YBIOTL Episode 19 Publish
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Philippe: [00:00:00] What is up your business is on the line. Listeners, this is Philip Burns, co-host of your business is on the line, the show where our guests pitch silly, funny, hilarious business ideas and. We make fun of them, Shab and I chub's not able to join this intro. And so it's just me. And so I, I wanted to take this opportunity maybe to start a petition amongst you, the listeners, to help me out a little bit in getting my name on the podcast Cover Art.
I feel like now is the time, so if anyone wants to start, you know, uh, uh, GoFundMe or a website or get a bunch of like AI bots to sign a petition and really force his hand, that, that would be amazing. That would, uh, just really for, for me, I'm sort of self interested in this today. We had Abdul Aziz on the show.
Abdul Aziz, uh, is both a businessman but also a comedian based out of Vancouver, and he's one of the [00:01:00] hosts of eight Dungeons and Dragons podcast called Splore. It's hilarious if you haven't checked it out. He sort of says he loves Dungeons and Dragons mostly as just a vehicle for comedy. And that's a great description of what that podcast is.
He performs his character on that podcast. It's called TacomaDome, the Barbarian. Abdul also goes by many other names that we get into in this podcast, but even before we started recording this episode, it went absolutely off the rails. He sent us 50 hamburgers to our podcast studio, even though he wasn't here in person.
Um, and it's, this is like a bit, he does all the, all the time. Uh, you'll speak about that. Uh, and so sho and I while we were recording what you're about to listen to consume two of those 50 hamburgers, and so we had 48 left. And so I wanted to share what happened with the other 48. Essentially, we, as we were leaving at the studio and the Tech Thursday offices, every Thursday there's this [00:02:00] punk rock show that takes place in the basement of our building and.
It's the patrons are these like high school, like 16 to 18-year-old goths. And so as we were walking out with these 50 hamburgers, we, we just sort of said, do you guys want these hamburgers? And like, in unison, they just said like, yes, I started freaking out. So Sha and I just started giving out these burgers and pastum in the crowd and, and much to delight the delight of this audience.
They were really freaking out. And so this is not only kind of, uh, a proof and first use case for Abdul's business idea, but it, it, his gift also brought joy to many, many goths. So, we'll, we'll be dropping that video on our Instagram and our LinkedIn, so feel free to go, go watch that video as you kind of watch this.
But let's get to the episodes and over to the studio with Abdulah Aziz.[00:03:00]
Shubh: Uh, Abdul, I always just do this, uh, even though you know, our people know how to pronounce names, but, uh, can you give us your whole name, pronunciation, please.
Abdul: Do you want, uh, so for this, do you want the name that I use for comedy or the name that I use for tech?
Shubh: What do you want?
Abdul: Oh, shit. Uh, probably comedy is better.
It's probably more, it's probably more interesting it to, it's, well,
Shubh: it's both. You can use both.
Abdul: I guess We could tell. I, it's not really a secret.
Shubh: It is a business comedy podcast.
Abdul: If have, it is a business comedy podcast. If
Shubh: you have two different, two different, uh, yeah.
Philippe: Can we do both?
Shubh: Or if you have two different personalities?
Abdul: We do. I have a secret name that I, that I have a secret name that I use for my real job and a secret name that I use for my comedy job. Never the, never the twi shall meet. So
Philippe: can you, can you reveal both or you have to pick one?
Abdul: No, no, no. I can reveal both. So, in the, in the Spheres of Tech, I go by Abdul Shaah.
Uh, and, and then in, uh, in the spheres of comedy, I go [00:04:00] by Abdulaziz. Um, okay. And then just because neither of those are is funnier actually, what? Well, I, I went by Abdulaziz 'cause like the first open, like I did in Hamilton, they could not say Shaah.
Shubh: Yeah.
Abdul: So I was just like, well, shorter and Azi, I'm sorrys are out.
So they at least say that. Yeah,
Shubh: that's right. I was gonna say you just, uh, it's another Indian comic. I'll just borrow, you know, make whatever, whatever people can say of his name. Yeah,
Abdul: yeah, totally. Yep. I'll take that. And you said
Shubh: you had another name?
Philippe: Yeah. So neither of those are your govey?
Abdul: Those aren't my real name.
Neither of those are my real name. Okay. My real government name. That the man knows me by that. Mark Carney himself would call me by and we, if and when we, we square off against one another.
Philippe: Yeah,
Abdul: we, we have a Highlander style battle. The, the name that he would, he would cry as I slay. I, I, as I, this is this,
Shubh: we're getting a little pellow preview [00:05:00] here.
Abdul: This is gonna get. Take. This is gonna get taken down. You guys are gonna get put on our watch list.
Shubh: Yeah, yeah. Well, not Philip, you and I for sure though. Yeah. Phil's like, Phil's clean.
Abdul: Cops clean are gonna come in and they're gonna be like, sir, are you okay? These terrorists are gonna kill the Prime Minister.
They're keep
Shubh: mad hostage and made 'em record a podcast.
Abdul: I'm a pitch, I have a pitch for an adoption agency,
but first let me kill these guys. B be b bang. Alright. So my idea is I kill like people and then we adopt their kids to celebrities.
Philippe: Oh, okay. Uh, I don't even know what the question was. What was AB Bill's name? Right? Yeah. And so what, what would you maybe, yeah. What would you, as you're dying out in that scenario, what would, you know the, the ceases. [00:06:00] Say,
Abdul: yeah. Thesis would come in and they would put, they would put a, they'd put their hand on my throat to test that.
I, my heart wasn't imp beating anymore. And then they would go, I now pronounce you, uh, I almost said husband and wife and I now pronounce you dead. Abdelaziz. Shahara. And then they would, they would take my passport, they would stamp
Shubh: it. Let's be honest, brother Cease would a hundred percent just call you Mohammad?
Mohammad
Abdul: Moham. Moham,
Shubh: yeah.
Abdul: No, they would call me Mohammad. First name Mo, last name Hammad.
Philippe: Moham.
Shubh: So
Philippe: is Abdul. Uh, Aziz sha. Wait, so last name?
Abdul: Shado.
Philippe: Shahada. See, you
Shubh: can't do it.
Philippe: Abdul Aziz Shahada. Is that the full then, is that the,
Abdul: it's actually Abdel Aziz Shahada. So that this, this. The, the lore on this goes back to when I was in second grade.
'cause we were living in the Middle East and then we came back and then my, I was like, Hey, my name is Abdelaziz, uh, uh, Shahada. And then they were like, we're just [00:07:00] gonna call you Abdul. Uh, 'cause Paula Abdul was around and it was, uh, I, it was in a town with only white kids and they didn't know anything. So my first name got changed by a bunch of second graders, and, uh, my last name got changed by a guy who could not say my name at an open mic.
I have nothing left anymore. You white devils have taken everything from me.
Shubh: I don't even want to get to the actual podcast. I just wanna do this all. Yeah. Abdulaziz, shahada, Abdulaziz
Philippe: Shaha Abdu. You sent us.
Shubh: Well, yeah, yeah. We're not talking about that.
Philippe: When are we starting? We starting the podcast. This whole part is not
Shubh: getting cut. Wait, I, I ask you this every time. Uh, 17 was live.
18 was Kelly Schmidt. This is 19.
Philippe: 19 episode 19.
Shubh: See how prepared we are, buddy?
Abdul: That's pretty good.
Shubh: Yeah. Hold on. Welcome to episode nine of your 19. Nope. Fuck me.
Abdul: Let's go back and delete episode
Shubh: take two.
Abdul: Let's delete [00:08:00] episode nine and put this in that
Shubh: honestly. Um, welcome to episode 19 of Your Business is on the Line, Canada's number one and only business comedy podcast.
I'm here with, uh, co-host Philip Burns. Yep.
Philippe: What up,
Shubh: producer Chaz and our guest today, the Man of many talents and even more names, Abdul Azi. Shahada Abdul, thank you very much for joining us.
Abdul: Thank you for having me. Ab
Philippe: do I actually only know you as, uh, Tacoma Dom for the Barbarian?
Abdul: That is another one of my name.
Shubh: Okay. Like we're, this is gonna come off the rails real quick, so I just want to address something. Uh, you texted me, you guessed it. You're guesting on our podcast. You're giving us your time.
Abdul: Mm-hmm.
Shubh: Uh, oh. By the way, people, we'll get to his bio, but we're literally hosting one of the top comedy podcast people in certainly this country and actually globally, like that is not a joke either.
Right? [00:09:00] Okay. So I'm sitting there.
Abdul: We actually read, do we, are we, is there podcast like Trending globally?
Shubh: Yeah. Hold on. Okay. You know what? Just news. Doing Breaking, breaking news. Okay. Breaking news. You ready for this? I, you ready for this?
Abdul: Go ahead.
Shubh: No, no. You go. What were you gonna say?
Abdul: I was gonna say, I just, I don't ever really go on social media or look at anything.
Yeah. So I just make the podcast and I upload it, and then I, I schedule the recordings and that's kind of, and, and I, I know some people listen to it. That's what I am aware.
Shubh: Listen to this. Listen to this. Number 22 comedy fiction in the United States of America. Oh, is that a big market?
Philippe: Whoa.
Abdul: Whoa.
Shubh: Number two in comedy fiction in Saudi Arabia.
Huh? Surprising.
Abdul: Okay, good.
Shubh: Number three,
Abdul: comedy fiction. The King of Saudi Arabia, also named Abdulaziz, which is really, they're looking, they're, it's those, that one is because they're looking for his.
Shubh: Oh yeah. Fair enough. Man. The
Abdul: first,
Shubh: you know what? Don't sell yourself short. Maybe
Abdul: podcast.
Shubh: Maybe he, maybe he became the king of [00:10:00] Saudi Arabia because of you.
It could be the other way.
Abdul: It could be. But it was the first king of Saudi Arabia who united the warring tribes in the twenties.
Shubh: Number three in comedy fiction in Denmark. Number seven in comedy fiction in Finland. Number 11, comedy fiction in Brazil. Number 13, comedy fiction in Australia. 17. Comedy fiction in Sweden.
Philip, you're gonna Sweden in a couple weeks. I am
Abdul: gonna Sweden super. Oh, nice.
Shubh: 22 in comedy fiction in Iceland. I don't know what you guys are doing, but you have the Scandinavian countries locked.
Abdul: Sweet.
Shubh: 22 in comedy fiction in Turkey. Turkey has been featured prominently on this podcast, uh, ever since my friend Tate talked about trying to get, uh, hair plugs.
I'm not done. 44 in Japan, 45 in France. 47 in Ireland, 48 in Germany. You are. A global podcast, uh, superstar.
Abdul: I guess it, it sounds impressive when you, uh, yeah. When you list it like [00:11:00] that, I also like that you ended on the lowest, the our worst numbers. So you, well, you started high and then you're like, and then Japan.
44.
Shubh: Yeah. Listen, man, I told you I did a little prep. I just had the website ready. I didn't actually like, you know, curate.
Abdul: Okay.
Philippe: Yeah. 40. Yeah, exactly. It's like you wanna hear the countries that hate you. It's like Japan. Yeah. You kind of trailing
Abdul: these are,
Shubh: you know what, why are you ranking higher
Abdul: in all these countries?
It's voted the podcast that people want to kill the most.
Shubh: Uh, you were number, you're number 50 in Canada, but you were 19 last week, so I don't know what you guys did.
Abdul: We were released biweekly. Uh
Shubh: oh. Yeah, that'll do. It totally goes. But listen, Canada, why are these guys 19 in Canada when they're. Two in Saudi Arabia and three in Denmark.
Let's fucking people need to get, you know,
Philippe: they got a Jack Yeah. Jacket. Let's jack this up. So it's a, it's a Dungeons and Dragons podcast.
Abdul: It's a Dungeons and Dragons [00:12:00] podcast, uh, is the easiest way to, to describe it. There are some asterisk is there, and, but it's like, it is, uh, kind of like traditional d and d as you know, from Stranger Things or if you're a virgin still your life.
Uh,
it was when we started it, which was like in 2017, uh, I was doing standup. Uh, and very funny comedian, Sean O'Hara was, uh, like a, a nerd growing up, continued to be a nerd, and he wanted to start a DD podcast. So, uh, it's him, his wife, Jessica Paul, who's a very funny comic as well. And me, and none of us had played DD before, so Oh,
Philippe: okay.
Abdul: For, like, anyone who hasn't like, listened to, like a DD podcast or an RPG podcast, like a role playing game or, or like played a role playing game. Um, it's a good kind of entry point because, uh, the first season we don't know fucking anything and it's [00:13:00] like Sean explaining stuff to us and us trying to remember stuff and then like not knowing stuff.
So you kind of like learn along with us. And also on top of that, uh, the asterisk that I mentioned earlier, we play. We play kind of like a stripped down the left, less like, like, uh, kind of like math, heavy rules, heavy version of d and d uh, okay. Called, uh, dungeon World. So that was okay. That, that's
Philippe: Have you fallen in love now with d and d?
Abdul: I love, I love it as a, um, as a vehicle for comedy, because
Philippe: like I knew, I feel like I knew exactly that you're,
Shubh: yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I just tell you something? Uh, uh, relatable.
Abdul: Go for
Shubh: it. Um, so during, uh, do you guys remember the coronavirus? You remember?
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Yeah. It was a pandemic.
Abdul: What's that?
Shubh: Uh, it was a, it was a, it was a made up thing, I'm pretty sure.
Uh, the, um, so two of my, uh, longtime friends, also huge nerds, Bob, Craig, [00:14:00] uh, they were like, Hey, why don't we get together once a week? You know, during Corona, like, there, we all live across the world. We'll like zoom in for, so yeah, we zoom in, we had a couple drinks, had some laughs. It was great. And then a couple like times in, they were like, Hey, you know, we should actually get it together and do something.
And these nerds were like, uh, D and d and I was like, God, listen. I mean, I'm a nerd Libian. I know. Uh, it doesn't seem like it, but, uh, you know, I've got a lot of nerd cred.
Abdul: I believe it.
Shubh: I was like, oh man. Dungeons and Dragons.
Philippe: But you did it.
Shubh: But I did it kicking and screaming.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: But I simply did it because I just like to do bits.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: And, uh, to the point where I think I disrupted the game many, many times and my general abstinence, like Bob would prepare like a binder ahead of time of like, he, he like would get everything ready to go. And then I, you know, maybe one of the few times in my life I didn't fully buy in, so I wanna formally apologize to those guys 'cause we could have had the number three podcast [00:15:00] at Denmark.
Abdul: I think you guys would've been better than us because we were very bad at marketing ourselves. Uh, as evidenced by the fact that you messaged me and you said, why can't I find your LinkedIn? I said, I don't, I lost my LinkedIn password a while ago. I dunno. I don't know how to find my LinkedIn.
Shubh: I mean, I would say further evidence by the fact that you agree to do this podcast.
Abdul: Yeah, man. Well, you know what? It was we, when we chatted a few months ago, it was fun. And I'm always down to do a fun, to do a fun
Shubh: thing. Yeah. What also, like you are on the preeminent business comedy podcast in this country.
Abdul: I believe that
Shubh: you are also a businessman.
Abdul: Yes.
Shubh: And a comedian.
Abdul: Yeah.
Shubh: This podcast was put on this planet for you to be a guest.
Abdul: I, I believe it. You know what? From your lips, from your sweet lips to God's sweet ears.
Shubh: Uh,
Philippe: so tell me about this. Uh, tell me about this business you're running.
Shubh: Wait, hold on because I interrupted myself earlier.
Philippe: Okay. You wanna talk about the, the elephant
Shubh: before you [00:16:00] get to Abdul? Actually, wait, are we still
Abdul: in the intro?
Are
Philippe: we still in the intro?
Shubh: I told you this show, the intro is long. This show has no format.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Uh, Abdul, you text me. So, first of all, and I started this earlier, you are the guest. You were being very generous with your time for us. You text me, you're like, uh, hey man, what's the address you guys are at?
And, uh, thank you Philip. And, uh, I gave you the address. I was like, wait, what? And you're like, any allergies? And I'm like, what is, this is incredibly generous. He's sending us something. I was like, he's gonna send us like a, maybe a cup cupcakes or something. I go down to meet the driver you sent us. Bear in mind, there's two of us.
It is after hours at this house you sent us 50 McDonald's. Jeepers.
Philippe: This is so nice. This is so nice,
Shubh: so nice, so generous. Uh, not great for my health. I'm, I'm much older. I can't run this shit off.
Philippe: Yeah. I'm not sure if you [00:17:00] thought this was a muck, bang, uh, podcast.
Abdul: I, you think you know what the, it can't be if you, if you try really hard right now.
Shubh: And then we laughed very, very hard because we were like, I don't even, Philip Poo didn't know you at all. I was like, this is. The funniest bit. This is already a hilarious bit. Yeah. Do you do this to people regularly?
Abdul: It's kind of, it's sort of a hilarious bit slash a generous thing you can do slash a kind thing you can do Right.
Depending on the situation. So the first time I did it, I was at Gen Con in Indianapolis. It was a couple of years ago, and it was like, gen Con is like a, a tabletop, like RPG, like, it's like ga, a gaming convention.
If
Shubh: you hear Ewing, we're eating cheeseburgers, right?
Abdul: Yeah. You guys can keep eating cheeseburgers.
I'll tell this story. I, I rolled into the story to, to give you gyp seed
Shubh: and you just take over this podcast, honestly.
Abdul: Uh, yeah. This is actually a strategy that I use. To take over other people's [00:18:00] podcasts because I love, I feel like I hate it when other people are talking. I love it when I talk. Well
Shubh: breach, you're talking.
Yeah. We might all be related.
Abdul: Yeah.
Um, so the, like, the first time I did it was Jen Khan. Uh, we, it was like a RPG kind of thing. I flew down there to do a show and then also like to do a few panels with this other like RPG podcast that we are friends with. It was, it was kind of cool. 'cause like I, you're, you guys probably don't know, but like your fans might know, uh, Brennan Lee Mulligan was like, is like kind of a big deal.
He's like on all the dropout shows and he has like a pretty big d and d show. So he was at the Indianapolis. Uh, repertory Theater and my show was also at the Indianapolis Repertory Theater. And I, our show was not that popular, but I walked up and there was like a line around the block and I was like, I'm in the wrong place.
This can't be the [00:19:00] right venue, but it was. And then they put me in the elevator. They sent me up because they didn't know who I was. Um, oh. So then they sent me to the Brennan Lee Mulligan show. And then I got out and there were like PAs and people with like, like, like hip packs and like lab mics and stuff.
And I was like, for sure there's like a different floor in this building that has like a shittier theater and that I'm supposed to be, yeah. So I did that. And,
Philippe: but wait, sorry. You were in the right place. Like, that was the theater you're supposed
Abdul: to be at. It was the sa it was the right building, but the building has two theaters in it, like a little one on a big one.
Oh, okay. So that
Philippe: actually,
Abdul: okay. Yeah. So we, we, we, I was like, I, the explanation of that situation was I was at, i, I, we were in the little theater, but that was a situation where I was hosting a taskmaster style show and they didn't have a prize. So I was like, I'll just order 50 cheeseburgers. That'd be such a funniest prize for whoever wins.
And then, [00:20:00] and then later that night, everyone was sort of drunk at like a party at a hotel. And I was like, every, and it was like the kind of thing where it was like. People are really drunk and they're gonna be really sick tomorrow and people are starting to make weird choices. So it, it's a kind move in that situation.
Everyone, if you order 50 cheeseburgers and you're at a party, everyone's drunk. The second they show up, everyone is happy. So anything bad that was happening is gonna stop. And then they also get some calories in them and then they also get something to soak up the alcohol so they don't make as bad.
Philippe: And it prevents you around the per the party, right?
Like they
Abdul: love
Philippe: you.
Abdul: They love you. And that's
Shubh: when I was and could party a lot. Two cheeseburgers was my go-to the next day. Yeah, from a recovery perspective,
Philippe: yeah. I'm a big fan of Winni, super hungover. Just like eating McDonald's on my kitchen floor. It's a very, it's a bad look.
Shubh: Well, are you go, you should probably go out tonight then.
Yeah, [00:21:00]
Philippe: I think I can go out substantially too.
Abdul: Go out several nights in a row.
Shubh: Philip was just talking earlier this week about, hey, you know, like all his friends now are in relationships so they don't hang out with them as much as they used to. And I was like, just fucking throw the bat signal up. So you got 50 cheeseburgers?
Abdul: Oh yeah.
Philippe: Then I'll have friends, just their girlfriends to hang out with me.
Abdul: If you to, if you, I mean, I don't really know how social media works, but if you like send a message out on LinkedIn or something Yeah, yeah. That you have 50 cheeseburgers at this location and see who shows up
Shubh: at, at, uh, six 30 on a Thursday night.
Abdul: You would be the most popular guy in Calgary. I think tonight.
Shubh: Philips kind of already halfway there, but yeah. I, I need, I, I'm gonna hold onto these. Yeah.
Philippe: You know, people are coming for my crown, so this is gonna be great. I abdu, I also, uh, my fridge is f like I'm, I'm a single guy out of a massive fridge, and so I fill my fridge with like, with like prop food?
Yeah.
Shubh: Big food,
Philippe: like, just big food that like, like San Pellegrino and whatever. This is gonna be great. I'm just gonna have like hamburgers [00:22:00] stacked so when I open it, it looks like this is all I eat.
Shubh: Do you think McDonald's cheeseburgers will freeze?
Philippe: Uh, will they free? Well, I mean, they'll keep in the fridge for like, they gotta keep for like four weeks, right?
Shubh: Yep.
Abdul: They're gonna keep for a while, for sure.
Shubh: Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Philippe: So this is great, Papa. This
Shubh: is, I can't believe we're gonna get a McDonald's sponsorship outta this. Yeah. Well, uh, Abdu first and then do you guys sell out? Do you get take sponsors on your podcast?
Abdul: We've never taken sponsors.
Philippe: How do you guys make money?
Abdul: Patreon.
Philippe: Oh, no
Shubh: way. Oh, so good. You guys are legitimately actual real podcasts. We sold out our second episode. Somebody offered us some money. We're like, yep,
Abdul: that's good. We should have done that.
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. It's because if we put a Patreon up
Philippe: Yeah. Four
Shubh: bucks.
Philippe: How little people like this?
Shubh: Yeah, yeah. No. How few people are listening and how little people are actually like, want us to continue.
Philippe: That's right.
Shubh: Even if they're listening, they're listening. So like in the hope that they will have enough material to get us canceled so they don't have to keep listening.
Abdul: You should put a Patreon level up that says [00:23:00] if you donate at the, at like the $10,000 level, then every month you donate, we'll stop.
We won't release episode.
Shubh: Actually
Abdul: that much
Shubh: a very good idea.
Philippe: Did you know, do you know, uh, you can go, um, on GoDaddy. Uh, you can buy obviously domains and I looked up my own name. I did know
Shubh: that. Yep.
Philippe: To go buy it. Um, the most expensive one is a name and then.sucks. Which is so amazing. Whoa,
Abdul: that's sick.
Yeah.
Philippe: I
Abdul: fucking love that. Yeah.
Philippe: But so ab until, tell me about, uh, uh, tell me about your business, like you're a businessman.
Abdul: I've also, yes. In a, in a sense. I think, uh,
Shubh: honestly, buddy in a sense, I think we're all business people. Yeah. Well, when people ask me what I do, I'm like, well, in a manner of speaking, I'm a businessman
Abdul: in a manner of speaking.
It is interesting 'cause the idea of what a businessman is has [00:24:00] changed quite dramatically.
Shubh: Suits white guys. Yeah,
Abdul: that's out.
Shubh: Yeah, that's out. Sorry, Phil.
Abdul: It's now, now it's white guys in quarter zips, uh, wearing like
Shubh: vest,
Abdul: super white Adidas running shoes for some reason.
Shubh: And yeah, and, and, and Patagonia.
Patagonia vests.
Abdul: Patagonia vests.
Shubh: Yeah. You're not a vest guy, Philip?
Philippe: Uh, no. I, no, I'm not a vest guy. Not my kind of thing, but, so, but what you got going on though?
Abdul: Okay, so I'll give you, I'll give you the backs. My, I'll g I'll just go, I'll do the resume. Um,
Philippe: yeah, hit us. Hit
Abdul: us and I'll give you the backstory and also the sorted details.
'cause there actually are some that I, I realized I
Shubh: love this so much
Abdul: when I said that. So, um, I was never supposed to be in business. I, uh, my trajectory was I wanna be a scientist. I went to university for chemical and bioengineering. I [00:25:00] did a minor in mathematics. Okay. And then I did a master's degree in math with a focus on like, like quantum mechanical based solutions to, uh, fluid dynamics problems.
Um,
Shubh: yeah. So you were a real idiot.
Abdul: I was fucking so fucking stupid.
Shubh: You were still stupid. You were using your quantum mathematics for fluid dynamics.
Abdul: I know, but it's
Shubh: like, oh my God.
Abdul: It, it's like kind of, I was redoing work that other people had already done, like, to prove that it was, it was sort of like not, it wasn't significant.
I is what I will say. Um, 'cause ultimately I don't think I was very good at science. I think it was always sort of like, like overwhelming, the uncertainty that you have to deal with at any point in time. Uh, but I was still like going for it. Uh, and then I, like, I. Do I applied for and got into like a PhD program at the University of Victoria, um, for [00:26:00] neuroscience.
'cause I was like, this is kind of like the most interesting field. Yeah. Because there's like, like, like think, I think like the neural link stuff had just started and I was like, oh, I have like a background in like mathematics and engineering and like memory is like a thing that is an unsolved problem.
And there are very few unsolved problems in science that are still like, sort of at this like first principles level. But like the brain is a thing that is like, oh, like they're the, it's like the discoveries like are still. Like,
Shubh: yeah, we don't know anything.
Abdul: Yeah, we don't know anything. Yeah, it's still very first principles oriented field.
So I went to the University of Victoria to do that. Uh, and that is where my, uh, academic career died for a few, for a few reasons. I think I was like, I wasn't in the best lab for me being like, 'cause my pitch was like, I am interested in computational neuroscience. And they were like, we are a wet lab and we'll try to do computational neuroscience.
And I was like, okay. And [00:27:00] then they did not. And then also my supervisor. Uh, a lab tech who hated me. Oh. So, oh
Philippe: no.
Abdul: And then she ended up blackmailing him into getting rid of me. Oh my God. So that's the thing where it's like you,
Shubh: I say, you know, say that this story, when this story started, I was like, oh, is a bunch of our audience gonna check out?
Because he's talking about computational neuroscience. But you brought him right back in.
Abdul: Yeah.
Shubh: You brought him right back in. Right. Man is a master storyteller. Keep going.
Abdul: So there you go. So that, so that happened. It became all of a sudden, 'cause like the toxic, the very toxic environment. 'cause this lab tech had been bullying another lab tech.
And I was like, I just, I, yeah, I know. It's like what's displaced? Academia is like a fucked up place where stuff like that is fine for some reason. Like
Shubh: what? This is like about Real Housewives, but for, but for neural labs.
Abdul: I know it was, and much of science [00:28:00] is like that because, well at least like shitty labs I guess.
'cause there are like good dudes out there that are doing good work and they keep like, their houses quite clean. But the thing that I've noticed in academia is like, there's a shit load of people who have gotten by because they've never left this like ivory tower.
Philippe: Right,
Shubh: right.
Abdul: Ugh, ugh. So it's this, this story got so boring.
Shubh: No, but honestly for real, like, uh, academics is intensely political.
Abdul: Yeah. Yeah. And
Philippe: intensely non-value generating.
Abdul: Totally. I fucking, I hate it.
Shubh: Well, I guess we're not getting sponsorships from any of the major universities. We can check down to DeVry, we'll, dev DeVry sponsors. Yeah,
Philippe: it's kinda crazy, but, okay, so, so then you go from.
You go from this? So you kicked outta
Shubh: the lab.
Philippe: Did you get kicked out or you're like, get me the fuck outta here.
Abdul: I, so here's the thing is he couldn't fire me because the university had actually paid my salary. So he is not allowed to. So what he had [00:29:00] to do, his name was, let's
Philippe: go.
Abdul: How much sucks make my life.
Yeah, that sucks. Uh, you
Shubh: know, which it is.
Philippe: Yeah. That's all. When you click on the website, that's all it goes to.
Abdul: You know who you are, hd, you know who you are. Um, we
Shubh: might cut that part.
Abdul: I'm leave it. I don't give a shit.
Shubh: Yeah, let's leave it. I'll say we're gonna cut it and then I'm like, yeah, it was pretty funny.
Abdul: He's a pretty mediocre scientist. I don't think anyone gives a shit about him enough to cancel. Uh, but. He's, he wasn't really allowed to fire me, so he just made my life fucking miserable. And I was like, I ended up working like 18 hour days for months at a time to try and keep up. And at that point in time it's like your supervisor is like supposed to step in and be like, okay, let's ride these other things.
But he just like ice me out. Like was like, you figure it out yourself. So it got to a point where I was like, I am going to die if I [00:30:00] try and muscle through this program. And also I think I may be bad at science. So, so I left and I did an MBA. I'd also kind of done the math on like, there will not be tenure.
Professor jobs in the same way that there used to be like,
Philippe: right,
Abdul: there's way too many graduates going for the same positions. Everyone wants to stay in this like cozy environment of like academia. And also like at the same time a paper came out that was like all of behavioral neuroscience research was invalidate because they proved that the gender of the experimenter changed.
The outcome of the experiment and they had never controlled for that. Oh. 'cause it's like, 'cause it's all mouse model stuff. So the mice can kind of like smell the pheromones and they will behave di differently. So it was like, basically like, it was like this field sucks, this lab sucks, like academic research sucks shit.
And again, there are good guys out [00:31:00] there who are like doing good work and I have worked for them as well. Um, but it was like, it was a real kind of like running into the wall moment. So I went and I did an MBA and then was very quickly recruited into like consulting roles as a data scientist. Because that's the thing that was like, kind of the through line is like, I'm good at numbers, I'm good at math.
Um, and it, at that point in time, there was a huge demand for people who like could look at like. Yeah, all of the numbers that were being generated by all of the systems that everyone used and like, give them insights that they could use for their business. And that was what, that was what I did for like 10 years, uh, until I got recruited to be leadership, uh, at some of the comp companies I had been consulting for.
Philippe: Damn.
Abdul: Yeah.
Philippe: Is that, so is that still what you're doing?
Abdul: So I, I worked for a startup, uh, that, uh, was sort of, uh, kind of a massive, [00:32:00] like it was run by a con guy, uh, who got, who got, I worked for a startup. I called, I don't even care. It was run by a guy named I, so he recruited me as a, because he, I was consulting for him and then he got like $2 million in funding.
But that was also like some crazy grift where they got like. Basically they put, they put in like $2 million and then yeah, they got a subsidy of a million dollars and then they charged him basically a million dollars in fees, so they came out ahead.
Shubh: This is like Aspire and Steve Bomber.
Philippe: Yeah. Well, you're actually the second per second guess we've had who?
Has worked for a grifter.
Abdul: Yeah.
Philippe: Uh, we had, um, Courtney Co who used to work for, uh, what's that guy's name with all the Lamborghinis who used to read a book a day.
Abdul: Ty Ty.
Philippe: Ty Lopez. Yeah. Yeah. She worked for Ty Lopez.
Abdul: So cool. Yeah. That guy, that guy is like the [00:33:00] OG YouTube grifter. Yeah.
Philippe: Yeah. He really was. Yeah.
Yeah. You stopped thinking about him for a long time, but he really was the og.
Shubh: This is definitely our slander episode.
Philippe: Yeah. These, I love that you just came on and like docs two people already.
Shubh: Yeah. He is. My, my buddy, uh, my buddy who was our general counsel, Z's coming on next week so he can help us unpack all this Yeah.
What, what can and can talk about.
Philippe: Yeah. Before this episode goes live,
Abdul: I want everything in. Do not cut anything or I will sue the shit out of you.
Shubh: You got sued for reverse slander. Yeah, that's right. They eliminated my slander for the podcast, so I sued them.
Abdul: Yeah.
Shubh: All right. It
Abdul: was like, I got the guy, like made some kind of like slander coin and then rug pulled it and then
Shubh: so, uh, what are you doing now?
Abdul: Uh, then after that I just went back to consulting and then I af At that point, I, I was hired to help with a podcast company that was started by a guy who had been trying to acquire spelt [00:34:00] lore, the DD podcast For a while they were an ad sales network and we were like, we don't wanna sell ads, but they would come around every once in a while and then.
Um, I had a conversation with him and he was like, what do you do in your day job? And I told him, and he was like, oh, I need someone that could do that because I built a, a software tool to help podcasts like maximize their ad revenue if they're using this. Thing called dynamic ad insertion where the ad engine like slots, the, uh, add in at the time of download.
So you, you don't have like, you don't basically like waste your inventory and it was really impressive, uh, like, 'cause it was, and it was, and it was really impressive because the tool that he built was really good and the data scientist, and it still works there. The head of data science, uh, Michael Divinsky and this Sean Howard, they're like really smart, really dedicated guys.
Um, so I, I joined on to like help like as a data [00:35:00] science person, but then very quickly I was like, look, Mike is like a genius, like you don't need me to do data science. And, but, and then as a result, I kind of just ended up filling in wherever there were gaps, which ultimately ends up making you the COO. A few months ago.
I'm like managing a transition into a role that's like more strategy oriented, which I talked to you about Chu. Yeah. Like, uh, CSO is like kind of where I'm at there.
Shubh: Amazing. Cool.
Philippe: Man,
Abdul: that's so
Philippe: sick.
Shubh: We've been, uh, we're always supposed to try to keep the intro before the pitch short, but I, I couldn't 'cause the story.
Every story I was like, I have to hear more. I have to hear more. We'll have to probably cut 35 minutes of it once we, uh, once we talk to the lawyers, I,
Abdul: if you take anything out, I will sue you and I'll sue your lawyer.
Shubh: Fuck. And like, I'll never get that invite to guest. Uh, on Spout, Lord.
Abdul: Yeah, yeah,
Shubh: because I can do me and Irish accent.
I can do accents.
Abdul: It's the number, number 44 comedy [00:36:00] fiction podcast in Japan. Okay.
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. She in Saudi Arabia though. Three in Denmark. I got those numbers locked. I got head for numbers 22 in America.
Abdul: Boom. Wow.
Shubh: You know what? America needs a little bit of humor right now.
Abdul: I think so.
Shubh: Uh, okay. Uh, Abdul, that was an absolute journey.
Uh, I think that that neuroscience lab needs a screenplay treatment that's like a TV show.
Abdul: Oh, yeah. I, you,
Shubh: you ever written for a TV show?
Abdul: I want to, I've always wanted to write for television. Yeah. Um, but I think I lack, um, the skill to do, to do that.
Shubh: You know what? I know a lot of people start things that, uh, you know, figure it out as they go along.
Abdul: I think the comedy in Canada is a very interesting and difficult thing to do. Uh, because there just isn't money to [00:37:00] make tv. That looks good. Yeah.
Shubh: Yeah. This is definitely, I mean, but listen, you're 22 in America.
Abdul: 22 in
Shubh: America. You got a little, you got a little cachet
Abdul: America. 22.
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: So I'm doing, you, you gotta pitchfest, uh,
Abdul: pitch.
Yes. Uh, try to make, make a TV show about my time. Laugh.
Shubh: We need a writer. My brother-in-law's a playwright.
Abdul: Your brother-in-law's a playwright. Playwright,
Shubh: yeah. Ophthalmologist, and then also a playwright.
Abdul: Whoa. Cool.
Shubh: Yep.
Abdul: Uh,
Shubh: that's very impressive. It bothers me.
Abdul: Okay, so you guys wanna pitch?
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. Do you have an idea to pitch us?
Abdul: I do. Just
Shubh: curious, is one week, is it one week? An air?
Abdul: Okay. Hold on. Wait. Yeah, I think, I think
Shubh: sucks. Dot com
Abdul: is, it's Yeah, that's, he's not the only guy I've done that to.
Shubh: No, no, no, no,
Abdul: no. I, well, I haven't done that yet, but like, [00:38:00] okay, so yous the
Shubh: real idea. Oh yeah. Go, go ahead.
Abdul: Do you know the CBC show the Debaters?
Shubh: Uh, yep.
Abdul: Okay. So one time I did a debate where I was arguing that like, April Fool. Wait,
Shubh: you were on that show?
Abdul: I was, yes.
Shubh: Oh, sing. Wow.
Abdul: I've been on it a few times. Okay. And what, one time? Uh, this one might get me in trouble, but I'll say it anyway. One time I was, I was, I was on that show and I did a debate where I, um, it was, I was advocating for April Fools, uh, and.
As, as part of the debate, I bought the debaters.ca, uh, because they didn't own the domain.
Philippe: And so what happened?
Abdul: So I, well, I told them this and I was like, do, is this okay if I make this part of the debate? And they were like, they're awesome. [00:39:00] Like the guys that work on that show. And they were like, good sports about it. They were like, chill about it. And then afterwards I was like, do you want the domain?
And they were like, no, that's fine. We don't care. And I, because I, I put on there like a fake CBC article that I was like, the greatest debater of all time. Oh yeah. That's brilliant. It's still up and
Shubh: just crushing it from an SEO perspective,
Abdul: it's, I don't. I doubt it.
Shubh: Who is Canada's greatest debater? And it's just one website that comes up
Abdul: that would be interesting if that was there.
Who, let me look it up. Who is Canada's greatest debater?
Philippe: Open AI and Claude have all latch shots for this.
Abdul: I hope so. No it's not. It says Pierre Poly varus.
Philippe: Pp pp.
Abdul: No pp
Shubh: Like I said, we don't, uh, we don't do politics on this [00:40:00] podcast, but I don't think that's true.
Philippe: I once won a debate competition actually.
Abdul: Really?
Philippe: Yeah. When it's, um, it was, uh, when I was in university, it's a bit of a long story and it, but, uh, I was, um, it was a drunk debates. So, whoa. You would, you would chug a beer and then argue like, oh, he is a silly point. Um, and the day before I really, so it was like part of like a week of drinking activities where you'd gain points for your team.
Shubh: Yeah. And you, that, that morning you were just sitting on your kitchen floor eating cheeseburger.
Philippe: Well, well I was supposed to win bur cart 'cause I'm a remarkable Mario Kart player. Mm-hmm. So I was supposed to win Bur Kar, I'm coming around the finals and I get hit by a blue. Shell tumbled into. A, a cuppa trpa, which tumbles me into a red shell.
And then I got eaten by the, one of the flowers at the end of Mario Circuit, if you know the one. And so everyone passes me and so I lose bureau card. And so the next day there's drunk debates and I'm going, well, I gotta put on for my team. Sure. [00:41:00] So, you know, first round when, second round when get all the way to the finals
Shubh: and then you got eaten by one of those marathon.
Philippe: That's right. Get eaten by one of those Mario things. No, but it's, uh, we're debating like wheels versus feels. And so I lost the chugging contest. So he picked, uh, he picked fields and I got wheels, but I got to go second. So he went, then I went and I took off my shirt and I started dancing. And then, and then he went, he took off his, in the course of his argument, took off his shirt and his pants.
Oh my God. And this is in an auditorium of like 300 people on campus. And so I, I started sitting at the, the, the stage trying to think about how am I gonna get out of this? And win this thing without doing some miraculous stunt. And I sort of realized that I can't win. And so I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I prepare myself and I unclothed and I say, behold, I stood in front of 300 people.[00:42:00]
Shubh: You know
Philippe: what I won? Of course I won, but I won. You know
what
Shubh: I was thinking about? Holy
Abdul: shit.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: You know what I was thinking about during that whole story?
Philippe: What,
Shubh: how heavily I'm gonna have to edit it.
Philippe: You can, you can tell that story. I don't care.
Shubh: My favorite part of that story is when you in detail explained the series of events that led to your Mario Kar loss.
Yeah. 'cause it is, uh, off told. Uh, we don't remember the details of when we win. We remember the details of when we lose.
Philippe: Boom.
Shubh: Anyway,
Abdul: Robert
Shubh: Frost. I bill, you got, what's that? Robert Frost? Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Roads diverged. A yellow wood. I lost Mario Kart.
Abdul: Two roads diverged in a, in a yellow wood. And then I got hit with a blue shell, which smashed me into a red
Shubh: shell.
I, I took the road less traveled and, uh, got my ass whooped by one of those little banana peels. Oh, Lord. Uh, what were we talking about? Oh, yeah. Turned to pitch. You got
Philippe: a
Shubh: pitch.
Abdul: It's why I turned to pitch. I, [00:43:00] I, I was, I was delaying because I was like, I didn't think of a good pitch.
Philippe: Yeah, let's hear it anyway.
Abdul: Okay. So my pitch, uh, to you, is there, is there actual money involved in this? Will you give money if it's a good or I we're
Philippe: gonna send you 48 cheeseburgers.
Abdul: 48
Philippe: cheeseburger. Yeah, because we, so yeah, they'll be old in the snail mail too.
Abdul: Uh, okay. Here's my pitch is, uh, if you have like food that is, uh, that you don't want, you can take a picture of it and like tweet it.
It's a social, it's a food based social network where it's like if you have a pile, if you see a pile of food around, or if you have a pile of
Shubh: food, like 48 cheeseburgers.
Abdul: Yeah. You can take a picture of it and then go, Hey, free food here. And then you get karma points. Uh, okay. In that system, yes, they, you can then, uh, use to like bid in the future [00:44:00] on early access to food.
Also notice. Fresh food that is not leavings of other No,
Shubh: I like, let's lean into this early access to food.
Abdul: Yeah. Early access to, to the leavings of food, which is food that is, has just been cooked, I guess.
Shubh: Yeah. Right. Okay. So the idea is, and actually would've been pretty handy a while ago, 'cause I took a photo of myself with these cheeseburgers that you delivered.
Mm-hmm. And I was like, what do I do with this photo? It feels like you gotta post it to LinkedIn. I was like, I don't know if LinkedIn's the right place to post, uh, a place where you get a bunch of extra food and then I couldn't find you on, uh, Abbo on LinkedIn. Mm-hmm. So kind of cut it in my momentum. So you have a bunch of extra food.
Mm-hmm. You take a picture of it, you, uh, you social media. It
Abdul: Yes.
Shubh: People come get that free food.
Abdul: Yeah. And you can if you want, then you could say like, Hey, this is a party. Hang out here and eat it.
Shubh: Okay.
Abdul: Yeah. I guess [00:45:00] it's a, it's kind of also a way to advertise parties if you're into that kind of stuff.
Shubh: Yeah. Right. So you get a party advertising angle, but you also have a charitable, uh, angle.
Abdul: Yes.
Shubh: Which since uh, nobody actually does charity for, uh, truly selfless reason. You get these, you get these, uh, uh, brownie points Yes. That you can then maybe get a discount on your next food purchase. Yes. For early food.
Yeah. Early access to food.
Abdul: Pre leavings is what it's called. Apps. I kind of apps called Pre Leavings.
Philippe: Pre leavings. I, I kind of love it, but the
Shubh: apps called Pre Leavings.
Abdul: Yeah.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Okay.
Philippe: I, so, so I think like, uh, the first idea is great. I think that second idea is what almost better is like publicly advertising parties that you're about to have.
Yeah. In order, in order to, in order to entice like random strangers to come over, uh, to add like an element. 'cause for example. Um, two weeks ago I had, uh, a book club. Yeah. At my house. Uh, the, the book was based in Louisiana, so I was having this big cr boil at my [00:46:00] place. Whoa. Nice. Big craw boil. But I bought way too much because like a couple people couldn't come.
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: And so I was like, I would love to invite like just a random that no one knows. You could have
Shubh: just texted me,
Philippe: but like, I actually ran by some dude because I went for a run before and I ran by some guy who had a tow bag that said book club.
Shubh: Oh.
Philippe: And I always turned around and was like, dude, come over tonight.
Yeah. And come do the quad boil. But I thought it would be awkward. So it would be fun as hell that you could go like, alright, I'm gonna trade karma points up for like, random invites to cool people's parties. Yeah. That would be kind of sick.
Abdul: That would
Shubh: be absolutely fucking rat. You don't know, you don't know this.
But uh, on our third episode when we actually realized we might have a podcast. Mm-hmm. Our friend Dan Chapman, who's a venture capitalist, came on. And basically pitch that pizza was, you know, much like SA is dead. Pizza is dead.
Abdul: That's, that's a crazy take.
Shubh: Well, hold on. Pizza is dead. Well, it wasn't quite that, it wasn't quite his pitch.
His pitch was a lot more, uh, you know, uh, you know, [00:47:00] pizza's had its moment. Parties will be
Philippe: dead once you hear
what
Abdul: it's
Shubh: replaced. What a party needs is a giant pierogi.
Abdul: Okay. Oh, that you slice pieces off?
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Or no, just, just only spoons.
Abdul: But isn't that just what a, uh, a like the pizza. Yeah. Isn't it pone?
Philippe: Calzone? Yeah. Ah,
Abdul: no. Pone from Pizza Hut. Oh,
Shubh: oh yeah. He's he's talking about a specific branded, if McDonald's old sponsor is Pizza Hut Will, uh, yeah. So he pitched that. Now. We did a live show last week at one of Phillips's events.
Abdul: Whoa.
Shubh: Yeah, it was a ton of fun. You should come out for the next one.
Abdul: That's awesome.
That sounds like so much fun.
Shubh: It was a lot of fun. Now, people came up to pitch ideas, but a couple of people came up and pitched their actual startups. Like they'd clearly never listened to the program before. No, they had, oh, they listened to the, oh, they, they had. But I think they thought maybe this was, you know, shoot your shot.
Take your moment. Take your take. One of the kids pitched this idea and there was a couple of college kids in the [00:48:00] audience who were like, this is a great idea. He pitched this idea like, all this food gets given away or wasted on campus. Mm. And an app that would just like throw up a note to everybody, all the kids on campus.
Yeah. And he would like go for free food.
Abdul: Yes.
Shubh: You're just taking this wider and you've added this party dynamic.
Abdul: Yeah.
Shubh: My only concern is if you say, I got a bunch of extra food, are you getting the right people to your party?
Abdul: Yeah. I think you think, Hmm, maybe that's
Shubh: actually great. A paid tier to get to the party.
Abdul: Yeah, that's a great point. And that's a good revenue structure as well. Like
Philippe: Yeah.
Abdul: To have like a freemium model where it's like you, hey, if you're not paying, you're getting the creeps. Uh,
Shubh: yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, well, sorry to cut you off, but like we just had someone in pitch yesterday. So Kelly Schmidt, one of the most well-respected, not just technology CEOs, CEOs in the country, hilarious.
That she was [00:49:00] here. Now her reputation is, uh, mud, but she and Philip kind of co pitched and got to this idea where like WhatsApp groups for friends, right. Making friends.
Philippe: Yeah. It was called only friends.
Shubh: But I think there's a connection, like Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a connection. I mean, at least, uh, culturally for us, uh, all your social gatherings are about food.
Philippe: Mm-hmm.
Shubh: For me, like Right, so like you, you put only friends together with this, the food app. What are we calling this app? We got a name
Abdul: for it. Le Leavings.
Shubh: Leavings. Oh my God. It's really good. Uh, with a z or no, I,
Abdul: oh, L-V-L-V-N-G.
Shubh: G-L-V-N-G-Z.
Abdul: Yeah.
Shubh: Uh,
Philippe: you want people, that, random people to come to your party.
Shubh: Well, I'm old. No, but young people totally love that shit.
Abdul: I think there is, there's gotta be like kind of like a two tier system. So it's like,
Shubh: yeah,
Abdul: there's like, there's a setting for like if you just want to like do charity
Shubh: altruism,
Abdul: altruism, [00:50:00] where it's just like, Hey, I have this food. It's extra food.
Please come and get it. 'cause I think there's a lot of people, that
Shubh: app should be called Leavings
Abdul: that. Should be called leaving like Leavings with love or something.
Shubh: Oh yeah, that's good.
Abdul: So that, for that app, I think it's like, there's applications that are like someone who shops at like Costco because they like the Kirkland brand and they like the ethos of Costco because they, they like cap their markups at 14%, you know, but it's like too much stuff.
So for that, for someone like that where it's like you are not supporting Loblaws in the Walton family because they're. Squeezing Canada Dry. Yeah.
Shubh: Unless they want to sponsor this podcast.
Abdul: Unless they wanna sponsor this pod podcast. Hey, George Walton, or whatever your fucking name is. Shit. Uh, do you wanna sponsor this podcast
Philippe: Doing I doing, do you, do you, uh, when do you go to the grocery store?
Do you throw a couple extra things in the car?
Abdul: Do I steal? Uh, [00:51:00] absolutely. Yes, I do. I call it the People's tax. You throw, you wear cargo shorts and you fucking stump your pockets full of banana chips. You go, go to Loblaws, go to a No Frills, go to anything that's owned by the Walton family, by these fucking vampires, these bears that have been given access to like somehow we are, we are subject to their economic fiefdoms.
We are, we are their. Surf Sweden. We must pay tithes of like 200 plus percent markup on groceries.
Shubh: No, no. Sponsor reads on this podcast. On this episode. Everybody, all the, this is
Abdul: tech kind of.
Shubh: Yeah. Everybody, every one of our sponsors gonna be like, you know what, you can leave us off this one. That's cool.
That's cool. We do a lot of business with the Walmart.
Abdul: No, 'cause Wal the Wal, am I [00:52:00] thinking of the right family?
Shubh: Weston's Weston's as long,
Abdul: oh, I'm thinking of Galen Weston. So the fuck you Weston and No, but also fuck you the Walton's. But I was thinking of Weston's, so apologies to the Walton family. You are not the ones that I was thinking of.
I, I actually confused you with a different group of white billionaires who are destroying the world. So apologies. That is my bad. It was not my story to tell as a, as a brown guy, I am very sorry for, uh, assuming that you guys were all the same. You might be friends with each other. You had, you go to the same but uh, uh, fucked up parties or whatever,
Shubh: but, but Costco, you're all right.
Abdul: Costco, genuinely, yes. The Kirkland brand and the co the people that run Costco, if you ever get a chance to read their, like, founding principles, which they still operate by really, it's great. It's, it's a good read for like corporate ethics.
Philippe: But what about the hot dog price though?
Abdul: Hot dog price is [00:53:00] locked.
Shubh: Great.
Abdul: It doesn't, is it still
Philippe: locked?
Shubh: Oh yeah.
Philippe: One 50. Oh, I thought, I think
Shubh: he's on record saying we will never raise the price of our hotdog.
Abdul: They ended up having to build their own hotdog manufacturing plants in Chicago to support the, the same price,
Shubh: the vol, the volume of hotdog.
Abdul: Yeah. And, and it was awesome.
And they, they cap all markups at 14%, whereas like most other grocery stores are way past a hundred percent. Markups as on average. Like it's, it's a good, it's a ethically run business, and they have like a, a hierarchy of like who they are accountable to, and they said, first and foremost, we're accountable to our customers.
And then it was, and then it was their suppliers. Uh oh, no, it was customers, employees, suppliers, like, and their partners. And, and then they're like, if we do all of that right, the shareholders will get value, but we do not specifically service the shareholders. It, it is really, that's amazing. This
Shubh: is not actually a [00:54:00] Costco Stan.
Yeah. Podcast. Rita. My wife would love this.
Philippe: Yeah,
Abdul: a hundred percent.
Philippe: I, I heard the Waltons were, were,
Abdul: yeah. Dead. Jesus Christ and a c Philip,
Shubh: I gotta edit this
Abdul: shit. And, and the CEO of,
Shubh: yeah. Oh my God. It's the first time in your business online history because, uh, the amount of editing, I'm gonna pay somebody to do it and it's gonna come back with four minutes of content. They're gonna be like, Hey Chubb. Uh, so, uh, uh, we got the bit where Philip talked about losing at Mario Kar. Was that Abdul's pitch?
Abdul: Yeah, that's it. Uh,
Shubh: but don't worry if reaches out, I'll just be like, Hey man, it's cool. It was the other,
Abdul: it was the other, it was one of the 900 other s that exist
Shubh: Yeah. In this neighborhood. Uh, what was the Oh yeah, back to the pitch.
Abdul: Back to
Shubh: the pitch altruism. Leavings with love party time. [00:55:00] Leavings with friends.
Abdul: Yeah. And then I think you can have
Shubh: partnered with only friends.
Abdul: And then I think you can have kind of a tiered structure with only friends. Yeah. Where it's just like you can set your kind of gathering so that only the people that you are connected to, like as in, in the, it's like a social network in the way that Facebook used to be, where it's like, yeah.
Yeah. You only see notifications from people you directly connected with.
Shubh: Yeah. You know? Yeah. You actually know.
Abdul: Go ahead.
Shubh: I love this. No, no. I was gonna say it ties into like a, we were talking about LinkedIn and Facebook, how we don't actually know 90% of these people.
Abdul: Yeah.
Shubh: Like you've digitally know them.
Abdul: Mm-hmm.
Shubh: That's not knowing somebody.
Abdul: No.
Shubh: So we just weave all these things together and suddenly it's parties at fills, lobster boils every, every Sunday
Abdul: and
Shubh: or crawfish boils, what are you doing?
Philippe: Crop boils.
Abdul: I think you would,
Shubh: you can't build on that.
Abdul: I think you would also naturally not be attractive for people to make bots to be on the platform because [00:56:00] there's,
Shubh: what's the bat?
Abdul: There's nothing, you don't get anything out of it.
Shubh: Well, hold on a sec. For the next couple of years mm-hmm. Until the bots, the humanoid bots start showing up at the party.
Abdul: Right. To eat.
Shubh: Yeah. They're like, well, where, where is your motor oil? Oh, that was, that was my bot voice. Would you think I was,
Abdul: it is your motor oil daddy, Elon wants more, more motor oil.
Shubh: He, I was, I was told there was extra batteries
Abdul: I got, I crashed at Tesla. I got te I, I was in a Tesla. It, it fucked up. The full self-driving sucks. So I, that took control of it, but my world model also sucks. So I crashed into a family. I killed. I'm sorry.
Shubh: You shouldn't have done it. I have, I have, I have developed feelings.
I would like to know what the taste of human food is.
Abdul: Good. Give me your crda.
Shubh: I was told there was a book club was told I have read every book. I could do [00:57:00] this all night, baby.
Abdul: Let's play Mario Kart. I heard you did a fucked up thing one time. Do it again.
Shubh: Take off your shirt.
Abdul: I wish to feel love.
Shubh: I have also taken off my shirt. Philip,
I have listened to every episode of your podcast.
We're gonna release this podcast under a whole different brand. Yeah, I just decided. Yeah,
Philippe: yeah, yeah.
Shubh: I thought what happened to your episode with Abdul? Uh, yeah. We released it.
Philippe: Could you change, could you change my name for this episode to, uh, Tacoma? Do the Barbarian
Abdul: Tacoma do the Barbarian? Oh. For listeners who don't know, that's the name of my character in the podcast.
Yes.
Shubh: Uh, shout out.
Philippe: Gonna say the to the 70 minute mark.
Shubh: Yeah. Come. You gotta [00:58:00] come, you gotta stick with, honestly though, this is actually the 38 minute mark because we're gonna cut a lot.
Abdul: That
Shubh: 32 minutes of Leavings
Abdul: leavings
Shubh: on the floor, on the cutting room floor.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: See how I did that?
Philippe: That's your Well, how, what, what's
Shubh: good you rate, we gotta rate this.
So, uh, Abdul on this show, we rate out of, uh, salsas with 75 salsas being the top score.
Abdul: Oh, cool.
Shubh: The first pitch ever was a app called SALSA Score, which, uh, you would use to record how you felt about salsa.
Philippe: Mm-hmm.
Shubh: Well, I like, I mean, you know, little underdeveloped, but Abdu really got going there, started to add some color.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Uh, to this idea. I really like the idea that it networks into some other ideas that we've had. I also really like the idea, 'cause we need it right now for these cheeseburgers.
Philippe: Right. I love how you, you sort of, uh, yeah. Give us a perfect example. Uh, perfect use case. Yeah. You like force the use case
Shubh: down our Yeah.
Mr. Gentlemen. That is how you, you do a bit,
Abdul: [00:59:00] that's how you do a bit and turn it into a pitch.
Shubh: That's how you can be a professional comedian and also a professional operator. 'cause you're seeing around corners.
Philippe: Boom.
Shubh: Uh, I'm gonna go 56 s outta 75.
Abdul: Pretty good.
Shubh: Pretty good.
Philippe: Wow.
Shubh: Pretty good.
Philippe: That's high.
Shubh: First I was gonna bury it, but then it started connecting and then I got excited.
Network effects.
Philippe: The network effects. Yeah. I think for me this is like, um, this is, um,
Shubh: Philip is in notoriously a harsher judge than I am.
Philippe: Yeah, that's right. Well, I just, I don't know
Abdul: if you gimme 75
Philippe: sauces.
Yeah, I dunno. But maybe,
Shubh: oh my God. Gosh, this is too much. It's too funny. And also I don't know how I'm gonna make it work. You could just, there's gonna be a whole bunch of laughing
Abdul: so much.
Shubh: Yeah. Well, Philip, I'll give you money. Philip, [01:00:00] I'll be your friend.
Philippe: Just get a voiceover with your bot
Shubh: voice. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm gonna, Philip I be our friend.
Philippe: I think the only part of this idea that I like to, well no, there's two parts of this idea that I like. One is like somehow building karma points in the world and like that actually be tangible to trade in things. Mm-hmm. I really appreciate that. And then the other one is, uh,
Shubh: you don't like the idea that your charity goes unrecognized for your own benefit.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: That's good. Yeah, I gotcha.
Philippe: Yeah, that's right.
Shubh: Which is also hilarious 'cause Phyllis spends an enormous amount of time with this not-for-profit that raises money for charities. Well, until this episode comes out.
Philippe: Yeah. Now I will. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
Shubh: yeah,
Philippe: yeah. No one's gonna wanna raise this money. No. Uh uh uh, but the other part I like is like bat signaling strangers to come to your house like that also seems fun.
Mm-hmm. I always like, I always love the idea of, uh. That movie Dinner for schmucks.
Abdul: Oh yeah.
Philippe: You know, I just like, I really want to do that. Maybe not with like schmucks, actual schmucks, but like with just random [01:01:00] people that I meet on the street and I'm like, you look kind of cool. Come with like the
Shubh: book, like the guy with the book club
Philippe: guy with the book, club book.
I should, I should've stopped and invited how that would've been fun.
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: But, so this is to me still a 2020 salsas. 20 SALs, you know, it's making low for me, but, uh, yeah. I think it just needs to be fleshed out a little
Shubh: bit. Yeah. I, if I could go back again, I would give it, and if, if I'd have thought around a thought ahead, like Abdul had, I would've given it 48 SALs.
Abdul: Oh, oh yeah.
Shubh: Salsa for every cheeseburger that we had remaining.
Philippe: Yeah. That's coming your way.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Philippe: Yeah. We going, yeah, we're gonna send Leavings, but you gotta come get it, brother.
Shubh: Yeah. Next time he's in Calgary. Next time you're in Calgary, you're, uh, well, how do you feel about putting Abdu up on a live panel for Tech Thursday?
Philippe: Uh, we would love to have you.
Shubh: Yeah,
Abdul: I
Philippe: would love to. It could just be. It would call, we would call the panel, um, trauma dumping with Abdul.
Shubh: No. Would we need, like a se have you ever had a seven second delay at your live events before?
Abdul: I, I can choose not to, not to say fucked up stuff. [01:02:00] I do have that. I do that.
Shubh: No, I prefer it this way.
Yeah. Next time, uh, you're in Calgary. First of all, we owe you, uh, 50 cheeseburgers. Secondly, we uh, are very grateful you gave us this time.
Abdul: I was happy
Shubh: to today third. So good
Philippe: to have you.
Shubh: Yeah, this was an absolute riot. I'm very sweaty 'cause Philip and I work, uh, in a very hot room, but I'm sweaty for more than one reason.
Lemme just put it out. Uh, if you are into comedy, listen to Abdul's podcast, spout lore. If you're into Dungeons and Dragons, listen to Abdul's podcast spout lore. If you aren't into either of those two things, but you would like to be, feels like a really great entry point. Mm-hmm. Right.
Philippe: Or if you're into the King of Saudi Arabia, also listen to Abdulaziz.
Yeah,
Abdul: yeah. First king of Saudi Arabia. Abdulaziz is AKA Tacoma Dome. The Barbarian,
Shubh: yeah. Tacoma Dome. The Barbarian is an [01:03:00] incredible name.
Philippe: Was that actually his like, uh, his handle or whatever?
Abdul: That was my, you mean like my characters?
Philippe: Yeah. Well, Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian. Was that what they called that king, or no, no, no,
Abdul: no.
That's what they called. This is
Shubh: what they called this
Philippe: character.
Abdul: Oh, that's my, that's my d and d character.
Philippe: Yeah, I know, but I wasn't sure if you made the d and d character off of.
Abdul: No, no, no. They definitely did
Philippe: not think you, I sorry. You think they called the
Shubh: first king of Saudi Arabia to go Tacoma Dome, the Barbarian?
Abdul: Yeah. They named the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington
Shubh: after they named him after the
Philippe: king of,
Shubh: uh, like they named him after the Red Deer of Washington state.
Philippe: Okay. I understand. I thought it might be like an Alexander the Great kind of thing, you know?
Shubh: Uh, famously also, uh. I don't even have a bit there. Boise Dome, the Barbarian. Uh, yeah. Listen to Ab Dylan's podcast. Um, what else can we, can we talk about, tell, tell people about that they should do for you?
Abdul: [01:04:00] Uh, honestly, podcast is probably the best thing.
Uh, spout lore, it's S-P-O-U-T-L-O-R-E. It's hard to hear sometimes. Uh, but yeah, it's
Shubh: spout lower.
Abdul: We're 14 seasons in, so you got a big catalog, like almost 300 episodes to like get through and it's a lot of fun. It's like more comedy than anything else. Uh, and then you kinda like get into the game, I think like as it moves along.
And then we also have another show. Called Mall Brats, which is like set in the same universe, but it's sort of like Gangs of New York meets a Saturday morning cartoon. Uh, it, it uses like a slightly different game system that's like, meant to be like very like, kinda like, ooh, these gangs are like a turning on each other, but it's like a bunch of kids in a mall.
Philippe: Oh, that's fun.
Shubh: Mm-hmm. Um, the reason I know that, uh, people will love Spel Lores, uh, today I was listening to an episode and uh, there was about a 10 minute bit of one character, [01:05:00] um, unable to talk to another character 'cause they did not want to interrupt them while they were taking a shit.
Abdul: That's awesome.
It's a lot of that kind of stuff.
Shubh: So if for anybody out there who's like, I don't know, listen to this nerd stuff Yeah. We got a treat for you. Spout lore, uh, yeah. Go find it. It's like, uh, it's, it's ranked everywhere in the world. Uh, Abdul. Thanks buddy. Really appreciate you coming on. Uh, next time you're in Calgary, we're gonna hang out.
You're gonna come on one of Phil's panels. You'll talk Absolutely.
Abdul: Yes. And I will not say anything fucked up, I promise.
Shubh: Yeah. Talk. You'll talk about data science.
Abdul: Yeah.
Shubh: Neuroscience.
Abdul: You can say fucked up shit. We love that stuff.
Shubh: Yeah. Awesome buddy. Thank you so, so much.
Abdul: Thank you for having me.
Shubh: This is a presentation of Indian Dad media in association with
Philippe: this is a Thursday media [01:06:00] production.