory McKane 20:14
get into Zuber. Let's be outside for like 10 minutes.
Ugochi Owo 20:19
Like Miami, they would have left. They would have left.
Cory McKane 20:28
Well, so I want to get him on here. He let's make sure we're good back on the cameras. He wants more. Yeah. Yeah. So they're super into logistics. So I'll connect you guys further after this. They're doing like the manual physical building of the logistics and you're doing like the return right? Digital building of logistics. So yeah, anyways, we'll connect you guys. We'll get that going. But that's very cool. I mean, so like I am. I understood, I understood that you guys were a, a in the crypto space and I knew invalid returns, but I didn't know it went that deep. Yeah, that's real. That's actually a really good idea. Now that I have like a grasp on what it is like, that just makes sense. It's a pipe dream Shut up as well. I mean, it was your pitch we get to get out there as quick question. You did a great job of explaining it. I just, I just didn't understand the premise before. That's really cool, though. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about your advisory board really quick. So you have an amazing advisory board. Let's go through the people on your website because you've got you have to memorize or ship hold up here really
Ugochi Owo 21:30
quick. And I talked to them often enough. I hope I have.
Cory McKane 21:33
Let me I'm gonna I'm gonna pull it up here. That's why I have my iPad, shout out to iPads. I finally bought one. It's like, so great. Sponsored by Apple, please pay us Shut up. We also we did another Costco shout out. You and I were talking about Costco and I every episode i'll have mentioned Costco somehow. So I'm like, Okay, here we go. Andre, do you got a general partner of maple ventures, we got the best Head of Marketing for Mehta.
Ugochi Owo 21:56
Okay. Andrea and her husband shout out to her husband is the he was former CMO at Soho House, and it is now a GM of Tiktok. Okay,
Cory McKane 22:06
so you have their mark on him, or him to SVP of global operations for Uber. Shout out to Matt, you have the serial founder and a board member of South by Southwest. And then you have awesome the founder of TechCrunch. He's also the founder of CrunchBase. To
Ugochi Owo 22:23
Yeah, oh, he isn't original with names. Hi, Mike.
Cory McKane 22:28
So we have all five of these, like, what is going on here? Like what? So I thought this was like one of those websites that like you put together and threw stock photos on and it was like, I'm gonna pick really successful people. But these are actual. Like, like the CEO of TechCrunch. TechCrunch would be like a person, you'd be like, oh, yeah, he's totally my advisor. Just like that's a funny thing to put on there.
Ugochi Owo 22:51
When you would that be like No, but he's never Yeah, he's a great dude. Like all of them. They've been like really great cheerleaders for me, because when it came down to like building the business, I knew that there was so many factors that make this so hard one, I didn't know enough about the logistics space to feel confident and like fully entering it to I didn't know about enough about the tech industry. I didn't really know many people, right? Yeah. And Dean was the first person that took a bet on me in the entire industry. Like, yeah, never taught by Southwest. Yeah, yeah, he he's, he's like an incredible, you know, I like messaged him on LinkedIn. And even today, like when people message me on LinkedIn, I have to like, consciously remind myself to try to like read everything and like, reply, because someone helped me at one point.
Cory McKane 23:35
Sometimes you look at your like that spam. Yeah.
Ugochi Owo 23:39
1,000% Yeah, well, like I try if it's if it's like an 18 year old kid being like, hey, like, Can I pick your brain? And I hate that term? And I can't use it use
Cory McKane 23:47
it anymore. Yeah. Yeah, only because it was overused. I feel like it was a
Ugochi Owo 23:52
Yeah, term. Until then the Wait, can I can I pick up?
Cory McKane 23:56
Can I waste your time base?
Ugochi Owo 23:56
Yeah. So can I just be on the column breathe. So I try to reply now. But like, at the time, like, I was like, getting into the industry, and I wanted something that was like mine, right? Like, I grew up in a family where everybody was very hard working, but like, I came from a privilege like family. So like, when I was growing up, my parents would always say, like, you know, you guys need to like, my mom and my dad, you guys are living in my dream, Nigeria. And they're like, This is my house. You guys just happened to be living in my dream, you know, and I wanted to be able to find something that was my my own thing. And when I got into the industry, I saw my dad like build like incredible relationships growing up with everyone. That's everyone you know, and the political space in Nigeria and like, he had a whole philosophy growing up, that he would teach us will non transactional relationships. Meaning that when you're like, knowing someone, like you actually have to be friends with them. You can't like be like, okay, this person is gonna be useful in my life. You need to know people's birthdays, like you need to be like a human. You know, if there's synergies and synergies if there's not, there's not but like at the end of the day. You know, life is super short. And you there's there's not enough time to be like fake like, there's no there's no point in being like, you know, so for me when it came down down to building the company I knew was going to be hard. I didn't realize like how long it would take for us to be able to like figure things out because it's like reiteration after reiteration after. And I tell people like, when when building any kind of businesses, I call it the path to kosher ability. Like, I'm not Jewish, but Jewish people. Like, they always say, like they this is kosher. Like, that means it's good. Like, it's proper, it's complete. It's true. Yeah. And the reality is that everything is not going to be kosher in the beginning, like building a server from the beginning. It's hard, and it's sketchy. And that's the reality, right? And for me, I was like, how do I make these problems like, not disappear? Because I know it's gonna be an uphill climb, but be slightly more bearable? And how do I make sure that we can actually do this? Okay, I said, Okay, let me put down a list of the companies that I admire, and the skill set that I need that I feel like I'm lacking, because I don't have a co founder. Yeah. So in a way, our advisors are kind of like a teeny, tiny co founder, MegaRAID. co founder. Yeah. And I wrote down like a list of like, the companies I admired. I'm like, I really like Uber, because they, Uber, like, is so magical to me, because there was a point they were launching a new city, like every couple of days, it's insane. Yeah, yeah. Like and they. And the thing about Andre, by the way, is that Andre was one of the first 20 people hired at Uber. And then Andre hired Mack Andrew McDonald, who's like, currently Head of Global offset Uber and like, getting their perspective of Uber in the beginning, and then Uber, at the top, you know, managing, you know, hundreds of millions or billions of dollars at this point, like, it's very, very interesting to be able to see like, Okay, this is how that happens. And even if things may not necessarily make sense, right now, it'll for sure make sense eventually. So I wrote a list. And then I just started reaching out to people, like I would message them on like Twitter, or whatever. And I'd be like, Hey, we should have coffee. And thankfully, they would respond. And I would tell them, like this thing that was in my head, and I would say, like, I'm really, really determined to be able to make this work. Can you help me? And nine times out of 10? Like, they'd say, Yeah, and that's cool.
Cory McKane 27:20
That's a good, that's a good ratio happened. And I think I don't have that ratio.
Ugochi Owo 27:24
I think the thing is just that, like, more people are willing to help and like, share their story that you'd realize, like if someone came to you, and they were actually serious, like, you wouldn't say no, you'd be like, no, like, that's weird. Like, he would say, like, yeah, and you'd have like the one meeting or the one call. And if it makes sense, you kind of continue going on. And I'm like, super blessed to be able to call these people like friends as well. And, you know, yeah, very cool people.
Cory McKane 27:47
No, I love that. I think one of the big topics we have on this podcast a lot is that, like, you, it's not the connections you make, it's like the connections you make. And then you get rewarded for being a genuine human being like you get rewarded by just being kind to people knowing their birthdays hanging out with them. And that will eventually lead into something like it's just like having a Rolodex of content. Yeah.
Ugochi Owo 28:07
And I think the thing is also like, because if you compare corporate relationships to like certain relationships, like they're pretty organic man, like here, it's like you, you meet someone you're building. Oh, Michelle, and if synergies happened, synergies happened, right in the corporate space. It's like, ah, let's schedule 30 minutes on the calendar. Yeah, this isn't happened to like life is never that deep. The way I always say it, and what I tell my team and they always look at me like, I'm crazy. I'm like, What if you got hit by a bus tomorrow, like, and it's always a bus, it's never an aeroplane or anything else. But like, I'm like, hit by an airplane. Or if you get hit by a bus, like if you get hit by a bus, like nothing actually really matters. Like you need to just be good to people. Yeah. and have that be your reputation. Reputation is so important. And it's important to treat people like the golden rule. Like I try to live by that and to make everyone feel like they matter. Because at the end of the day, no matter how much money you make, or whatever, like it doesn't go with you.
Cory McKane 29:01
So facts money in the grave are gonna put my money into great, great song. Was it with Linode? Do you guys have like competitors yet? Or like where are you guys at with that?
Ugochi Owo 29:13
Right now we have a pretty unique model. So these been companies that are in the space, I'm not gonna name drop them because I don't want them to get any time but like, there's companies that are in the space that they've tried to tackle the returns problem before and it never worked out. Yeah, and reverse logistics is a really like complicated thing in the sense that there's the problem of having to print out your order form and like, you know, get go to the post office and like slap the label on and there's companies that digitize the order form there's a problem of having to wait in line there's companies that tried a certain company raised hundreds of millions of dollars and then was drastically in disaster. She shut down a couple of years ago. I wouldn't even bet either because founder and I think we're I think we're like only two or something but like, yeah, like it's coming to try to like pick up item from you and like wait in line on your behalf. And that didn't work. There's companies that have tried to like encourage people to go to the mall to return things. And that didn't work. And the reality of the space is that no one's been able to really solve reverse logistics because it sucks for everyone that's involved. Yeah, you can't solve one problem without like, address. You can't solve the consumers problem without addressing the retailer's problem. We can't solve the retailer's problem without addressing the consumers problem. So it's always been like a catch 22 like a like a lose lose situation? And yeah,
Cory McKane 30:27
are you guys kind of like the Amazon returns for all non Amazon situations?
Ugochi Owo 30:33
We are. We are like the Uber of returns I'll just say like that. So when you think Uber you think instantaneous and you think convenient anything to your house, you can comfort and convenience. For us, we bring that comfort and convenience to your home. So meaning that like I used to watch the Jetsons a lot growing up, it was like my second reference so far. Yeah, it was my favorite show, like, you know, to do like I watched that show. And I was just like gazing into the screen. And when you think about the justice, that show was made in the 60s, and they predicted FaceTime, they predicted a lot of different Oh, they did have FaceTime, he would always Jordan always get fired, like every day like but via FaceTime. And you can imagine, like they what they thought what the world would look like. And they imagined the world to be an instantaneous world, like where everything happens. And it happens conveniently and like to your doorstep. So like they would never go out to eat in a restaurant, their house will become the restaurant. I'm on conveyor belts very similar to Uber. Uber Eats, right? So you can imagine like for us, we were like, Okay, so there's all of these different spaces are being disrupted, why not commerce, and why not like returns. And the reason why it returns is like when I was speaking with him, like it's very, very dicey. And it's the first time in this space that this thing has been able to be simplified. And we're super excited to be part of that story.
Cory McKane 31:54
Very cool. And what made you guys come up with the name, or funnel are
Ugochi Owo 31:59
super random. Every single has nothing to do with anything I was like. So I learned how to like code. When I was like 14, I was in a program called the International Baccalaureate program at the time. That shout out to IB and all the IB kids. It's like AP, but like on steroids, I wouldn't recommend it. It was just like online or no, it's like in real life like I did in Canada. And I was part of this program. And they only give you like one elective like your entire high school career. And the elective that I chose was this class called Introduction to technology, information technology or whatever. And I had a teacher, his name was Mr. Mateer. He used to wear like a black turtleneck sweater every day. Like like Steve Jobs, and he sometimes would end class with like one less thing. And they played a movie called Pirates of Silicon Valley. One day in class, and it was it's a movie from the 90s. And it like, it was in the 90s. And it like, it channels life between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates growing up right to the creation of like their respective companies. And I'm 14, everyone else is like on their BlackBerry's on BBM talking to each other, and I'm like, looking at the TV. I'm like soaking it up. And I'm like, that's what I'm gonna be in the future. And I said, I got a code Bill was coding, I need to figure this out. And I, you know, at the time, were toying around with HTML and class, and I just started to like, learn and like, learn and learn and learn. And the way that the name came up was that I was like, I was like, coding, like, I was making a website, like for fun in the library, library school. And I was just like, throwing out a couple of things. And you know, how you can see your comment blocks, or whatever in code. And I was throwing out a couple of things. And then I just like, the word just kind of came to me. And that was my aha moment. Very similar to how Steve Jobs if the word Apple was like, Apple, like, for me, it was like, flinto. And I was like, I don't know what a funnel is. But I'm gonna tell my dad and I texted my dad. I'm like, Hey, Dad, I feel like the name. It'll be really cool business name. And my dad being like, the great, you know, human that he is. He just like, bought the domain and, like, you know, if this ever, like, if, like, whatever you end up doing in life will just be
Cory McKane 34:16
colorful. It'll be a good businessman, though he sell to you to give it to you. He gave it to
Ugochi Owo 34:20
me, because I'm his daughter.
Cory McKane 34:24
Yeah, okay.
Ugochi Owo 34:25
How horrible would that be? Like, yeah, then my dad forced me to pay
Cory McKane 34:29
him and you just like, they just need to buy it back from him. Right. What's who's the team comprised of right now? Like, how many of you are there?
Ugochi Owo 34:38
Yeah. So there are it's a lean team. So it's under 15 of us. And it's Yeah, shout out to lean lean shout out to lean. You guys should read the Lean Startup Lean Startup, for an off screen. Yeah, and yeah, like our CTO, Alex is incredible and a few other people that are working with us and like right now Oh, we're actually hiring by the way, we're looking for people that are like super experienced in this space that have been in the game for about like 10 to 20 years
Cory McKane 35:07
and logistics are in what space, specifically logistics. The
Ugochi Owo 35:11
reason behind that is because of the fact that we have a couple of great deals for a nationwide expansion and nationwide rollout. And we need like grownups to be able to do those deals. So, you know, we don't want to have like certain mistakes that other companies have had by scaling too fast, or having the properly experienced individuals involved. So I'm like, super excited about current setup and also very, very excited for the new people that are coming on.
Cory McKane 35:36
And did you guys raise a funding round recently to pay for all these human beings that are working with you
Ugochi Owo 35:41
or I pay everyone in pizza? No, I'm kidding. No, no. Yeah. So we have raised a bit of capital and then we'll be taking in a little bit more capital. In the next coming weeks.
Cory McKane 35:52
Very cool. Just like you closing like a seed. Where are you guys at?
Ugochi Owo 35:55
Um, we're raising our Series A Oh, very, yeah. Yeah. You know, that's gonna make well, the money to my noodle since What is that song called? I don't remember what it's called.
Cory McKane 36:09
I just have it on my workout playlist. It's called though.
Ugochi Owo 36:12
I just thought it was so funny. It's a it's a he's the money to my chicken into laughs
Cory McKane 36:18
I wish I remembered the name of it right now. I don't remember. Oh, oh, I don't I think it's an inappropriate name. Wait. I'll figure it out. Figure it out for ya. And I'll think about it. Are there? Are there certain things that you've done as a founder that you like would take take back like, waste a lot of your time? Like, that's
Ugochi Owo 36:35
a good question. Shoot, man. Um, no one's ever asking that question. All the time. Yeah, no, nobody's ever asked. Everyone always asked Gucci what's keeping you up at night? Like, I don't know, stress. But maybe that might be a like, I used to freak out about every little thing. And like, someone would email me and I'll reply back, like in two seconds. Yes. Like I was that person. I was like, Oh, it was like an alarm clock was in my head. And then I realized that I'm not a robot. And it's okay not to be robot. It's okay not to respond to anyone, regardless of who they are within like, 24 hours, I can respond within 40 my Windows 48 hours. Yeah, now 48, sometimes 72. But like, really? 48 like within that timeframe? And that's okay. Like, there's no like, Oh, my God, you have broken the golfer second rule of No. And then, with tech messages, I had changed my numbers. So only a handful of people have my number now. And because because I would just give I had my number and my email, like my email thing, like, Oh, my God, and then you know, all of that the main number, and then people from random companies will just call and be like, we'd like to partner. And it would always be just weird stuff. I'm almost always going on. And then I had pressure to like, answer my phone all the time, even though it wasn't relevant to like my life, right? So I never had an off and then now because of like, zoom and everything, everything and like, no one needs to have like access to you like that. So if you have access to me, you're either like one of our investors, like all of our investors have my number or you're like my family, or you're my friend. And that's like the way I keep it, you know, and, um,
Cory McKane 38:16
and then put your number up on the
Ugochi Owo 38:20
aisle actually answered. But like the the other thing is also that dang was the other thing. I wouldn't have put as much stress on myself. Like, that's the whole thing is like, I would have told I would have allowed myself to be able to make mistakes. Yeah, because I felt that like, being like, young, I had something to like, prove to everyone like, Yeah, I know, themes. And it's okay not to know things like that's like life is about learning. Like, even the people like I have messed with everybody in this industry. And like even people that are in these great, these great positions in life, like, the reality of their life is that a lot of success is a function of grit, and luck, as you love, grit and underrated. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like it's a function of its function. Those three things. Yeah, you have to grind. But then there's like a really, really popular Bible verse Not to get preachy that says, like, the fastest person isn't always going to win the race. And I remember reading that and I was like, damn, so I could like train and train and train and things could also not work out. And you have to allow in your life, the ability for serendipity to happen. So like if you are a serendipitous mean that if you are like, like, like if you live life with an optimistic outlook, which is the way that I try to live life, so no matter what's happening, no matter how long, it's gonna take me if I put my mind to do something, I'm going to do it, right, but I'm not going to pressure myself to do it within this particular time, frame it this particular way, I'm going to let life happen. And nine times out of 10 like the things that you see up thinking about and worrying about, like never actually happened. So like my fear used to be it was so stupid, I'd be like, Yeah, everything's gonna go shit. And then I'm gonna just be like a hobo. I'm sorry, fast and offensive term, y'all but like, I'm gonna just be like on the streets. I don't know, like I didn't I ended like, realistically, Will that ever happen? No. But like, I was, like just thinking the worst of the worst of the worst case scenarios and not allowing myself to breed like I would not, like, I'd be so stiff as a board and I wasn't like a relaxed person, you know. And what I would tell myself, in summary is just go to just chill out, like, it's, it's gonna work out, these are going to be fine, people are going to believe like, and everyone's going to be excited about things, you just need to chill out and allow yourself to be able to, like, enjoy the journey, because sometimes, like, you know, when things are happening, and then you get so like, absorbed into, like, this industry, that a good thing happens, and it doesn't even like resonate with you. And you just like, more and more, the deeper you get into it, too. And then, and then my friends, like, I have a friend, that's a doctor, and she was telling me she's like, go she like, what's the tech industry, like, I wanna get into tech, and like, you know, like, get rich or whatever. I'm like, by the time that happens, I promise you won't even care. Yeah. And she's like, What do you mean? And I'm like, you know, they don't remember watching the adventures. And then they know, it's like, snaps his fingers kills everybody. And then he goes to go and rest and watch the sunset. That's literally what it is like, you can have the most amazing to come you can have like the biggest round of your life goals. And then instead of being like, oh my god, like you're not like, yeah, you still bled a little bit. We were like,
Cory McKane 41:18
Well, for me, it's like what's next? Like? Yeah, like we were finally starting with enterprise. We're gonna have way more sales soon. So I'm not worried about it. But hey, our small betas small business has been such a slow growth and what we're finally hit like, but I was like, if we can just hit 3500, MRR, then we can have five we're at blah, blah, blah. And we finally hit 3500. Mr. And it just happened overnight. I just didn't. I was like, next, like, I didn't even care. Yeah, like that, you start to lose the endorphins. Like small goals. So I think it's important to like, let yourself chill
Ugochi Owo 41:47
and take time and celebrate the little, like, take time and celebrate like the little things a little wins. Like I remember, our first check was like, shout out to everyone that's part of that group. But like they invested like $20,000 in us, right? That's a good check when you start. Yeah, it was a first but like, it didn't really do much in terms of like drastically changing things. But it was a really big encouragement because the member someone actually believes that we could do this, right? And it was like, hey, like this, this for sure will happen. And I think for founders, even if you haven't raised a single dollar, like, the fact that someone perks up at the sound of your idea means that there's actually something that's there, and being able to kind of like not and I would always tell myself to hang out with more people, like I would always keep to myself and I would I'm like I know a lot of people but like I always meet people like one on one like I wouldn't like you wouldn't you would not catch me at like a networking event or whatever. Like I wouldn't go to those things. And I started showing up to more things not for the purpose of networking, because I wouldn't really like you know, but like, I would just meet other founders, and it would be encouraging to meet people. And then they'd say, Yeah, I'm going through this too. And I'm like, oh,
Cory McKane 42:58
what yeah,
Ugochi Owo 43:00
I'm not only like it's not just me my head and I like this is this is amazing, like, amazing. Like people can like share their struggles and stuff. cry over pizza about someone that you have to fire that's a tough thing is like when you fire people and like they don't realize how tough it is for like you like fire. Yeah,
Cory McKane 43:15
I always feel bad for the employee, but it's like you have no idea what it's like. Yeah, like, take a piece out. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, thankfully, I've all had to let go of part time, people. I have not yet had to let go of a full time person. I'm just like, I really hope I don't have to. Yeah, well, at some point, I'm just like, Oh, yeah.
Ugochi Owo 43:32
I don't want to Yeah, no, I fired somebody a month ago. And like, I felt like, man, I was really rooting for them. Yeah, like, I was like Tyra Banks, like I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you. And like, the opportunity after opportunity, after opportunity, and like, like zero performance right the entire time. And I was just like, it makes it a lot easier to let them go. It makes it easier. But then I think for me, I get so invested, like I want everyone in my life to succeed. So like I get so invested into like, no, no, like, if you just like, um, like if you can just try like a little bit harder. Like if you just suppliers, just push yourself like you've got it. And then they just you know, they didn't have it and I was like man, this is costing us money.
Cory McKane 44:17
That's tough. We want one thing and I felt we've been talking about like inspirational stuff for 30 minutes and I want you back to what Flint because I'm like, I'm gonna I can talk for days about like this the start the ride and the meaning of life and startups. And I'm like, wait, I haven't asked you any flinto stuff in like 20 minutes back to floodplain. What? What are you guys like? Do you consider yourself like, part of the crypto space or do you just feel like you have like, are you going to web three happy hours? Are you just kind of like butter like are you going to those or are you just kind of like we are a reverse logistics company. And then like we happen to have web three involved?
Ugochi Owo 44:57
Yeah, we are coming Any that happens to like, like we're a company that's focused on like solving the returns problem. But like, because of the amazing involvement of like blockchain, we're a company that's tackling the commerce space starting with returns, but powered by. Yeah, yeah. So, like one or two, I've spoken at a crypto conference. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, I was. I spoke at a crypto conference in Miami. And was it the one in March? No, no, it was in November. And, like, I just, you know, like, they asked the, the person that runs it, like, knows me. And it was like Kochi, like, you say something? I'm like, Well, we haven't really announced it yet. But like, sure. Yeah,
Cory McKane 45:43
cool. Yeah, I got a lot of buddies in the web three space. It's definitely like, it's definitely growing very, I mean, it's obviously has ups and downs. So for me, it's growing so rapidly, and like there's so many being in Are you happy that you're in Austin, while you're growing this company?
Ugochi Owo 45:58
Yeah, I think, you know, I tried a lot of cities man, like I've like I lived in Toronto for life. And I lived in Houston, and, you know, spent time in New York, and I've spent time in Miami. And the thing about Austin is that Austin, has genuine people very, for me, when I was living in Miami, and I can like, I don't care about seeing this, because everyone that knows me knows my stance on Miami. Miami is a very, very shifty crowd. And I couldn't be in a place where I couldn't be in a place where I like, I have to be on guard the entire time, because I'm someone that naturally wants to help people. So like, if I meet someone, and I know like, Oh, this is good for you, I'll just like make the instrument like on the spot, you know, and like, in Miami, you got to wait like 30 days. Because what if they go to jail like it like it's like, like, literally like, like, that's how insane that scene is, is that someone can get like arrested for this or like they, you know, like may not have a real thing where like he like Miami is very, very, very, like good people there. But there's also a lot of bad actors. So it's very, very tough to fully be comfortable there. Yeah. And I think it's also a place it's a little bit distracting when it comes to like, yeah, people are building real things. And I'm not going to ever dispute that. But like when you're running into like a celebrity every week, like at a random party, or whatever you get like into, like you just get into that lifestyle. And I think Austin has a very, very great balance where people are not very flashy out here.
Cory McKane 47:27
We have like tech celebrities. Yeah. Yeah. Like
Ugochi Owo 47:31
everyone's like, just like, chill, everyone's normal. Like, and everyone is just here. It's to build good things. Just have a great time. And one thing I love about Austin is that it's a very supportive community. So like everyone wants to see everyone I wouldn't say when everyone wants to see everyone's drive exactly like that. Exactly. Everyone's to see everyone like be their best be at their optimal potential. And like, no one is greedy here. Yeah, like people will like, yeah, that's my friend that happens to be the CEO of whatever like to play comedian. Like literally, right? So that's just how life is over here. And I really, really appreciate that because that sticks more closely like my core values. Plus Texas barbecue.
Cory McKane 48:11
Well, it's funny you said about Miami because like, I mean, I um, we we had Garrett on he was talking about how you can never live there because it's so distracting. But like at the same time with this shifty thing. I can't attest to that necessarily, but I can attest when I lived in LA. It wasn't it wasn't the shifty thing. It was the kind of stick out for yourself. And then the second thing was that like, a lot of bullshit like it was, it was a ton. So over here, you might have shifted, but over here you had like, they're not shifty. They're just saying they're doing something and then like, it's 20% of what they're actually doing. Or like they actually they know everyone knows the Kardashians like no, you fucking don't know the Kardashians, right? It's like so it's a whole bunch of that stuff they have to deal with and like he said, being an awesome like, everyone's so just fun and willing to help and like, you're doing this I want to go like
Ugochi Owo 48:54
and then also the cool thing about Austin is that it's so small I've never been in a city where everything is like 15 minutes 20 minutes away, Houston. Man everything is 45 minutes. Exactly. And the thing about Austin being small is that you can't be a bad person over here. Because if you are a people are gonna find out and like you know, it's like a very very small like community and everything so you have to be on your like, you're just be like yourself, like be yourself if you suck like you suck if you're great. You're great and Yeah,
Cory McKane 49:22
exactly. No, I mean, it's that's why that's why like, I'm hosting this event tomorrow night and it's like sold out in like three days. It's like no one everyone just go stuff like 10 minutes away. Let's do it. Yeah, literally. Yeah. So amazing. What is a we got to two questions. Last one is what's your typical day like and then to like, what? What is your next kind of step? So what is it what is it day like in the life of how did you pronounce names? I feel like I don't say it correct.
Ugochi Owo 49:49
My name is gocce that's the that's the original way that my parents intended. How did you say?
People say like you go chi and like, I don't care if it's that but like, it's either you go cheap or go cheap but like the Nigerian ways to go cheat, it's pronounced like the rich and I embrace the rich. Oh
Cory McKane 50:08
gee. Okay, so go cheat. Yeah, who go cheat? Oh
Ugochi Owo 50:10
go cheat. Oh, my nickname is Gucci.
Cory McKane 50:14
Well that's so such a sigma. Yeah. Okay, so what is a typical day like in the life of Gucci? Oh, well,
Ugochi Owo 50:21
um, I get let's say tomorrow, like tomorrow for example, I'm gonna get up at like, 4am Because I have a meeting at 5am with like a business partner in Dubai 1000 Push ups and yeah, of course going to meet you my protein bar. No, no, I get I get about four. You gotta before every day, every day I get up around 440 504 Yeah, and don't take this as advice Do not I used to wake me up at 6am to have like, family time. Listen, when I was a kid and it just kind of like, translated into adult. I'm
Cory McKane 50:51
a 615 six year which is already pretty Yeah. For the fours like the day but ya
Ugochi Owo 50:56
know, my parents would be used to like meet up really early as kids so because of that, like I actually can't sleep past like 645 Yeah, no, I can't either. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, so I never really like I slept in a couple of times. Like I've always been sick or it's been like news or
Cory McKane 51:10
something. I feel gross when I if I wake up past like 930 or 10. I'm like, What am I suppose go back to bed? Yeah, he's done. Yeah,
Ugochi Owo 51:15
I'll call people at eight o'clock. How are you not awake?
Cory McKane 51:18
Let's get upset. I'm like, Dude, I've already worked out had breakfast.
Ugochi Owo 51:23
So I get up and then I'm like tomorrow for example shower. No, wait not shower yet. I'll get up. I'll like think about my life. And then my dog was like, and I have to go take her for a walk. So we'll go for like a half walk half run, and then come back. But the time I get back I'm like mentally awake. So like today for example, when I went on our walk run I had like sunglasses on because they just like, like, not the light of the sun. But you know, when like, the streetlights are fully awake. Um, so I'll do that. Then. Come home shower. He's here one second. Yeah, you're fine.
Cory McKane 51:58
We call him really quick.
Ugochi Owo 51:59
Intermission.
Cory McKane 52:00
We grabbed him. Really? Yeah, you're good. Yeah, no,
Ugochi Owo 52:03
I walk my dog come back shower. And then I kind of like look at my calendar, see, like, what's going on. And then I mentally prepped for the days like I'll like, I'm Christians, like all like read a couple of like, encouraging, you know, Bible verses or whatever. I'm okay. God's got me. I got it. And, and I, yeah, like, I'll jump on calls cuz I work with people in different time zones. And then like, part of our development team is in Poland. So like, Ukraine. So yeah, it's like, I have to be like, a week, you know, like, talk to them or whatever. And then yeah, then it's like sometimes it's a mix of like, virtual and then in person meetings, like right now like we're, I'm I love to say that we're reasoning SEC laws. Okay. Right now we're talking. Maybe raising where maybe raising? I don't know. But yeah, so like, I just like either like a hybrid of like in person, which is like, you know, talking to people physically, and like commuting and all that. And then zoom meetings. And I'll do that until my cut off. It's usually around like, maybe seven and then cool. Yeah, sometimes late meetings, but not like meetings, meetings and meeting like, they'll be like, you know, intermission or whatever. And then I'll come home. I'll walk my dog you got there. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah. And I'll walk my dog and then I'll like circle back on email, because that's another part of the job that people don't realize is like, you're talking to people and then you have to actually actually have to work. Yeah, yeah. And then, so I'll circle back on email, do all of that. And then, you know, walk the dog and hit the gym, and come back shower, and then maybe watch a movie or something. Yeah. And that's it. Regular day. And then on weekends, what time you go to bed? Um, maybe like 10
Cory McKane 53:46
Okay, yeah. Six ish hours asleep. Okay. I get like six and a half or so I should get more but like
Ugochi Owo 53:53
Yeah, but I was reading a study that's that like the eight hours thing is like a myth because like I'm not Yeah, I can't like not function on I don't take coffee by the way. It's like I don't like need like eight hours to function but like, I need at least five I need seven. Yeah. Five is like I'm awake. You know mocking them like randomly fall asleep during the day or whatever. And then six seven hours is like kind of like my sweet spot anything that's like a beyond eight hours. I feel like I like it. Like I feel like feel gross. Like yeah, like you know what you don't want reversal. Right? You don't want you don't work out for a minute and you start to turn to mush like that feeling. That's how I feel like when I oversleep
Cory McKane 54:33
like I feel the same way. Yeah. Okay, last thing here. What? You guys are doing a lot of things. A lot of things we can't mention. We will tag and see what's going on. Yeah, what are you guys working on next? What's next for you guys?
Ugochi Owo 54:45
Um, yeah, we're working on ironing out the logistics but much behind like nationwide expansion. So like we have a lot of like really great partnerships that we're doing and like I'm super excited to be able to roll out to every customer in the US and hopefully you can Canada, every customer in the US Wow. Yeah, yeah, we're like, like to be able to be available to everyone. Like everyone just randomly like the YouTube album. When Apple forces on Oh, yeah. Can you imagine like you wake up and you just have like the flintlock? That's a good part actually installed on your phone. Yeah, that'd be I'd be so happy. But like, everyone be so. Yeah. But like, yeah, like, we're looking at like a nationwide rollout, the internal mechanics behind doing that. And yeah, and then just like new hires, man, I'm so excited, like, our team is growing and like, things are good. And we're kind of like coming out of this point where we've been quiet for a little bit while figuring things out. So like, we're going to be kind of taking, you know, PR by storm and like making a lot of noise. And I'm nervous, but I'm also excited for it. Because, you know, with media, like there's a point where they send you the article, you can tweak it. And then there's another point where you just like start meeting random things. I actually didn't say that. So I'm slowly working my way into like, talking more publicly, like even with Twitter, I didn't didn't tweet for the longest because I didn't want everything to be taken as a I didn't want like someone that follows me that may be high profile or whatever to like, something controversial that I said, and then all of a sudden, you know, becomes like a soundbite on like a business Mashable article. So with Twitter circles, man, I've been like tweeting and then eventually I'll start tweeting on my actual like, page, like, you guys cannot read my tweets. I can't see any available to like certain people, but like, or retweet them. But yeah, like, I'm, like, slowly working my way up into like, okay, you know, this whole thing about being a founder is that with press, like, people don't want to hear about the company want to hear about like you, and then it becomes about you. And then eventually, you know, you don't have as much control, but I'm, like, excited along the way. I think Austin's a really great place for us to be,
Cory McKane 56:45
you're gonna crush it. And I think like, that's a good spot to end this interview. Because I think next year, I'll probably have you on again. And we'll talk about we're going to talk about this interview, and then where you guys are a year from now.
Ugochi Owo 56:57
Yeah. And you know, when we funny if we were like, you know, Billy Eilish does this one interview every year and it's like the same interview that she's been doing for the last like five years. I have not seen that from when she was like, 16 and she'll pull up. She'll just have it like side by side with her face. And she's like, Yeah, I'm Billy Eilish. I have 1000 followers on Instagram, and then, Billy Eilish, I have 64 million that's all really cool. Okay. Yeah, well, yeah. Pretty sick. But like, yeah, okay, this.
Cory McKane 57:22
Let me write that down. Well, awesome. It's so great to have you on and we're gonna do the closing now that they told me to say it's as hard saying it that's, that's why we strive
Ugochi Owo 57:31
why we strive.
Cory McKane 57:35
I wanted to thank you for watching this entire episode of why we strive to be sure you had to why we strive.com and subscribe. So every Tuesday, you can see incredible interviews with some of the best tech founders, investors and creatives in the industry. Have an amazing day. And don't forget to keep striving
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
.jpg)
