Ep. 1 Put Air in Your Shorts and Jump in the Pool
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Shubh: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. My name is Shubh Sidhu, and welcome to the pilot episode of a new podcast called Your Business is On the Line. Every week we're gonna have some guests on, they'll either pitch a business idea they've been thinking about or working on, or talk about a business problem they're dealing with at work.
They might call in, they might text in, they might join us in studio, and we're gonna try to help them workshop that idea or solve that problem. Why me and why now? Well, I've spent the last two decades helping founders and entrepreneurs grow their businesses. I've heard a lot of cool ideas, seen some really bad ones, and I'd like to hear more of both.
I also really enjoy being behind a microphone, and a big part of me has always wanted to be a talk show host, so this is sort of the culmination of a dream. Now, this is a pilot episode, so I hope you'll bear with us. You might be sitting there thinking, huh, this audio's not that good, or This format doesn't make total sense, or, these guys don't really seem like they know what they're doing.
[00:01:00] But I hope you stick with it. Listen through to the end, and I hope it goes well, and I hope we make more. Thanks for coming.
Shubh: , Good afternoon everybody. This is the very first inaugural episode of something called Your Business on the Line, which is a podcast based here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where we are going to talk about business ideas, help people evaluate the validity of those business ideas. And mostly make fun of them, I think.
Yes, I hope so. Yeah. Right. Mostly you're hearing another voice. Right now. That voice is, our very first guest host, um, Philippe. Yeah. Philip. Yeah.
Philippe: Philip Burns. I know. It's Philip,
Shubh: Philip Burns from, [00:02:00] uh, tech Thursday here in Calgary. . Philippe, how are you today?
Philippe: I'm doing great. This is hilarious. I'm excited to, uh, I'm excited to use my best skill, which is being judgmental.
Yeah. Uh, so, so pumped to be here.
Shubh: What, um, what can you tell all of our, I mean, we have a pretty substantial listening base. I'm assuming at this point now that there's all this banter outta the way. Uh, can you tell us a little bit about Tech Thursday, you were the founder of Tech Thursday you started this.
Yeah. This was a business idea.
Philippe: Yeah. Okay. This was a business idea, so, . I'm, you know, incredibly, um, well positioned to make fun of other entrepreneurs. Yeah,
Shubh: of course. Yeah.
Philippe: Um, , yeah,
started Tech Thursday.
Um, uh,
basically what it is,
it's,
it's an event series.
We,
we host events across Canada.
Yeah. Um,
Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary.
, It's been a lot of fun, but really started the company,, through my job at,
I previously worked at Neo Financial
Yeah.
And was kind of able to incubate this idea.
Um,
until eventually Neo was like, we don't need [00:03:00] this. And so I was like, all right, do you mind if I, you know, take this business
and,
and try and, you know, make a company
and,
and make a living off of it. And they were quite keen.
So it's been about like a year and a half that I've been running this thing full time.
Shubh: Um, pretty amazing. I've had the, , wonderful joy of attending several Tech Thursday events, and I think it's incredible what you've been able to do in the last year and a half, which, uh, might be the first time I've said something nice to you.
That's right. Yeah. Right. Um, a couple other things. You also have started a charity run club. Tell me about that.
Philippe: Yeah. The patrol foundation.
Leah: Yeah. ,
Philippe: It's a nonprofit. Me and eight of my friends started it. Yep. Um. And we, we run three events throughout the year here in Calgary. Um, a stampede event. That raises money for local kids sports.
And then we're right in between our two events that we run in November.
Leah: Yeah.
Philippe: So on Saturday we just hosted a charity 10 K and then we will be hosting the Mustache Bash. Yeah. Which is like a formal [00:04:00] gala. And those two events raise money for ACF. So.
Shubh: That's amazing. Um, yeah, I don't have an invite to the mustache bash.
Philippe: You will, I mean, you can get an invite with just $60, which just $60 gets me an invite. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Well, you know, that's your ticket. That sounds, sounds you offering
Shubh: me the opportunity to buy a
Philippe: ticket. That's exactly what I'm doing. Okay. Alright. Exactly. Yeah. We will sell out though, so you gotta get it soon.
Shubh: Okay. I guess, uh, does anybody have $60 I could borrow? Um, okay. One, uh, other interesting factoid that you told me in the last couple of weeks? Um, yeah.
Philippe: Um, which I'm now immediately regretting that I told you Yes. Because you're immediately using it as, as sort of leverage.
Shubh: Yeah. I think, um, you're trying to run a media company.
Yeah. Content is very, very, very important. Um. You're good at a ver uh, a particular sport, I would say.
Philippe: Yeah. Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm actually not good. That's not fair. Great. Great. Great at it. Great. I mean, I'm a national quidditch champion. Um, what country? [00:05:00] Um, Canada. Yeah. And so how many, how long ago was this? This was, um, I won in 2019.
Same year the Raptors won the NBA championship. That's right. I like, and lemme tell you, I like my chips with the dip.
Shubh: Uh, what, I'm sorry. I know we have a whole thing to talk about. Yeah. But I'm sure everybody's curious 'cause I know I'm, what is. How?
Philippe: Yeah. Um, I mean, like the backstory is I was pretty bad at most sports in high school.
Okay. But I, I was going into university, like, um, I, I would love to find a sport that I could contribute to. Yep. And on my first day there was all the clubs had set up and I was with a friend I had just met at school and, uh, we walked by the Quidditch Club and I like tried making fun of them. I was like, um.
Look at those nerds. Yeah. Like, that's so nuts. Of
Shubh: course. That's literally what's in my head right now. Yeah, yeah,
Philippe: yeah. And then my friend was like, no, apparently they're good. And
Shubh: that was just like such, [00:06:00] well, what did he mean? They were good? Like they were like a ranked quidditch team?
Philippe: Well, I, I had no idea what it meant, but was exactly what was going through your mind.
I was like, what does that mean? Okay. And I need to find out, like I need to, so I went to go talk to them and they were cool. They were really cool.
Shubh: Four year quidditch player or were you a, a red shirt freshman? Were you one and done what? Once you won the title, were you like, what else is there?
Philippe: Yeah. Oh, I mean like, well this now kind of takes out, takes us into, um, a whole nother story.
Yeah. So, so year one, year two, um, I'm joining the team, making an impact right away. Yeah. I get elected to, to be the, the head, the captain of the A team. Yeah. In my second year. Yeah, because we had an 18 in my third year. Sorry. Yeah. We had an 18 minute B team. And then, um, I also got elected, uh, as, as the captain of both teams.
You, you got elected as the captain of the B team and the A team. So I was head captain, but also captain of the A team. Okay, gotcha. So, so I sort of [00:07:00] like overall captain Yeah.
Shubh: And individual captain.
Philippe: Yeah. But this is like , at a, at a certain point we were in a tournaments and we were losing to the B team.
Leah: Yeah.
Philippe: And so in the huddle, I said , guys, we can't be losing to the B team. Like, this is absurd, right? Like this is the B team. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. And uh, I guess that message was passed on to the B team. Right? And so I was asked to resign out of, uh, uh, out of my elitism. They said I was elitist.
Shubh: You were as to resign as captain of both teams
Philippe: of No, of just of the head count period. Resign as the. Head captain, but I could remain on as the captain of the A team. And what did you choose to do? I chose to resign., As the head captain, I remained the captain of the A team. Yeah. But we lost that year.
Yeah. And so,
Shubh: yeah. How did the B team do?
Philippe: Uh, they way worse. Yeah. Way worse. Okay. So you were right. So I was, yeah, exactly. And then I, um, and then I, I like [00:08:00] Kevin Durant-ed, yeah. I. I picked up.
Leah: Yeah.
Philippe: And I went to like a, a super team in Quidditchis this weird thing where like, hold on a sec. But, but
Shubh: wasn't it a school team?
Philippe: So I was part of a school team.
Shubh: But you went to an unaffiliated school team, A club team.
Philippe: Yeah, exactly. I went to, um, a club, a community team that was new that year called the Ottawa Otters. Yeah. I didn't always go to school in Montreal. Like, yeah. So, hold on a second.
Shubh: Sorry. That's the team I want. You're never gonna get to the rest of this podcast.
You were, you chose, you were living in Montreal. Yeah. You chose to join a Quidditch team based in Ottawa. So an hour, an hour drive, Uhhuh. Um, because. You thought this was your best chance at a national title?
Philippe: Well, I, so after having met, because that's
Shubh: what Durant did,
Philippe: right? That's what I, yeah. So you,
Shubh: you found your, you were the Hampton five, except you were the Ottawa five.
Philippe: Exactly. Yeah. This is like a
Shubh: lot of inside basketball commentary that most people are not gonna, most
Philippe: people are not gonna know. Yeah. But that's exactly what I did. I was kind of like, I don't know if I'm gonna play Quidditchanymore. And [00:09:00] then, yeah, I got recruited, joined the super team, and uh. I smoked my old team
Shubh: and that was it.
And then you went all the way to the national championship
Philippe: all the way to the nationals and, and we won. And I, I just found my university journal the other day. Yeah. And I'm crying, apparently I won. And tears of joy.
Shubh: Well, I mean, it's a big deal. It's a big deal. You can win a national championship in anything.
And I, I mean, of course think it's hilarious that it's Quidditch, but, uh, it feels like a big deal.
Philippe: Yeah. What about spotlight on you uh, investigator? No. You got some weird sports back there.
Shubh: That's not how this works. No, no. This is my thing.
Philippe: The people wanna know about the host?
Shubh: No, I don't think they do.
Um, I didn't really even introduce myself, but, uh, um, uh, so Shubh Sidhu, I, uh, this is my, this is my dream. So I have carved out a career in tech. Yeah. Um, of medium success. Uh, but what I wanted to do when I was a kid was be Conan O'Brien. Really? Like I would just stay up late Yeah. And watch Conan like two in the morning.
[00:10:00] Um, and my favorite thing in the world is talking to people and, um, having to be funny.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: My least favorite thing in the world is listening to boring stuff.
Philippe: Okay.
Shubh: And I do enjoy learning about business, but I find everything I try to listen to about business is not super entertaining.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Like, it's like it's a infotaining,
Philippe: right?
Shubh: No, it's not even infotaining. It's informative, but there's no infotainment.
Philippe: Right?
Shubh: So I was like, well, what if there was a podcast ostensibly about business that really was just an excuse to. Shoot the poop with your friends. Okay. I substituted swear, just in case we decide to take this to the,
Philippe: to the public.
To the public, yeah. To the, to the, to the in,
in case the public's
not ready for shit.
Shubh: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, we've got a producer cut that. Um, , I was at a company called ZayZoon for many years. A a big, uh, sort of successful growth story here in, in our market. And, uh. I took a couple months off and I was like, what do I wanna do with my [00:11:00] life?
Yeah. So I'm helping some companies out. What I do.
Philippe: You got you what? Got tired. Tired of reviewing chips on a newsletter.
Shubh: I did write, I do also have a, a newsletter. Uh, yes. And I spent a lot of time reviewing chips. Which brings me, uh, to one question before we get to the actual meat of the show. Yeah. You got a favorite chip?
Philippe: Do you have a favorite chip?
Shubh: Uh, it doesn't, you know what, that's not a fair question. Like asking if you have a favorite movie, it's impossible. Do you have a chip you would like? If I was like, go eat a chip right now, what would you eat?
Philippe: Uh oh, that's a great question. Um, right now, damn. I would probably go, munchies is coming straight to my mind.
Like, oh, the mix sonship, uh, pretzel mix. Smart. You get a, you get a little bit, you pick one chip. Okay. Um, so what would you go for right now? What's your ideal pairing for your first podcast? Oh, after this, what's the ideal pairing for your dream? You're now living, you started
Shubh: eating them on the podcast, like just some A SMR.
. Um. I, uh, I do like a regular chip. Yeah. With sour cream and [00:12:00] onion dip. You know, you take the onion soup mix and you mix it with sour cream. Oh yeah. Have you done that before? Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. And then, uh, like your chips with a dip too, that I really like a cool ranch Dorito.
I, a lot of people don't love that, but. I like it.
Philippe: That's great. Um, okay, so we, do you feel like the people know you before we jump into the podcast, do you feel like, ah, they, because I've been vulnerable here now, they all know that I'm a, well, I, to be fair,
Shubh: I don't think you were vulnerable. I think I exposed your vulnerability.
I think those are two different things. Um, I would say, um. Uh, they will find out. Mm-hmm. Right. Like, this is, like, I'm doing like a, I'm being, I think, more polite than normal. Right? Yeah. Um, so I guess we're gonna see what happens. Um, just, uh, so everyone understands what's about to happen here. Phil's gonna join me today.
Um, and then we're, uh, we're literally gonna have some people come in and, and, uh, and pitch some ideas to us. And, uh, we're gonna just, we're gonna, we're gonna chop it up a little bit. Yeah. So we'll be right back.
Philippe: Is this? Yeah. Okay. We, should we go get our first [00:13:00] guest?
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. We'll be right back. We'll be
Philippe: right back.
Shubh: Alright everybody, so, welcome in Leah Sarich Leah, very nice to meet you. You and I have never met before, as far as I know.
Leah: Uh, that's entirely possible.
Shubh: Yeah. Um, would you take maybe a second and just, uh, tell us about yourself?
Leah: Sure, sure. My name's Leah Sarich. I'm the head of Story at Thin Air Labs, a VC here in town, a professional services firm. Uh, as head of story, I do sort of our marketing communications and PR and tell all the stories for the companies in the portfolio and lots of companies in the ecosystem.
Shubh: So based on that description, I would say you're uniquely qualified.
To understand whether someone's business idea has a potential product market not fit, but even conceptual idea. Would that be fair? You've seen a lot of startups in your role too. I've seen a
Leah: lot of startups talk to a lot of founders.
Shubh: Yeah. Okay, great. So today we're gonna just maybe change it up a little because it's my, we.
This is my program. Right. I would like to be the first one to pitch.
Leah: I love it.
Philippe: Um, and, and me and you, Leah, [00:14:00] we have the opportunity to chat him relentlessly. I would
Shubh: love some, uh, questions and feedback on this idea. Yeah. Um, Phil has heard a bit of this idea all right. Before, so, um, I really hope this is one I'm thinking of.
Yeah. So I have this idea, um, um, as you can now tell, I, I grew up as an East Indian immigrant. What often happens is, uh, when our parents come from overseas, um. One thing they don't really experience growing up is swimming and swim lessons. Oh. So we grow up with like a limited, like, I think I got to what they called maroon at the time, which is, I don't know, they don't do the colors anymore.
It was very low level swimmer. And then we have kids and our kids go and And learn how to swim right away. Yes, they become excellent swimmers. Yes. And very quickly, by the time they're like six or seven, they're as good or a better swimmer than you. Now you have learned how to swim over this time. Right.
So you have become a better swimmer, but you are still not a good or great swimmer. Now when you go to the pool though, you don't wanna be like wearing like [00:15:00] floaties obvious flotation devices.
Philippe: Right, right. Life jacket. So, um, well, I like the, I like those noodles that people sit up. Yeah. You can't have, can't
Shubh: we walk around the pool noodle life jacket?
I mean, people are just like, what? Um, so with the flutter,
Philippe: I like the flutter board.
Shubh: Hey, can you,
Philippe: okay, sorry.
Shubh: Uh, so the, uh, the idea is, um. You would have these like, uh, like neoprene line shorts under your swim trunks. And uh, do you remember the Reebok pump shoes? You would just have a little pump. So you would just put a little bit of air
Leah: Okay.
Shubh: In the shorts. And then it would just give you that added, uh, bit little buoyancy. And I can see by your face you're not sold. But wait, but wait, wait. The name is Floarts.
Leah: Floarts.
Shubh: Are you in or not?
Leah: Okay. First of all, I love the name.
Shubh: Perfect.
Leah: Florence.
Yeah, I, I'm very curious about the visual. I, yeah. What is this gonna look like on someone who's walking on the pool deck [00:16:00] thinking, I'm just gonna inflate my shorts here.
Yeah.
Shubh: I think, I think that's both a problem and an opportunity, uh, without maybe going too deep. Like, I think it just, uh, wherever the air pockets are positioned, uh, I mean that's a, that's an open question from the design. That was my
Philippe: question on the, uh, on the where are the air pockets, because like it could really look like you constantly.
Have a, a fart in your pants, Uhhuh. Yeah. That's about to escape, you know, the air bubble? No, I
Shubh: think you, I think you have to strategically place the air. So do you think like, just on the thighs, I'm think, I'm thinking like sides to start with maybe. Yeah, right. But maybe if like, you know. Maybe if you like,
Philippe: you could get a BBL.
Shubh: You wanna accentuate certain, right? Yeah. So anyway, that's the idea. So
Leah: there's an accentuation opportunity there. That's a great question though about the area. Okay. But here's the thing, I'm also visualizing, now I dunno anything about physics. Yeah. Or like how this would work in the water. But I'm visualizing you.
Floating on the bottom half. Yeah. What's happening to the top half?
Shubh: Yeah.
Leah: So all of a sudden your face is in the water. 'cause all of a sudden your butt's floating up and then you're [00:17:00] doing a nose dive and, I don't know.
Philippe: Yeah. It's like a constant like side doggy panel.
I, that's
Leah: right. Or you're doing like, what is this? You know, when you're doing this one that left and right movement, you're treading water.
Shubh: Yeah. I love that you're making the hand motion right when people can't see us. That's right. I love it. Yeah.
Leah: You can feel it though. You could feel the vibe. I'm treading water.
Shubh: This is an excellent question. I think this is a key part of this is like, this is not a life saving device. This is not a life assisting device. All right? This is just like you have to be able to swim. To your point, I'm not, um, probably the wrong time to admit when you're doing the pitch. I'm not tested this theory right.
Just by 'cause you know, it's always for me, it's always the middle of my body that sinks. When I'm trying to swim.
Leah: Okay. So I'm gonna question you on when you say, well, I can swim. Yeah. So inherently if you're swimming, you should be floating. Yeah.
Shubh: You get tired, the kids don't
get tired. So it's just, it's just like a little, it's like a performance enhancer, but, uh, yeah, but not illegal.
Leah: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just an a, it's just like a, [00:18:00] so really this is a security sort of situation for yourself.
Shubh: E-bike, but for swimming.
Leah: Oh, that's a good pitch.
Shubh: Oh, an e-bike, but for swimming? Yeah. Okay. I wanted to change my pitch. It's like, wait, what's an e-bike
for swimming?
Shubh: I'd like to hear this pitch, Leah, now.
No, no, let's go with this. Okay, so it's like an e-bike. Yeah. But for swimming. Yeah. So you're,
Shubh: you're doing this an entirely
Leah: Yeah. No, but just think about it. Right. All of a sudden I can see it. Okay. So you've got your shorts on. Yes. And you're floating. Yeah. Right. Now you're sort of floating now. It's not propelling you through the water.
Shubh: Oh, you're talking about adding electricity to the water.
Leah: I mean, you could go all the way with this, right? All of a sudden you're zipping through the pool.
Shubh: This feels very dangerous. I thought you were gonna pitch an e-bike, but for water. Well, I think it just, which would be like a, what would that be? Like a jet ski?
I guess that's been
Philippe: invented already. Well, you could,
Leah: I feel like that exists,
Philippe: like, uh, but I, I do think like framing it just like an e-bike for water. Like what's an e-bike? It's like a [00:19:00] bike that looks like a regular bike, but makes it way easier to bike. Um, exactly. Much simpler to pedal. This is float. So, so Floarts is, is an e-bike for the water.
Like, you know, it doesn't have to have electricity in,
Shubh: it's like Uber, but for floating,
it's the, that's the pitch of flotation. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess what I'm hearing is there's a lot of questions about safety.
Leah: Yeah.
Shubh: Um,
Leah: I would also suggest efficacy.
Shubh: Efficacy, yeah. Safety. Eff, other than safety, efficacy, poor design.
Great name, great name, great name. So I think what I'm hearing is I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back into the, to the lab. Yeah, yeah. And maybe I could reapply the name.
Leah: Okay. Like you could really have a lot of fun with this.
Philippe: I'm, I'm almost wondering if like the first model is a Speedo, you know, hold on.
Shubh: Sounds like you guys were,
Leah: I find that deeply unsettling.
Shubh: You guys were kind of like, not in support of this idea, but now you're,
Philippe: now, now I think you should really spread this.
Shubh: Now you've come around.
Philippe: I
don't think this podcast is such a good [00:20:00] idea.
Shubh: What if I just recalled Arena podcast Floarts, floor, you can invest and then said it's like an e-bike, but for podcast. That's pretty good.
Philippe: That's pretty good.
Shubh: Yeah. Okay. Well, I appreciate you guys. Uh. Listening to my idea anytime. Um, I, uh, won't pretend I don't feel bad.
, But yeah, I think, um, I think it's probably a no. And hey,
Leah: hey, it all starts an idea.
Shubh: Well, you're saying, and you're being very nice about it, Leah, but, but, uh,
Philippe: I don't. You don't think, I don't know. I, I actually like get the flo in this.
You're
Shubh: all I have to say is I'm not in, and now you're in. I think I'm in.
Philippe: Like, I, I think I wanna see you try it. I think I wanna see you put. Air in shorts and see if it works. Alright, there you go.
Leah: All you need is an MVP.
Shubh: Three months from now, we'll be back here when we put some air in shorts.
Philippe: I like put air in shorts and jump in the pool like, you know, that's really not that hard.
Shubh: And then
this is a, this [00:21:00] is the description from the point of view of somebody who has just gone ahead and started his own company. What if you just put some air in your shorts and, alright, well. Thank you very much Leah again.
Leah: My pleasure.
Shubh: And um, um, maybe you'll come back at some
point.
Leah: Anytime.
Shubh: Okay. Awesome. Thank you.
All right, everybody. . Um, so Phil, we've had, uh, one pitch that I did yeah. So far today. Uh,
Philippe: great pitch.
Shubh: We had our first guest to come on and pitch ever in the history of this program. The history of this program is 45 minutes. Um, Sebastian Hiscock has, uh, graciously decided to come into this, uh, podcast room.
Um, just before we get to Sebastian, Phil, what would you say the temperature of this podcast room is right now? Yeah,
Philippe: this, uh, we really did a bad job of getting ventilation in this room. It's, I'll say we, when, I mean the contractors,
Shubh: it's 80 degrees Celsius. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Sebastian, pleasure having you here.
Yeah, tell us a bit about yourself.
Seb: Thank you. Um, yeah, so I was born in 1992. [00:22:00]
Shubh: Wow.
Philippe: All the way back.
Seb: Kentville, Nova Scotia.
Shubh: Kent. You from Nova Scotia? Yeah. I love Nova Scotia. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, I was born in Newfoundland. Oh, no way. And my family's all out , in Halifax.
Seb: Oh, cool.
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: Yeah. I mean, I started that as like, yeah.
Kind of a joke, you know, to all the way back. Everybody who, but now we just made a genuine connection. Everybody
Shubh: who comes on and I'm like, I'm from there. I'm gonna say, oh, I'm from there. That's like a little bit, oh, that's part of it. Oh. Oh, no, no. I'm actually, that's actually actually where I'm from. I love that.
Seb: Yeah. Uh, yeah. So I am currently a co-founder at a company called Pure Lend.
Shubh: Okay.
Seb: Here in Calgary. Yeah. Uh, we do. Document automation for mortgage brokers and,, lenders. Uh, before that I was a principal engineer and architect at Neo Financial for about five and a half years. And way back I worked in the airline domain.
That's sort of where I cut my teeth.
Shubh: So were you one of those guys who told the. Pilots, which way to go with it.
Seb: Yeah, exactly. On the ground.
No, I actually worked in the call center.
Shubh: Oh really?
Seb: Yeah. Oh cool. That's how it start. Must be a tough
Shubh: job working the call center in airline. Yeah, nobody [00:23:00] calls in 'cause they're happy.
Seb: Nobody is happy to talk to you. Yeah. Uh, no, we, we did a pretty good job though, I think at. You know, keeping, keeping customers, you know, turning those calls around. Somebody does that.
Philippe: Nice.
Shubh: Well, I mean, we talk about turning things around. That's why you're here because according to Phil, this has not gone well so far.
Philippe: Uh, yeah. Seb ho hopefully you got some skills from back in the days to turn this first pilot episode around. I'll see what I can, you spent
Shubh: five years at a, at a unicorn in Canada. Now you've jumped in and started your own company. So I feel like there's a lot of business acumen. Coming from this side, other side of the table.
So Sebastian, do you have an idea to pitch us?
Seb: I do. Okay. Yeah, I do.
Shubh: So can you imagine if you said no? Just, no. Yeah. I've changed my mind.
Seb: Uh, okay. Do answer this question first. I love this pitch already. Do you, do you like salsa? Yes.
Philippe: I love salsa. I love it. I love salsa.
Seb: Thank you for playing a lot. Love. I would agree with Phil.
Yeah. Plus one. Thank you. I also love salsa a [00:24:00] lot, but I have a serious problem.
Shubh: Okay?
Seb: Whenever I show up at the grocery store, I'm looking at the salsa aisle. You've got like rows and rows, different brands. Yeah. I say the brands Newman's own Tostitos. Yeah. Just bleep these out after you're not
Shubh: allowed. Well, unless we get a sponsorship.
Seb: Oh,
Philippe: that's right.
Seb: Interesting. Hit
Shubh: us up, Tostitos this up. Paul Newman
Philippe: from the grave,
Shubh: like
definitely. Okay. Sorry, could Exactly, yeah. Yeah. So you're looking at all these brands. Yeah. Then there's all these like varieties. Yeah. Like product lines within those brands. Yeah. You got your hot chunky, you got your chunky, you got your, your mild, you got your mm-hmm.
Absolutely. With beans speaking
to the converted. Yeah,
Philippe: exactly. I I feel like also the mild to hot each one, like the, the, the way that they're measuring them is totally different.
Seb: Exactly. It's not, they don't use like, can, they don't show you the SCOs. They don't, you
know, there's no scale.
Shubh: Can't say from every theand is the right mile.
No. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's a great
point. Phil.
Seb: The other day I bought chola, medium. Uhhuh absolutely destroyed me.
Shubh: Yeah, it was [00:25:00] not hot. Too spicy.
Seb: Too hot. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So anyway, that's not the problem that, that I'm trying to solve.
Shubh: Okay.
Seb: It's not standardization. It's not a standard scale. It's called scovilles.
Like Yeah. They could do that if they wanted to. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's not it.
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: The problem is whether I remember that I liked a particular type of salsa. I've tried a lot. They last a long time. They sit around in my fridge. Yep. By the time it's, you know, I'm ready to go to the store. I wanna buy a new jar of salsa.
Yeah. I have no idea. Like, what have I tried? Did I like it? Yeah. What were the characteristics that Yeah. Yeah. That stuck out to me.
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: I have no memory of any of that. It enter SALSA score.
Shubh: I, it's hot in here, but I still got chills.
Seb: You got chills?
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah,
Seb: me too.
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: Pop the barcode. Yep.
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: And it'll tell you.
Yep. Everything. Right? Yeah. About the product. So, but
Shubh: from your personal experience. Exactly. Yeah. Not the generic, how many grams of [00:26:00] carbs. Like what? Yeah.
Seb: I mean, it can do that as well. Sure. But that's, but more importantly
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: When you eat a salsa Yeah. You record it. Yeah.
Shubh: How do you feel about
Seb: it? That's subjective experience.
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: Yeah. And when you're at the store, you scan the barcode. Recall how that experience went? Yeah. Did I like the salsa?
Philippe: Yeah. And, and is this like, um, is this like a, a pure review site as well? Like, can, can I go on and see?
Seb: No. Yeah, no, I can't see. It's just for you.
Philippe: Yeah. Doesn't, does not
Shubh: care what everybody else thinks about and I agree.
Like what? Like I don't wanna know third party reviews of salsa. Yeah. That's a personal experience. Exactly, although get, I kinda like,
Philippe: I, I kind of wish it was like a cult following to this app, like letterbox, you know, like where you could have really funny reviews of salsas and be like a, a salsa, what's it called again?
Source salsa.
Seb: Salsa score. Score salsa. Score Salsa.
Shubh: Is it all, is it all one word?
Seb: One word. Salsa score. Salsa square. Yeah. It flows together. Um,
Shubh: okay. [00:27:00] So, um, as Phil alluded to earlier, I wrote an entire blog about chips and I ranked them. For much of the same reason. I never thought could I put those in an app?
Um, could you apply salsa score to other foods?
Seb: You could, but I you, this is not you
Shubh: singularly,
this is just about, it's about the purity of the sport. Exactly.
Seb: This is about salsa. It's called salsa score. It's not called. Food score. Right, right. That's salsa score.
Philippe: And where do we draw the line? Like, um, great.
Is a, is a bruche, like is a bruta is that a salsa
Shubh: first of I don't think bruschetta.
Philippe: I mean, what, you know, well, a made up word also salsa,
Seb: bruta. Bruta is a word. Or is it brust? Is that what you're saying? It's
Shubh: a real word. It just came out funny.
Seb: I see. Okay. Is you've, so you actually touched on. What I think is like the hardest problem to solve in the salsa space.
Yeah. Salsa [00:28:00] scoring space. Uh, I built a prototype of this. Yeah.
Shubh: Out
Seb: for sure. Yeah. As soon as like some of these like vibe coding tools came out, I was like, I have to try this. I have to finally realize Yeah. My, my desk, my dream. Your dream. Yeah. I'm with you. That's to build, that's why
Shubh: we're doing this right now.
Seb: Exactly. Yeah. Uh, so I did and it, and it works great. But the problem is that it works for any food that has a barcode.
Shubh: Right,
Seb: right. There's no,
Shubh: you're like a Chappelle when he walked away from, from his show. Right? Because it wasn't about the purity of comedy anymore. It became about the business. Like yeah, you, that's, that's the vibe I'm getting is like, Salick score could work for anything.
And you were like, no, I'm walking away. Yeah. You don't want it. This is a big idea. And you were like, no guys, I want this to be only about the salsa. And the world was trying to.
Pull you away from that.
Philippe: Yeah. That's love, like this is like the return of micro apps. Like instead of, instead of like super apps, it's like, no, like that's, this app will not do that.[00:29:00]
This app will only dosa.
Shubh: It's like a, it's like a boutique. Yeah. Like, it's like pretty, it's like bougie almost. Yeah. But in a, in a accessible way.
Seb: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Shubh: Um, can I ask a a off you question. So the sometimes, depending on which one of you does the shopping. If there's just salsa on the list, someone just grabs the salsa.
Right. Would you be able to share, share accounts this with like your household, the case you like, you know, one of somebody else goes shopping for the salsa, I guess is what I'm saying,
Seb: the interesting idea. Yeah. I mean at first I thought I really wanted this to be an individual. Yeah, yeah. Experience. Yeah.
Shubh: It's about you.
Seb: But I get that like maybe one per household could work. Yeah. There's maybe like, um. It's like a monetization model in there. Like you can add, you know, a certain number of members Yeah. For free, like household members or the s and then you start, well,
Shubh: would you accept money from the SALSA people for ads or no?
Does that take away from Oh
Seb: yeah. I mean that really,
Shubh: that's it.
Seb: That's not, it moves the objectivity. It's, it's no [00:30:00] longer about your experience with the salsa. It's now about what big salsa wants you to buy. Yeah. That's a totally different app. I'm not
Philippe: Odell. That's a different app. Odell, El Paso. What is that?
What is that? Sorry? Old, old El Paso. Yeah. You're putting your words together.
Shubh: Yeah. Old El Paso.
Philippe: Odell Old. Well, you know, you must know. What's that? Ssa? Old Elso. Old. Old El El Paso. Correct. Old apostle. Yeah, old. But you're saying ell like Odell Beckham Jr.
I'm not letting Odell Beckham Jr. Tell me what salsa I buy and don't buy.
Shubh: Yeah, well you could. It's never gonna spot. '
Seb: cause SEB won't allow it. Exactly. It's similar to like why Yeah. I won't allow community ratings or like Right. Viewing other people like no social interaction. Really this is about your experience. That's why, that's why I'm hesitating with the household thing.
Philippe: Right. A little bit is you, and this also you doing what your wife. Telling you if you like a salsa or, exactly. Yeah, exactly. This is about me. This is between me and the salsa.
Seb: Yeah. But I understand that practically. Yes. Maybe somebody's [00:31:00] doing shopping. Yeah. I mean, just saying, or you're, you know,
Shubh: around, you're, you're prepping for a party.
Seb: Yeah. Or it's Instacart or something, you know, if, if I could share my salsa preferences with my delivery driver, maybe.
Shubh: So you don't want this to be about anybody other than you, which I, as a narcissist really appreciate. Um, but you, let's say you got a, you have a party, you know, with, uh, all your new friends like me.
You have a party and you put some different salsas out and I'm like, holy cow, this particular salsa unbelievable. Yeah. Are you even telling me what brand that salsa is, or are you just like, go figure it out for yourself, Shubh, because this is, I can't, you don't wanna be told, but can you even recommend salsa without violating sort of your core?
Ethos surround SALSA score.
Seb: So if, if someone tried the salsa
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: And decided that they liked it.
Shubh: Yeah. On their own.
Seb: On their own, yeah. Without any external influence. Yeah. I think they should be allowed to know what
brand
of Alsa. Would you be able to
Shubh: share that from your [00:32:00] app or is that No,
Seb: this is like,
Shubh: this is the apple wall Garden of App stores.
Not, not. 'cause
Seb: I don't want, you know,
Shubh: it sounds like you don't want Well,
Seb: yeah, I don't, I wouldn't want it to be abused. You know, I don't want, would want you to share salsa that, you know,
Shubh: just, just don't want a shill for salsa. Yeah. You don't want me to just like, Hey, I'm gonna get Phil into this salsa a lot.
Seb: You know, I think something that might work for this is like the ability to request a specific salsa from your friend.
Leah: You know,
Seb: if you tried the salsa, yeah, you could maybe write up some of the characteristics that you enjoyed about that salsa. Send a request to, you know, the other salsa score user,
Shubh: and you would decide based on how much effort I put into that request, whether you granted that request, whether I share
Seb: that, decide to share that salsa with you so you are in control of your salsa data at all.
It's really the, I don't
Shubh: know if there, there's a business idea here, but I love the app. I,
Seb: well, the app is very expensive. Did I not mention that?
Philippe: It's very expensive. [00:33:00] It's like in the, yes.
Shubh: One person paying a million. How are you gonna get 2 million an a RR? It's easy one. There is definitely one very, very wealthy person
Philippe: who loves ssa.
Shubh: Yeah.
Seb: You remember that like diamond app that they had for iOS that cost like 10 grand? It's yeah. Similar idea. Yeah.
Shubh: Like maybe that's the demographic is the incredibly wealthy. Who likes sell.
Shubh: A suggestion that you're gonna shoot down. So something I think is really important with SALs is what Chip it pairs well with,
Seb: whoa.
Never, I've never thought about that. Yeah. To, to honest. So like, let's
Shubh: say , a salsa might go great with like a lightly salted nacho chip, or it might go great with. Something else.
Philippe: I feel like this is a, a tasting notes section. You know, it's like
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: Pair with pairs with, but you can't build in that functionality to keep, to stay true to exactly Sauce.
Seb: Yeah. Yeah. You can take write down notes, like write down whatever you want, but you can't actually
Shubh: pick like from a list of [00:34:00] chips and say, this, this is the chip.
Seb: No, we don't know anything about chips. We can't produce a list of chips. Know anything that's not, that
Shubh: would be
Seb: back. That's, yeah. That'd be food score again.
Yeah. Yeah. What, what could be an option. Yeah. Is. Multiple apps. Okay. Like you have CHIP score. Yeah, yeah. Now I'm
Shubh: in, which is, where do I write, where do I write my check for CHIP score.
Seb: Chip score, yeah. And salsa score.
Philippe: Yeah.
Separate. And there's, and you need like, would
Shubh: you keep them under the same operating umbrella?
Would you feel like you were, you were, uh, uh. Poop in the ice, creaming the, the salsa brand.
Seb: I mean, like you're talking about the business structure. I would, I, I would maybe, yeah, make a parent company with some subsidiaries for each, you know, SALs, but
Philippe: each one has their own app.
Seb: Each one has their own app.
Shubh: I love it so much and somebody, and you have to hire people who are particularly passionate about that.
Seb: Yeah. 'cause you're not gonna find people that are experts in all of those different food domains. Like it's just not,
Philippe: yeah, possible. I just, [00:35:00] I love the idea of someone who does, like,
Shubh: I know we're joking
about this, this, but like I'm even thinking like sometimes I buy spaghetti and then I take it home and then my kids are like, this spaghetti's different.
But I'm like, I don't know why it was different. Yeah. I don't remember which one I bought last time. So I know that you're resistant to food score, but I think SALSA score, chip score, spaghetti score. I think we could just. I mean, a thousand, just keep going. Yeah. Right. And with, with ai, have you heard about ai?
Yeah. With the power of ai, I think you just crank those apps out I think
Seb: so you get a template going. Yeah. Boom. Something you can easily repeat
Philippe: and then like a million dollars per Yeah.
Seb: And they're all very expensive.
Philippe: So
Shubh: that's my favorite part about the
Philippe: space. I I, and imagine like. What a flex that would be.
You turn over your like homepage and it's like just all of the scores that cost you like 10 grand to get all of these, these apps.
Seb: I wanna fill your phone with
food scoring apps. That's my personal mission.
Shubh: Costs tens of thousands of dollars to enter in any data. So
Seb: expensive.
Philippe: I love this. I mean, have you [00:36:00] thought anymore about where you do draw the line?
Like where, what is the sauce of the line? Like if you think about moles. Well, guacamole, you know? Yeah. Does that fall into the SALSA
score? Yeah.
Shubh: Because I got that salsa mixed with something else.
Philippe: Yeah.
Seb: Yeah. So back to the prototype. That's what I said I'm, I'm currently struggling with is like, where do you draw?
How do I identify? Yeah. Is this a salsa?
Shubh: If I could, uh, just offer suggestion here. What if it's just gotta say salsa on the label? Maybe that's it. That's the criteria.
Seb: That could be the criteria. So even if it's
Shubh: salsa mixed with, I don't know. Sour cream premixed. Is that a thing?
Philippe: That sounds so gross, but yeah,
Shubh: let's assume it's a thing.
Yeah. So if it was salsa and sour cream together, you'd be like, ah, yeah, that counts too,
Seb: huh? Because it says salsa on the label. Well,
Shubh: salsa is in the bottle.
Seb: Yeah. I don't want you to have to take a picture of the label though. I just want you to be able to pop the barcode. So I'm really limited to like what data I can get from the barcode
Shubh: doesn't have the name of the product.
Seb: Some of them do. Some of them just have like a code and there's different [00:37:00] APIs you can use to pull, pull information.
We're deep in the technical weeds right now. Yeah.
Philippe: I, I love the idea though, of like, maybe even being insulting if you scan something that's not a salsa, you know, like if you try, if you try and scan like a queso dip,
Shubh: I think you're looking for pasta sauce score, which is a
totally different app.
You have to subscribe, hate
Philippe: idiots. That's a queso dip. You're on salsa score? Yeah,
Shubh: that is a
can of tomatoes. You were going to use in your salsa It, I would like it to be like a video of like, does not Seb just gets up like maybe
Philippe: live Yeah, do it. Yeah. You have to take like a profile photo and it's a video of like s dunking on an amateur, like of a, on an emoji that we make of you.
And we like the app is so
Shubh: exclusive.
Philippe: That's not a salsa.
Shubh: I love this monetization model where it's so expensive and so exclusive. You're in constant fear of being kicked out of the club.
Philippe: Yeah. You actually have to, you have to, if you scan something that's not as you have to pay to get back on the app.
Seb: That's true. And it's maybe like a three strike [00:38:00] rule. Yeah. Like you keep scanning stuff like you're gone.
Shubh: Yeah. This is, um. I started out loving this idea and I finished loving it even more. Okay. Um,
Philippe: do we have a scoring system for,
Shubh: uh, oh, yeah. We should give a scoring system. Yeah. Like a salsa score, but for, uh, the idea, a business
Seb: score, that could be one of the,
Shubh: yeah.
Business score. Uh,
Philippe: gimme your business score for this outta 75. I I rank, this is 75 salsas to me.
Shubh: Out of 75. Outta 75. Well, okay. Okay. Maybe, maybe this is, I, I've got some questions about whether the, the user will buy at that price point. 68 outta 75. Sure. That's a, I mean, that's pretty good. I think you're gonna get some investment reach outs once we,
Seb: I mean, you said Yeah, something earlier about,
Shubh: I did say I would invest immediately in CHIP score.
Seb: Yeah. So, oh, that was chip score. Yeah. So not salsa corn. Well,
Shubh: I mean that you've been very clear that those are two different,
Seb: they're different.
I wanna start salsa, but like if I get a little bit of seed money to get that going, we can talk about [00:39:00] chips after. Perfect.
Shubh: Well guys, uh, I wanna thank Sebastian for coming in.
I also, uh, maybe we could share a link where you could, uh, invest in his
Philippe: Yeah. Invest idea. We could do some crowdfunding. Yeah, we could do some crowdfunding. Should I
Seb: start a GoFundMe?
Philippe: You should start a GoFundMe.
Shubh: I think you just did.
Philippe: We'll add it to the show notes. Okay. What is it, GoFundMe or Kickstart Kick Kids
Leah: using
Philippe: these things?
Um, they're using, uh, I think GoFundMe is hilarious. Like, yeah,
Shubh: I think, I think if you get a score over a certain score. Yeah, that's a good signal that you should start a GoFund. Okay. Your SALSA score. So 68. Yeah, let us know how we can help. Okay. Thank you guys. Alright. Thank you very much for coming in.
Yeah, this was great. Thanks buddy.
Sebastian will go down as the first person, so like in five years, pure lend worth $50 million. Yeah, but what he's going to be known for
Philippe: is score.
Shubh: No. Well, yes, but also he'll be known as, are you the guy, the [00:40:00] first guy to pitch on your businesses on the line? Are you that Sebastian like, yeah. How can to sell this for man?
Uh, you know, it just got too political. It just, it just got too political. And then forever you'll be the guy when this take, when this takes off, when this takes off, it's taken off. After this
Seb: episode one,
Shubh: you will be the guy.
Philippe: Wow.
Seb: You'll be,
Shubh: uh, what's a, what's the biggest podcast in the world that started just as a podcast?
Philippe: Joe Rogan. Yeah. I guess
Shubh: Famous.
Philippe: Oh, right. Somebody
Shubh: that just became famous. Ru Paul, Tim Ferris.
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: You were like the first guest on Tim Ferris,
Philippe: right? Yeah. Or like, or Amy Poer.
Shubh: Already famous. They were already famous.
Philippe: Right. Okay. Right, right.
Shubh: I'm talking about podcast
Philippe: Mark Marin.
Shubh: This is gonna work.
Well, Phil, that was pretty good. We got two pitches in so far. Yeah, [00:41:00] my pitch went way worse than sev. I really loved SALSA score. It was so good. Are you going to quit your job, go work at SALSA score,
Philippe: or you think you can do both? Well, I, what I actually love about SALSA score is like how much of a cult following you can get.
Like, it really strikes me that that's probably the way. To build a, a scoring app like that for the grocery store is like niche down. Yeah. And, and totally no one else is allowed in except s efficien artist's
Shubh: only. Yeah.
Philippe: And I wanna be king salsa of Salsa Island. You know, you can't be, except
Shubh: you can't just steal.
The idea of this show is not to steal people's ideas.
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: Yeah. I'm gonna build it. No one We'll come back on if you still did it. You have to be, uh, supportive. You have to be a combination. You know, the American Idol judges one's kind of mean. Yeah. Right. Like people need to know when they can't sing.
That's true. Yeah. But for everybody else, maybe they just need a little, you know?
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: A little support.
Philippe: Yeah, that's right. Sorry. Maybe I should be for, I want there to be a salsa cake in the world. Someone who's made, yeah,
Shubh: I think we just [00:42:00] met him
Philippe: and we just met him and I, uh,
Shubh: yeah. He might be the most focused salsa person I've ever seen.
Philip. Um, okay. Well that's a wrap on our first show. I want to thank you, Phil, for coming in. You're gonna have to basically come back every time.
Philippe: Well, uh, you know, I'd be honored to, if you had me, I guest cohost right?
Shubh: But guests can come over all the
Philippe: time. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Increasingly as this podcast went on.
I
Shubh: You bought in, well you bought in on the, the
pitch of the pod. I didn't even need to pitch of the podcast. I, I just brought you in and you were like, oh my God, this is perfect.
Philippe: Yeah. Well I kind of thought like, okay, this episode's never gonna see the light of day. Yeah. But now, and then I saw the glint in your eye and I was like, fuck, I probably should have spent way less time talking about my quidditch backstory.
Shubh: No, that's the only part we're
putting
Philippe: out. The world does not need to know that I got ousted for being elitist of my British team. You know, I think with respect.
Shubh: Yeah, I can't think of a thing more people need to know about,
Philippe: like, well, people are [00:43:00] gonna start coming up to me like, I don't know if I wanna work with you.
I heard you got thrown outta your quidditch team. No,
Shubh: but that it's a redemption arc. Yeah. 'cause like you realized, wow. You know, I just like, what'd you learn? You learn a lesson about leadership. Yeah, yeah. Right. You can't, you can't, uh, you can't pit teams against each other. You know what I mean? Have to build everyone up.
Yeah. Like it's a team, the whole team, the extended team. If you are the head of marketing. You were not at odds with the head of finance, right. You were a partner with the head of finance. That's what you learned.
Philippe: Sure. I'm glad you were as describing that. Yeah. I think I, I think I learned like, um, I don't care about the B team or also
Shubh: you might have, could've also learned that if you don't care about the B team, you're gonna win.
Yeah. So, I mean, you know, there's a lot to unpack there.
Philippe: Yeah. But this was great show. I'm, I'm, uh, proud of you getting your first episode out there. I
Shubh: appreciate the space and I appreciate this being a lot of fun. And I think. The ultimate judgment of something like this is, do you wanna do it again? And I think I would do it again.
Philippe: I mean, I would do it [00:44:00] again too,
if you'll have me.
Shubh: Well, I think I have to have you now because everybody's gonna be like, good, get us the quit chop dude. Like no one will even listen to the rest of the thing. So
Philippe: you can really, it's gonna be, it's gonna be remarkable how quickly. You can replace me and no one will never.
You just,
Shubh: where am I gonna find another national Quidditch ship?
Philippe: Yeah, well there's like 20 on my team. I can, I can, oh, really? Put some calls. Yeah.
Shubh: I bet you what would be really interesting exercises going through the laundry list of people who won the National Quidditch Championship, and I'm sure what we're gonna find is half of them are highly successful entrepreneurs.
Because if you have the wherewithal to walk into a university campus and go. Hey Quidditch, that's what I'm gonna do. Right? And then you were successful at it. Yeah, that's somebody I would bet on. Alright, thanks again, Phil. We'll see you next time.
Philippe: Boom.
[00:45:00]