Episode 24 of Your Business Is On The Line
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Shubh: [00:00:00] Mark, uh, just, um, the table is, uh, unruly.
Mark: Okay.
Shubh: So, um, sometimes we get people banging on the table.
Mark: And it falls. I brought a huge drink.
Shubh: Yeah, the table- The table, the table will fall, and then I'll- It'll be a big problem ... we'll have to clean up a bunch of audio.
Mark: Got
Shubh: it. Um- And
Philippe: a bunch of Diet Coke.
Mark: Yeah.
And then I'll have something else right after this- Uh ... that I have to head to.
Shubh: Well, yes, that's right, like a very important
Mark: commitment. Yeah, right? Yeah. Wish I could stay and clean.
Philippe: But I really must go. Yeah. Yeah.
Is the Diet Coke, is that gonna relate to one of your pitches? 'Cause you told me a pitch relevant- Oh ... to Diet Cokes.
Mark: Good question. Uh, so it does relate to one of the pitches. Good. Um-
Shubh: Perfect ... '
Mark: cause I do need to solve this problem, but I would've had a Diet Coke either way.
Shubh: Uh, okay, Mark, so you've listened for it.
The way this will work is we will do just a little quick welcome. Uh, we used to spend a lot of time talking about people's backgrounds, but then Phil said, uh, we were turning into every other podcast, so I just stopped doing that. I did
Philippe: not [00:01:00] say that.
Shubh: That's, I mean, his-
Mark: Man, welcome is good.
Shubh: His eyes, his eyes said that.
Uh, but we will ask you a little bit. I mean, I know you- Yeah ... a little bit, but I don't know you as well as Phil does.
Philippe: How many, how many pitches
Mark: you got?
And I've got a couple ideas, so we'll move- Oh ... through them quickly.
Philippe: Oh, hell
Shubh: yeah.
Mark: Yes. So I've got, I've got one, two, three, four, five, six. I've got about 10 ideas I wanna go through today.
Philippe: Holy shit. I love it. Really?
Shubh: Mark-
Mark: Yeah. And there are two of them that if anyone wants to do them, I'll just finance them.
Like, if there's someone in the audience that's like, "That's actually pretty sick. Uh- Mm-hmm ... I just don't have time to do it, so I'll just write the check."
Philippe: I got s- I got ideas like that, but I don't have the capital- ... to just be like, "Yeah, go do it." Yeah. Like, I would do that for Arranged, but, uh, yeah.
Shubh: Uh,
Philippe: this is gonna be- I don't have the money
Shubh: stupid. I always like to check. Mark Le Dain.
Mark: Mark Le Dain.
Shubh: See?
Philippe: MLD.
Mark: Okay, you ready? That wasn't me, for the audience. That was, that was Phil.
Phil's my hype man.
Shubh: Pause Welcome to episode 24 of your business is on the line. what's my new [00:02:00] catchphrase? Oh, yeah, the podcast where, uh, serious people come on and pitch unserious business ideas.
Philippe: Whoa. It's
Shubh: a good catchphrase.
Philippe: Um- How does it feel about b- uh, being called a serious person?
Shubh: Hey, hold on, I have to- And I've got
Mark: some serious business ideas too.
Shubh: This is gonna be just like this. I can't keep you guys on track. I for, uh... I'm here with co-host Philippe Burns. N- Hello. Now you can talk.
Philippe: Okay, okay.
Shubh: And, uh, special guest Mark Le Dain. Uh, Mark, without embarrassing you, I think you might be, uh, Philippe's white whale guest for this podcast.
Mark: Oh, interesting.
Shubh: Yeah, right from the get... Hold on, Philippe. Uh, uh, just mute. You want me to mute his mic? I can mute it. Uh- Sure ... right from the get-go, he's like, "We gotta get Mark on this podcast." And, uh, then you didn't. You didn't get him. I got him.
Philippe: Wow.
Shubh: But, I mean, it took 24 episodes.
Philippe: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Mark: There was some scheduling snafus.
Shubh: No, no, don't do that, Mark. It's good to be here. Don't do that, Mark. Don't, don't, uh, don't make it seem like Philippe, uh- ... you know, has an excuse. Mark, it is a pleasure to have you here.
Mark: Great to be here.
Shubh: I [00:03:00] also admit I'm very excited. You walked in, you said, "I have 10 ideas to pitch."
Mark: Yeah, I've got 10 ideas. I brought some hats if you guys- You did bring
Shubh: hats.
Mark: We can toss them on for the video later.
Shubh: I'm gonna put that hat on for sure. Uh, we'll get a hat. We'll get a pic- Throw them
Philippe: this way. We gotta put them
Shubh: on for the- We'll get a, we'll get a picture, and then we'll get picture, we'll get a picture with the hats on after.
Philippe: Oh.
Shubh: Oh, wait. Uh, can I... Like, I like that mesh one. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Philippe: So, uh, these are Fuel, Fuel. Tell us about Fuelled. This is the company-
Mark: Yeah, so- Yeah, what do you
Shubh: do?
Mark: I'm CRO at Fuelled. we run the largest energy equipment marketplace. Uh-
Shubh: Wait, hold on. Did you just come on this podcast for the free ad plug?
Mark: M- mostly, yes.
Shubh: So that's why he's a CRO,
Mark: folks. The CEO told us it was cheaper than sponsorship. So we've got the logo. We are hiring for two roles- ... if there's, if there's anyone in the audience.
Shubh: Yeah. Uh, sorry, I interrupted you. What does Fuelled do, Mark? You're the CRO at Fuelled.
Mark: Yeah, so I'm CRO at Fuelled. Um, so run marketing, sales, and then we've got a very tech-driven, kinda like go to market motion through that.
And we run [00:04:00] the largest energy equipment marketplace. so think about it as Kijiji or Facebook Marketplace, uh, but pretty much anything from a generator all the way to, like, a power plant or a gas plant, you can buy on Fuelled. So you could even look right now and, like, update the wife or the spouse that you've bought something.
Uh, maybe it's a, maybe it's a mining camp that's, uh, yeah. I could
Shubh: buy a whole mining
Mark: camp? That you're in the mood for. Yeah.
Philippe: Okay.
Shubh: What... Yeah, what would... And legitimately, I know this is, like, Philippe and I are not the target audience, but what would you say is on the marketplace right now-
Mark: That's interesting?
Shubh: that Philippe and I personally could be interested
Philippe: in? If we want to splurge.
Mark: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so the generators, there are some cheap generators. there are some cheap all-terrain vehicles, which is pretty interesting. Oh, okay. Yeah. Uh- Yeah ... 'cause energy and mining companies will often use them to get around.
there's an entire helium plant, uh- Whoa ... which, which is actually interesting 'cause- some strategic bidders, so like m- people that aren't effectively in the space, that want to deploy capital [00:05:00] strategically for, like, a time period. so like think private equity, spec buyers. They're like, "Hey, man, there's a helium shortage.
Like, should I just buy that plant?" Oh, wow ... so I'll get texts once in a while of names where they're just, like, financial counterparties that want to look at purchasing it. so stuff like that could be an investment.
Shubh: So this, I love this idea so much because, I mean, it's kind of the, I mean, it's the classic sort of two-sided marketplace idea.
Not to diminish the, the idea, but it's in an industry that never would have had this type of approach, right? Like- Yeah ... historically. And you guys have just unlocked it. To your point, you've taken this kind of consumer-ish idea and applied it to, I don't know, like, how many... You- Mark will know off the top of his head.
How many bazillions of dollars of energy equipment moves, changes hands in this province or this country?
Mark: Oh, it's, it's crazy. So in North America, it's about, like, 110 billion-
Shubh: Yeah ...
Mark: is the, is the annual value of equipment. Uh- 10 ... and so, like, if you think about that, there's a portion that's used that we sell, cause no one else can [00:06:00] source, like, equipment, given supply chain delays.
or they can source it, but it's too expensive given inflation. so it provides kind of a good, good value to the buyers. And then on the seller's case, you just end up with surplus equipment, like projects, you decommission them, you retire equipment, you replace key items. That ends up with a lot of stuff that you should be selling or reusing.
Hmm. Yeah.
Philippe: But also Field is, like, one of the sexiest setups
Shubh: in Calgary, right? Oh, that of- Your of- Right? The office, it looks like a, a, a, a sports, uh, bar- ... with a spa. It's a sports bar.
Philippe: You guys are-
Shubh: That's a business idea.
Philippe: A sports bar. But y- I mean, you do have, like, the, the bar, you have a speakeasy Japanese library- Yeah
with a sauna. But on top of that, you guys are also, like, no board, no investors. I- it's just you guys, like, making a bunch of dough and-
Shubh: Actually growing ...
Philippe: and growing and grinding.
Mark: Yeah, like, we, we reinvest everything into the business, which has been fun 'cause we get to, like, build it in the, in Calgary, like, grow a [00:07:00] global business.
We're in about 20 countries, but- Wow ... based in Calgary and based in Houston. and yeah, we get to kinda make decisions that we think are good for the long-term benefit of the business, uh, like a sauna, for example, which it's, it's kind of funny, like, something like that health-wise and productivity-wise, um, there's a very good ROI, but you could never do it with investors.
Right. Um, 'cause if you ever had even, like, a down year or down month- Yeah ... it would just look dumb.
Shubh: Yeah. Forklift the sauna out.
Mark: Yeah, 'cause they'd be like, "Oh, clearly those guys, like, they're just splurging." Yeah. Uh, even if there's a very real ROI to it. Um.
Shubh: Yeah. we're gonna do a follow-up. You're gonna come back a second time on this episode.
We've already rebooked you, just for the record. Yeah. Fair. We're gonna, but we're gonna record that one- ... at, at your office.
Mark: In the sauna.
Shubh: Well, I- Oh, in the sauna ... actually, I mean, that could- I mean, I wasn't going there necessarily, but-
Philippe: Yeah, the, yeah, I
Shubh: was like- Only wearing- ... convention and things ... only wearing these hats.
Maybe not. yeah, that, that office space is really cool. What you guys, I think, are doing is pretty cool. how do you and, uh, Philippe know each other?
Mark: So we worked together at Neo. I was at [00:08:00] Neo running corp dev, um, and partnerships, and then Phil was running all our, like, community engagement initiatives.
he used to give tours and have the people come by my desk- ... see what I was working on.
Philippe: I would bother him, yeah.
Shubh: Yeah. And basically you just turned that into a career.
Philippe: Uh, yeah. I've, I've like pretty much been doing tours- ... since I was a kid.
Shubh: Just you brought people, somebody... You brought somebody in to talk to someone else.
You've ma- turned that into an entire business.
Philippe: Absolutely. I did that at a brewery
Shubh: before. Yeah. You're a two- And then, yeah ... you created a two-sided human marketplace.
Philippe: Sure.
Shubh: I mean, not, not in the, not in the way that... You know, not in a negative way.
Philippe: Right. Not in the human trafficking
Shubh: sense. Yeah. Did you introduce, did you introduce Mark and I, too?
Was that you?
Philippe: Um...
Shubh: I can't remember who that was.
Philippe: I, I... Mike- Potentially. Mike was that Mi- Maybe Ralph.
Shubh: Or was that Mike Mc- was that Ralph or Mike McCl- Or Mike. No, you introduced him, Mike. Anyway, but, uh-
Philippe: But since then we've become friends. Now we have quarterly dinners.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: Well, I mean, y- not close enough friends that he didn't, I didn't book him on the pod anyway.
Philippe: Yeah, that's true.
Shubh: But Mark, you were also, uh, very, kind and generous [00:09:00] with your time with me when I left ZayZoon, 'cause I was kinda like, "What am I gonna do with my life?" And you walked me through a similar, journey you went on. So I, I, uh, I know I said thank you. Yeah, of course. But I do really appreciate that.
anything else, Mark, you wanna talk about before we get into the, uh, meat
Philippe: and potatoes? That was me who made that intro. Now that thank you. 'Cause you guys were both running Substacks at the time or something and-
Shubh: Yeah, yeah,
Philippe: yeah ... right? And had gone through that career
Shubh: transition. Yeah, I was like, "Mark has done it.
He has figured out how to..." Like, he's left, and now he doesn't have to work, and he's d- and he's kinda do... And then, like, a couple months later he was like, "I'm going full time at this thing." And then he was like 1,000 miles an hour, and I was like, "Oh, man." I guess I gotta go back to work at some point.
Mark: Yeah, my background, yeah, investment banking into tech.
I think the things for the audience is I do like supporting, like, Calgary and Alberta tech and Canadian tech. so if people do need intros or help, I've, like, been lucky to experience kind of a full gambit of, of things, whether it's, like, fast growth, [00:10:00] raising US VC capital, spent a lot of time on marketplaces and platforms.
and then I've written on tech and energy for different publications. So if people need intros or they wanna just talk career paths, they're welcome to reach out, for sure.
Shubh: here's the biggest compliment I can give you, Mark, is, uh, there's not too many people that I've met that I'm like, "This person might be better at getting revenue than I am."
So that was kind of also a compliment to myself, but, uh, uh- But Mark is on that list. So yes, talk to Mark if you're doing anything, and he's got time. Don't just f- don't just randomly talk to him. Ask Philippe for an intro.
Philippe: Yeah.
Mark: It's a good way to- Philippe- ... protect my time.
Shubh: Yeah, yeah. Probably
Mark: the best way to protect my
Shubh: time.
Yeah, yeah. Philippe will be like, "Ah, no." The worst way to protect time. Listen, I mean, you got a hat out of it. Uh, well, Mark, thank you very much for that. Uh, Fuelled, uh, go check out Fuelled for all your, energy equipment needs. Maybe you get a helium plant.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: You know what? Uh, Father's Day is coming up.
Mark: Father's Day is coming up. Guys love equipment.
Shubh: Got a couple [00:11:00] fathers in here. Big
Mark: facility. It- Big power facility. If I- That says big, strong dad.
Shubh: If I woke up the Sunday morning of Father's Day and it was a card with keys in it, and it said, "Dad, here are the keys to your new helium plant"-
Mark: That'd be pretty cool
Shubh: I'd be like-
Mark: That's a huge flex, huge neighborhood flex.
Shubh: I'd text you guys- I'd tell my dad ... I'd text you guys immediately. I'd be like, "Uh, hey, Mark, what'd you get for Father's Day?" "Hey, Phil, what'd you get your dad for Father's Day?" And if anybody didn't say helium plant- ... right?
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Pretty good.
Philippe: How much does that run me, a helium plant?
Mark: Uh, so this one's quite expensive. Okay.
Shubh: Yeah, well, you say it like Phil can't afford it. Phil, don't let him talk to you like that.
Philippe: How much is
Shubh: it? How mu- you know how much money Phil has.
Mark: So this one's tens of millions. Um- Oh. There are smaller assets, like we've got, uh, like some small power plants.
Shubh: No, I got my heart set on this helium
Mark: plant now.
They're in your range. Yeah. Well, hopefully th- your family's listening.
Shubh: Imagine all the balloons we could do. You know when you, you know your kid's birthday party, you gotta run out to the- Yeah ... dollar store? What if you just took it out of the- Never
Mark: again.
Shubh: Never again. You could have the birthday party at the helium plant.
Mark: Again, a huge [00:12:00] flex.
Shubh: Where's the birthday party?
Mark: For the neighborhood dads.
Shubh: Fort Saskatchewan. I don't know.
Mark: Like, the dads that get a ride-on mower, and they've got, like, the really small inner-city yard.
Shubh: Yeah. That's the dream.
Mark: That's the dream.
Shubh: Well, Mark, uh, you said you don't just have one idea to pitch us.
You have a number of ideas to pitch us. You have a... Holy cr- you have printed this piece of paper out from a computer.
Mark: Yeah, I've got a lot of ideas we gotta go through. I'm stressed about time.
Shubh: Cool. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. Uh, we got, we got another recording coming in after. We can push that one off.
Sorry, Andrew. All right. Go, Mark. Let's hit it.
Mark: Okay. First one. So this is one that I'd finance if anyone wants to do it. Okay.
Shubh: Real. This
Mark: is real. Real one. Uh, so you could start it in Calgary, but you could easily grow it to other cities. it's called Fridge Cigarette. All it is- All it is, is it's effectively, like, a pop machine downtown.
and, like, some of my friends in CRE, like, they'd be happy to, like, provide space in the buildings. but it's a pop machine downtown, and it's just Diet Cokes. [00:13:00] Uh- So pretty much, like, you can buy bulk Diet Coke. Wait, why is it
Shubh: called Fridge Cigarette? '
Mark: Cause that's what young kids call it.
Philippe: That's what young kids call Diet Cokes?
Shubh: Get out of here.
Philippe: Yeah, we call 'em- Yeah ... fridge cigarettes.
Shubh: That is not a thing.
Philippe: Yeah. That's what we call them.
Shubh: What?
Mark: Okay.
Shubh: Are you guys just doing a bit behind my back? No, no. No.
Philippe: That's actually like- Very
Mark: real ...
Shubh: just 'cause I'm much older?
Mark: I don't know
Philippe: what- If Chaz was on, he would confirm.
Mark: I don't know what the demos are for this podcast, but- Yeah, but you love the fridge
Shubh: cigarette.
So, uh, fridge cigarettes just filled with Diet Coke.
Mark: Yeah, just filled with Diet Coke. Um, 'cause it's kinda crazy, like I've talked to friends that own like kinda mini markets and stuff downtown. Yeah. They're like, "Ah, it's pretty tough, but I sell enough Diet Cokes to make it work." Right. And they're like, "But it sucks when I run out of Diet Cokes."
Shubh: Right.
Mark: Which is crazy 'cause I'm like, "Why not just fill the store with Diet Cokes if that's the only like high margin product you sell?" So you're just
Shubh: stocking a, a bunch of vending machines-
Mark: That just sell Diet Coke ... Diet
Shubh: Coke only.
Mark: Yeah. And it's 2.50, so it's cheaper than Sunterra and all the others by- Yeah
like a dollar. And then you can buy it in bulk. Pretty good gross margin [00:14:00] still, and you just pump those out. The people will be great. What are the gross margins
Philippe: on that?
Mark: Still about 30%, which is pretty good.
Philippe: Wow,
Shubh: okay. Do, do you, if you become a, uh, vending machine operator- Yeah ... person, um, are you mandated to distribute the, um...
Like if you get a Coke-branded vending machine, do you have to have all the different brands or are you allowed to just pick your own brand?
Mark: I think some of them are like that, but you can also just buy machines.
Shubh: Yeah, you can get just a- Yeah ... generic, uh, a fridge, fridge cigarette branded.
Mark: Exactly.
Philippe: People should start putting like more weird things in vending machines, right?
Like, just- Oh, yeah ... like you have Mott's Fruitations or something.
Mark: Okay. Hope I'm next to that
Shubh: that vending machine. Sounds like a- Highly specific.
Philippe: Yeah. Or cigarettes. Yeah. Which is actual cigarettes.
Shubh: Yeah, you can't do that anymore. Uh, fridge cigarettes-
Mark: Yeah, so fridge cigarettes ...
Shubh: Diet Cokes only.
Mark: Just Diet Cokes.
Shubh: I mean-
Mark: They're always there.
They're always cheaper.
Shubh: I mean, I, I mean, yeah, Diet Coke Only would also be a great name for it.
Mark: Yeah, it'd be a good name too. When we wanna target that older demo.
Shubh: Only Diet Cokes. Yeah. Actually, for people [00:15:00] like me, it would just have Fridge Cigarette on one side and Only Diet Cokes- Yeah ... on the other side.
Mark: So that's an option if anyone wants to do that, um,
Shubh: behind the scenes. Yeah, we're ready to rate this idea. You ready to rate this idea? Yeah. I gotta go quick.
Philippe: Go for it.
Shubh: No, you go.
Philippe: I love this. I, I don't drink Diet Coke. Um, it, it's my perception-
Shubh: Is it, is it 'cause you can never find it?
Philippe: It's my perception that like aspartame is worse than sugar, for you.
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: But, um-
Shubh: Well, but don't say that to Mark as he's drinking a Diet
Philippe: Coke.
Mark: Put everything into this business.
Philippe: But I do love the idea, and I know that people do love fridge cigarettes. so I, I think it's a brilliant idea. I would love to see this come to fruition. This is... In order to help encourage people to actually pursue this and reach out, I, um, will give this 75 salsas.
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: This is a str- Nice ... this is a perfect idea.
Shubh: Yeah. I'm gonna give it, uh... Well, Mark said he's got 10 ideas. So you... Yeah, I do this all the time, is I don't wanna, I don't wanna give you a perfect score if I like another idea better, right? Yeah. So I'm gonna go, uh, I'm gonna give myself room, [00:16:00] incremental room.
I'm gonna go 65 out of 75 salsas. I do love this idea, though. It's, uh, very focused. It's AI-proof, right?
Mark: It's AI-proof.
Shubh: It's AI-proof.
Philippe: That's right. Physical hard assets.
Shubh: Uh, everybody, uh, on... Whenever I'm, like, randomly scrolling, uh, tech Twitter, everyone's like, "Instead of starting a tech company, just go buy a fleet of vending machines," right?
Yeah. And so this feels like a- Now
Mark: it works ...
Shubh: great idea.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: Only Diet Cokes
Mark: Okay, sweet. We'll look for that, uh, we just need that founder.
Shubh: Friger-
Mark: Probably listening.
Shubh: Frigerates. Yeah. Frige-ciles. That's a good one, too. Frigerates. Uh, yeah, I love this idea so much. Hopefully that's not a competing
Mark: one.
Shubh: Um. Yeah, uh, but guys out there, uh, Mark said he's o- he's on board.
I don't know, what is a vending machine run?
Philippe: Have you, have you underst- like, have you looked into it?
Shubh: No? You know what? I bet you there's a couple vending machines still sitting around at this Helium plant.
Mark: Yeah. You could grab an old one.
Shubh: We just go get the whole Helium plant.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Then-
Philippe: Buy it o- Buy it off, uh, Fuel.
Shubh: Uh, perfect. Okay. Love it.
Mark: Next idea.
Shubh: Idea number two, this is amazing.
Mark: So this one, I actually think it's, like, a very [00:17:00] interesting time for this one. Yeah. Uh, but you could pretty much start a talent agency with companies for animals. so there are all these companies where- Mm-hmm ... they market their product-
to animals, right? And, uh- Wait,
Shubh: hold on a sec.
Mark: Just wait, wait. You gotta fully understand the idea. You gotta fully understand the idea. So I'm a pet food company. Yeah. I sell all this food. Parents are buying it for their dogs and cats.
Philippe: Right.
Mark: There are a bunch of AI companies now that can translate about 90% of, like, animal sounds into, like-
communication that humans can understand. So they've done it, they've done this with dolphins, they've done this with dogs and cats. Um, and there's, like, a Chinese company just recently, like earlier this week, they say they're at about 95% now. Um- No
Shubh: way.
Mark: So they're- But how do they
Shubh: know?
Mark: Well, doesn't matter.
For my, it doesn't matter for my company. Uh. So what you can do is you can go to all these companies and say, "Hey, in, like, a year, maybe six months, people are gonna be a- able to ask their pet do they [00:18:00] like your product. Wouldn't you wanna get ahead of that by, like, a couple months so that the dog and cats aren't like, 'I hate that thing.
Why do you keep buying it?'" So pretty much you'd have all these pets, and you'd go to these orgs and say, like, "Hey, do you wanna start chatting with the, like, 10 dogs that, like, have a really good understanding, and they span all these demos? Do you wanna start chatting with them about what they think about your product?"
And same with, like, different environmental protection orgs. Uh, like, "Hey, do you wanna chat with the dolphins to see if, like, that's actually helpful- ... or they hate when you do this thing?" Uh, and effectively you would just preempt us being able to chat, like, with animals fully. Um, and- ... you'd run, like, a full kind of like...
You, you, you could treat it as a survey company, you could treat it as a talent agency. Like, there are a couple different ways to monetize it, but you pretty much lock up the consumer companies and, like, a lot of the big agencies that were willing to pay for this data in advance. and then, like, even just a month or two of signing those names, like, the AI tools are already there.
but- ... that even, like, gives you some extra runway for sure.
Shubh: When, when you started to talk I thought, [00:19:00] "Oh, like, you're just gonna start a new animal talent agency for, like, when they need an elephant in a Hollywood film."
Mark: Oh, yeah.
Shubh: But you are... It's animal talent to sell to animals.
Mark: Yeah, yeah.
Shubh: It's an- You gotta
Mark: get-
Shubh: This is an incredible idea
Mark: you gotta understand if animals like it.
Philippe: It's a remarkable idea, but it's, it's so funny that the first application, like, like, y- you know, uh, dogs have been domesticated for, 1300, maybe longer than that, years.
Mark: Yeah, maybe longer. It's crazy.
Philippe: Um-
Mark: Well, I think we used to, didn't we use to hunt with them in the Ice Age?
Philippe: Yeah, yeah. That's true. Long time ago. So even longer than that. And we've probably been talking to them in baby voice, So now we've finally discovered how we can actually talk to dogs and cats, and the first thing we're gonna do to them is sell, sell to them.
Shubh: Yeah. And so the idea would be, uh, we're gonna get a dog next year.
We've made a commitment to the kids. So my dog is watching, a future dog, watching the television.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: And, uh, this dog star, celebrity dog comes on, [00:20:00] and, uh, it pitches, uh, uh, some kind of n- uh, plant-based dog food.
Mark: Yeah, I guess you could even have the dog tell other dogs it's an actually good food.
Shubh: Oh, that's what I thought we were going.
Uh, no- No ... I'm telling, I'm, I- No,
Mark: I think, like-
Shubh: I think the dog is doing the pitch now.
Mark: No, I think day one you're just, like, having the dog tell the org whether it's good or bad. 'Cause they're making all this food that's, like, designed to sell to humans.
Shubh: Yeah, so you're getting immediate dog feedback. Uh- I'm taking, I'm layering on a separate thing.
Yeah. That dog, that celebrity dog-
Mark: It should do
Shubh: that ... is just like, "Om nom nom," and then it looks up and it's like, "Hey, this is really good."
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: And the other dog's like, "Shit."
Mark: But he just barks it. Yeah. And the dogs in your house understand.
Shubh: And, yeah. Right. Yeah. Because, uh, you know, dogs, animals are also fighting over the same food.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: You see a couple magpies going at it, right? What if those magpies could be sold to?
Mark: Yeah. Buy magpie. But then you, you need a human there that then says, like, "This dog just said that food is good." 'Cause otherwise, like, the human still has the wallet.
Shubh: Yeah. Right.
Mark: Like, if they're just seeing a dog bark- Yeah, that's right
Shubh: on
Mark: TV.
Shubh: That's right. Okay, that's a great call. So there needs to be another... Does every dog-
Philippe: W- [00:21:00] is that it, though? Because I think, you know, you can do... 'Cause what you're saying is you wanna preempt the animals,
Mark: um- Yeah, I mean, if you have your AirPods in and it's on, like, pet translation, you can just watch the commercial.
You, you can just do that.
Philippe: Yeah. But, but what you wanna do is like sh- Could I
Shubh: watch movies in dog?
Philippe: Start, start running these ads right now where, um, where you're, you're basically telling, you know, uh, animals that they like a product, that they enjoy these things, so that in six months when everyone has AirPods that translate dog, uh, these animals will be like, "We really love whatever dog food brands are."
Mark: Yeah, you'll do that, plus you gotta ac- do the actual product research.
Philippe: Right.
Mark: What if some of the animals, like, hate one product but like the other one?
Shubh: Yeah.
Mark: It seems valuable to know now versus when they can talk. This
Shubh: is, this is an incredible idea.
Philippe: Um- It's remar- is this... This is not something... This, you did not say this was one of the ones you would finance.
Mark: No, no. No.
Shubh: This is like that dog from Up, Doug.
Mark: Yep.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: You call this company Doug. [00:22:00]
Philippe: Is that what you'd call it? What would you call this?
Mark: I don't know what I'd call
Shubh: it. Yeah. I'm gonna call it Doug. I like the idea too that I could watch movies, like human movies, dubbed in dog
Mark: Yeah, that'd be cool.
Shubh: Right?
You're just watching- Oh, that'd be great ... you're just watching, uh, Peaky Blinders and it's a dog- I don't know how long
Mark: you'd do
Shubh: it for ... it's a dog in an English accent. Just like, "Woof, woof,
Philippe: woof." I mean, there's a lot of, there's a l- in, uh, that movie-
Mark: But your dog would like it ...
Shubh: my dog would finally be like- Yeah
"Why, this is why this thing is on all the
Mark: time." Yeah, yeah. I get it now. Let's watch this.
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: Uh, I have to look into this more. Like, is there one dog dialect? Do all dogs around the world speak the same language? Yeah, that's
Shubh: a great
Mark: follow-up question. That's a good question. I don't know. I think the dolphin one would be most interesting.
Philippe: The dolphin
Mark: one is fascinating. 'Cause they're just so smart.
Shubh: But what are you selling to dolphins?
Mark: I don't know. We, we spend a lot of money protecting them. Hopefully it's useful. You could ask them if it's useful. Maybe they hate certain things we do.
Shubh: That is true. It's true.
Mark: Or maybe they're just like, "Hey man, kill all the sharks."
Yeah. And it's like, "Ah, should we kill all the sharks?" Oh, they probably, they probably,
Shubh: yeah. They probably
Mark: want us- Like, should we just listen to this [00:23:00] dolphin 'cause they're kinda smart like us?
Shubh: They, they probably wanna take out the orcas. Yeah. The bad, the bad dolphins.
Mark: I don't know what they'll say, but I'm excited.
Shubh: I did not know this about this AI,
Mark: uh- Yeah, it's getting very close ... product.
Shubh: I, I, a bit, again, I do have to admit some skepticism about whether, in fact, the translation is accurate. Like- I
Mark: suppose ...
Shubh: it could kinda say whatever it wanted, right?
Mark: Yeah, but I think it's kind of easy to test. Like, it's, it's like testing sign language, where it's like, "Okay, did they respond to what I asked?
Yes, they did." Like, it's probably easier to test on intelligent species day one.
Shubh: Wait,
Mark: what? It's like, "Hey, if you understand me, go to door red and you'll get a cookie."
Shubh: Can it, and it can-
Mark: And then it's like, "Okay, I'll go to door red 'cause I want a
Shubh: cookie." It can, it... My daughter's got one of those, uh, little translators for when we travel, so, like, she can learn different languages.
Yeah. This, if that had a dog setting, that'd be pretty sweet. That'd be
Mark: pretty cool.
Shubh: Man, that's two home runs. I like this idea a lot too. So we're, we're selling to dogs. Okay. We're g- we're market researching pets.
Philippe: Yeah, this is perfect.
Mark: I'm excited when this one [00:24:00] exists and it's like a large business, and it's just us a year before giggling about it.
And do- and doing nothing. And doing nothing. And doing absolutely zero. It's a, it's a- And then it's like a pretty insanely large market, 'cause it's like, yeah, but a lot of the world is animals, and we can talk to them. It's
Shubh: every-
Mark: Yeah. It's big business. Like if,
Shubh: if I had any ideas in this pet adjacent industry, I would absolutely pursue them.
It's a massive market. People love spending money on animals.
Mark: It'll be so weird. It's
Shubh: crazy.
Mark: But you could just tell animals to do something in exchange for rewards. Like for sure there's gonna be a magpie that just, like, robs people. True. So the person's like, "Hey, like-
Shubh: Aren't they, aren't they already doing that?
Mark: Well, yeah, they already do it, but like- ... so, like, think how easy it was to train them.
Shubh: Right.
Mark: But for sure there'll be a monkey that'll be like, "Hey, you'll give me infinite food if I just rob these people when they get off the train?" Yeah. And then they'll just get robbed by the monkey.
Philippe: That's so brilliant.
Shubh: Yeah.
Philippe: Yeah, you, and
Mark: it kind of- But that's not the business idea. Yeah. I mean- I don't, let's focus on the legitimate business.
Shubh: Yeah. Uh, market research to animals, where animals can provide verbal feedback as... And I think that's actually, [00:25:00] honestly, just one- spoke of this enormous-
Mark: Yeah, you
Shubh: already built on it
animal engagement hub.
Philippe: Yeah, and this is like the first horizon, but who knows? Yeah, you might have built the, the, the whole platform for which-
Shubh: Yeah ...
Philippe: everyone communicates with animals using this.
Shubh: I'm just like, but I also think like if a dog could watch what you're watching and have little dog headphones and it was translated into dog for them,
Philippe: it'd be so good.
Mark: That'd be pretty cool. People love their pets.
Shubh: Yeah. Okay, you got a rating?
Philippe: Yeah, I think it's h- I think it's 75 again. I'm doubling up y- on your score.
Shubh: Yeah, I'm going 65 to 67 Because I've still left room Incremental I'm leaving room because every idea has been a home run so far.
Mark: Okay, yeah, leave some room.
Shubh: Yeah. Let's go.
Mark: Okay.
Shubh: Number three. Next
Mark: one. Next one. Um, so this one I actually think is pretty interesting. Uh, so this, this would be effectively you would run a conglomerate, that owned a variety of boring businesses, Yeah ... like pretty labor-intensive boring businesses. What you would do is you would buy up debt.
So you can, like, [00:26:00] purchase consumer debt. Sometimes it's like pennies on the dollar. You buy up consumer debt, and then effectively what you do is you offer those people a job at your conglomerate, and you're able to pay them, like, above average wages, if they are effectively, like, paying back that debt.
Now, there are a couple, like, different ways you have to do this, um, from like, like- Whoa ... the way you do the steps and the way you do... like, the way you market it, and there's a whole bunch of, like, financial consumer, like, laws and regs. But you could set it up so that pretty much what you're doing is you're arbing the payback with the consumer as a partner, which is actually, like, pretty aligned when you think about it, if you do it correctly.
So right now, what happens is-
Philippe: Whoa ...
Mark: you, you've got a bunch of bad credit card debt. Um- Yeah ... so you're a bank. You've got your, like- Yeah ... bad credit card portfolio. Yeah. You're like, "Go easy." You've got your portfolio.
Shubh: Yep.
Mark: You often will sell down those bad loans to, like, people that will try to collect. some of them are great.
they're, like, trying to do their best to get the people to pay back. [00:27:00] A huge chunk of that market, as you'd expect, are, like, bad actors. Yep. Not great. Um, they are just chasing people and scaring people. and, like, a lot of these people don't have options, but they'd love to pay back. that's, like, a big chunk of that market.
And then a lot of them are like, "Hey, I don't really care about that company. Like, that loan, like, in retrospect, was predatory. so, like, I hope they never get their money back." you think about both those people, like, they're both looking for solutions that are solved by this. so pretty much what you'd do is you'd buy up all these cohorts of debt.
You would go to everyone whose debt you own and say, like, "Hey, I know you got this debt. Sorry you got it. If you can pay it back, great. If you can't, no worries. Here's an option to pay it back faster." And pretty much you take that, like, 90 cents on the dollar, and you say, like, "Hey, we'll split this with you, um, if you start paying it back," which is actually just an insane arb where it's like, "Hey, I will give you a job.
You can work at my, like, bottling factory or a variety of, like- Right ... labor-intensive ones. Um, and I can pay you above average wages of any other, like, comparable job that you could do if you start paying me back this debt. 'Cause, like, pretty much we bought your debt [00:28:00] together, like, as partners. now you didn't at the time.
Um, but, like, we own this obligation together. We bought it for pennies. Let's split some of this and start paying it back, and then there's an arb for us to share. I think that's kind of interesting 'cause, like, one, it gives people, like, a legitimate pathway out that's, like, not punitive. Um- Wow ... but two, it also, like, I like the idea of capturing a big arb from predatory lenders where it's like, "Hey, like-
you were, like, bullying this guy. I'm gonna, like, give him a job and help him pay me back." Um- Yeah. Like, generally I quite like that, plus there's a big arb to share. Um, and it just, it frankly costs way less if you're not chasing the people. Like, a lot of these companies, a huge amount of their cost is, like, G&A of just, like, "I'm gonna pay people to chase this dude."
and that's expensive. So, like, if you can avoid that... So pretty much you take your portfolio and, like, the ones where you said, "Hey, if you can pay me back, great. If you want a job, better," and then you just leave them. They'll do their best. Um, and then for the other ones, you've, like, given them a job, so you've got massive, like, connectivity with them and alignment.
Um, you don't have to [00:29:00] pay people to, like, go to their house and ask when they're gonna pay. So, like, your G&A is actually very low. and then you just split this upside arb between, like, you the company and the individual who's, you've given a job to. It's a cool time too 'cause there are all these AI testing jobs that just, like, need people, so there actually are, like, a lot of labor-intensive jobs where your qualifications can be very broad.
Philippe: Wow. We are witnessing a masterclass.
Shubh: I mean, I, I worked at a company for a very long time that operated at least in part on a similar thesis. Like, there's this legacy way that people-
Mark: Yeah ...
Shubh: get access to funds when they need it. There's, it's very often predatory. Is there at least a marginally better way?
and then honestly, one of the things we always ran into was like, "Well, we can help to an extent, but we can't help further," right? Like there's, we're, we're limited by what people are earning at the end of the day. This is kind of a wild idea. Like, a- and 'cause like, I mean, so [00:30:00] often too people get into these situations because of employment issues, right?
Yeah. Like, you know? And so, By the way- And I ha- I'm slow a little right now because my head's actually trying to... I'm like, "Fuck."
Mark: And the-
Shubh: That's pretty good.
Mark: The issues compound for them too, which sucks. So there's like- Yeah ... I was chatting with someone, cause I used to do some like financial literacy volunteering at CUPS, and you'd chat with people where some of their employment issues were driven by like these lenders.
'Cause let- let's imagine you get a new job and then there's like a big dude at the office like looking for you and asking everyone where you is. Yeah. And then the company's like- Oh ... "Oh, like, I really don't like Sally c- like having this job because, like, Big Joe comes around like asking for money." Um- That's a real thing that happened
which like sucks for Sally 'cause like that's a real problem and like she's just working hard to try to like pay back this debt that, again, she may not fully have understood at the same time. Yeah. And it's impacting her ability to like remain employed to pay it back. Um, or like you get people where they're like, "Hey, I'd love to work this job, but I'm scared about going [00:31:00] here because I own like this company money, and they sent someone to collect."
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so it removes that pain as well.
Philippe: That's remarkable. So- But walk me through the, uh, arbitrage here where you're able... Like why are you able to pay above average? Is it just because you're, you're... Basically, it's above average because you're taking the future upside of the debt repayments?
Mark: Good question. So you're a financial company. someone owes you $10,000. You can often like only sell that for like a couple hundred bucks. Um- Right ... pretty much they'll just look at the demographic of the person that like owes money to you, and they'll say, "Hey, on average, this many people never pay, this many people pay a bit, this many people pay all," and it like gets very, very small.
Um, so they say, "Hey, I'll buy this debt off you, but it's gonna be a fraction of the original cost." Right. Um, now there's an arb in the market where you can go to that person that owns 10K and you're, you're buying these for pennies on the dollar. You can go to that person, um, that owes you 10K, and let's say there are 10 of them that you, you [00:32:00] bought a portfolio of $100,000.
If you go to the nine with this approach and they say, "Hey, like I don't want that job, sorry," but if one says like, "Hey, that's actually really helpful- Yeah, you'll, you'll get the full ... I, I would love a job," they will give you 10K. Um, now that like 10 cents on the dollar is already above the 3 cents on the dollar that you paid for that.
So you can say with them like, "Hey, I'll pay you above average wages, and let's split this so that I earn like 6 cents," um, which would be a pretty crazy return for one of these companies that buys bad debts, to pretty much like double your expected cash flows that you paid from it. But it's pretty crazy that you can go to someone and be like, "Hey, I have an extra couple thousand dollars to pay you."
and like 'cause we've earned this arb together by like creating alignment where you want a job, you wanna work. Right. I want you to pay me back. there's a whole bunch of like, there are some complexities in terms of like what other debts they have and like how the priority's ranked and like whether you can like have yours rank ahead in terms of like their priority to repay.
And there are like certain [00:33:00] companies that are effectively like they can put liens on like payments you get from CRA, so they get to hit that first. Um, so there are certain things that you can't claim even if the person wants to pay you. There are a whole bunch of like fintech complexities, but in general, there's like a pretty wide arb there to share once both parties are aligned.
Shubh: Um- This is so good. Yeah, so for our, uh, uh- This is so remarkable ... for some of our listeners out there, arb is arbitrage. It's, uh, the process by which you can, um, you know, find some room in the margins between moving money around. But what Mark is effectively saying, and, and Mark, uh, you correct me if I'm wrong, is, you're gonna reduce actually take on their debt, actually reduce their debt load because you've bought that debt for a a much smaller fraction of the total debt.
They're gonna get a job, so they're gonna come out ahead financially, from a, a employment perspective, their debt load is gonna be reduced, and you as an employer will benefit because you're gonna get these people who are working very hard, and everybody... The only [00:34:00] person who kinda gets, uh, you know, maybe doesn't do as well is the person who owned the predatory loan in the first place.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: I think we're all good. Which is okay. I think we're all fine with that. Yeah, yeah. Uh, Jesus, that's a good idea.
Mark: Yeah, I like this one. I think it's a cool opportunity for fintech. It's super. And the, the neat thing too is like, I think, and again, going to some
Shubh: like- So it's like a, it's like a staffing plus fintech sort of- Yeah
play, right, combo.
Mark: And g- And going through some financial literacy, like volunteering I've done in the past, I actually think it's better for both you and them if you pay them as opposed to give a reduction. Um, which again, for companies that buy bad debts, it's not their fault that they like don't have a means to pay people.
but when you can combine it, it's really useful because a lot of people, they aren't earning enough income to qualify for certain CRA benefits, um, or to like get rentals- Right. Yep ... 'cause they can't show income. Yep. The ability to say, "Hey, I'll give you an extra like 5K on your paycheck over the next six months," is actually super valuable for them 'cause then they can like- It's easier to do everything
hit certain CRA thresholds. Yeah. Like, they can qualify for rent. Um, and like for you as a business owner, it's tax deductible, like it's an expense. [00:35:00] Um, so it's like an easy win-win that like other participants in the market- Wow ... wouldn't have.
Philippe: This is remarkable. I know we got some other ideas.
Mark: Yeah, we got seven other ideas, so we gotta g-
Philippe: Okay, what's your
Mark: rating?
start pushing through these ideas. I, I'm
Shubh: like, I can't, I, yeah, it's like a, this is a fabulously complex and also incredible idea. Uh, I'm gonna go 70. the only question mark, we need to get, get Garth back on here. Would be any sort of, uh, regulatory, payments kind of, uh, questions. Uh, so I'm gonna go 73 to leave myself a little bit of regulatory room.
Philippe: Nice. I'm gonna keep going with the perfect score. This is a 75
Shubh: sauce. This is- This is- ... an incredible run already. The- Yeah. This, I- I love that the, there was the simplicity of Diet Coke- ... in a vending machine, and the complexity of buying up bad debt, hiring people to work in new, like, new age era jobs. You're, you're returning people to the workforce with, because of AI, instead of reducing them for the workforce.
Plus, they're benefiting financially, plus the owner/operator's benefiting financially.
Philippe: It's a treasure trove.
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. That was, [00:36:00]
Philippe: I
Mark: can see- Not as complex as our pet business, though. Which, which doubles the global workforce.
Shubh: Yeah. Well-
Mark: Every pet should be working.
Shubh: That's true. Right, yeah. Pet, pet spokespeople.
Spokespets. All right. Okay,
Mark: so here's... I'll, I'll move up- This is
Shubh: four ...
Mark: I'll move up some quick ones then. No,
Shubh: no,
Mark: you're good. And, um-
Shubh: You got time.
Mark: So this one's called Eternal Candidate. and pretty much... It's one of the few ones I've named. Um- So pretty much what it is, is it's a talent agency, um-
Shubh: It's for dogs
Mark: no. No. That you use when you are the lead internal candidate at an org, and then you hire these external candidates that are all exceptionally qualified, that this agency provides. They all apply for the role, and then, like, near the very end, they all drop out. Oh. So then you're left, you're left as, like, the last internal candidate.
Philippe: Oh, that's amazing. Did you say it's called- So this is- ... Internal or Eternal?
Mark: Eternal. Eternal. So it's a play on internal. This is, uh, this is like- So pretty much you're left as the [00:37:00] only eternal candidate.
Philippe: So amazing.
Shubh: So, like, a classic debate or politics strategy was always, uh, even if I disagreed with Phil's position, I would take his position against everybody else, and then I would flip, right?
Yeah. At the last minute, after I'd heard all these arguments, and then Phil would be on an island. He'd, and then he'd have to flip.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: This is this.
Mark: Yeah, this is this. This is so good. So very niche market- Yeah ... but very high in demand.
Shubh: Yep.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: I love it. And like an exec- especially if you target exec, executives.
Mark: Yeah, exactly.
Shubh: Like, just really high-end folks, right?
Mark: Yeah. '
Philippe: Cause she-
Mark: So they, they know that the CEO's like, "Hey, you're the lead internal candidate, but we obviously have to check
Shubh: externally." Yeah, yeah. We gotta go outside.
Mark: So yeah, get three good people that drop out near the end.
Philippe: Good. That's awesome. All right, let's rate this one quick.
Shubh: Uh, I don't love it as much as the last one.
Philippe: What?
Shubh: I don't love it as much as- That's okay ... the pet one, either. There are lots of those. I'm, I'm obsessed with the pet one. Uh- That's- I, I don't even like it as much as the Diet Coke one. And just to be clear, I love all the other [00:38:00] ones.
Mark: Just to be-
Shubh: I'm gonna bump all my- Just be clear, it's
Mark: the worst
Shubh: one
I'm gonna bump my Diet Coke one up to 70. I'm bumping the pet spokesman up to 71, and I'm giving this one a 65.
Philippe: Wow. S- this one's still a 75 from me. I love it.
Mark: Phil's targeting that return- Well, Phil, you- ...
Shubh: podcast
Mark: appearance.
Shubh: Philippe, you've got this incredible network you've built. You could just fold this into Tech Thursday.
Philippe: Yeah, internal candidate. You should. Yeah, yeah.
Mark: I think it's good. I think it should be a service you offer.
Philippe: Yeah, that's
Shubh: actually- I mean- ...
Philippe: a better thing
Shubh: maybe ... I'm actually, I would love to just be on the roster of people who would go and interview.
Mark: Yeah, and you just get a check for-
Shubh: I do- ... doing
Mark: some good
Shubh: interviews
uh, just to make sure there's no overlap. I'll do, like, an accent, uh, each time- Okay ... so people can't run it back, you know? Maybe a mustache from time to time.
Mark: No one would call you out on that, too-
Shubh: Put some reading glasses on ... 'cause it'd be
Mark: offensive.
Shubh: Yeah.
Mark: If they called- Oh, you- If, if they called you out, it'd be offensive
Shubh: you look a lot like this other guy. No
Mark: one would say that.
Shubh: How dare you. You
Mark: can't put that in writing.
Shubh: And, and when they said, "You look and sound a lot like this other guy," I'd be like, "That's it. I don't... I would... I don't want to work here." I
Mark: would never work here. Yeah. That's why the other guy dropped out.[00:39:00]
That's why they're all dropping out.
Shubh: Oh. It would also be really fun to come up with the reasons every single time you had to not take the
Mark: j- Yeah ...
Shubh: not take the role.
Mark: Obviously, I don't, I don't like it on, like, I don't like the disingenuous nature of it. Yeah. Um, which is too bad, but at the same time, I also feel there are a lot of, like, managers that are somewhat disingenuous or cowardly when they do this, where, like, they don't wanna hire the internal candidate-
Philippe: Yeah
Mark: but they don't wanna tell them that upfront, so they're like, "Hey, you're our lead internal candidate." Yeah. But, like, clearly in their head, they're like, "I'm never gonna give, like, her- Right ... or him the job- Yeah ... so I'm gonna go external." But they just don't... Like, they're somewhat cowardly about it. So I like this 'cause it punishes those people for not being transparent.
Shubh: And, and I also think, like, generally, internal executive candidates are often undervalued, right? Like, there's this notion we always have to go out-
Mark: Yeah ...
Shubh: to find the, you know, first principles. Go out and find someone- Yeah ... who knows what they're doing, and they-
Mark: Plus, you like that person doing their job.
Yeah. Like, if they're doing a great role, you're like, "I don't wanna have to replace them [00:40:00] too." Yeah. "So I'm gonna pretend to run a full process."
Shubh: Yeah. I, uh, I like this one. Okay. What was that? Was that four? That was idea four. These are all really good. Okay. And Phil's scored you a perfect 300 so far.
Mark: Okay, perfect 300.
Yeah. Let's see if we can break it here. Uh, so this one, I think you could actually do this now. Um, I'm surprised Snap or someone isn't doing this. Uh, but pretty much what you would do is you would provide access to an algo to everything you did over the course of a day. Um-
Shubh: Al- algorithm.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: For the-
Mark: So you could do it through like Meta Ray-Bans too.
Um, you could have one on your laptop. You could decide how you wanna engage. or you could have one just like audio. but pretty much what you would do is you would provide it access, and then there are a whole bunch of companies and institutions, uh, that already try to identify the least costly customers, and they're happy to pay for it.
Um, like insurance is the best example of this 'cause there's very transparent insurance data on, okay, does this person have a driving ticket, stuff like that. [00:41:00] but you could do this for pretty much every type of business. Um, so obviously, like health insurance would be a big one. but all companies could pretty much pick, "Hey, I wanna pay more for this customer."
Um, they'd be willing to pay to get in front of them. and that would be split between the provider, whoever does this business. So like, let's say Snap, they would take a bit of that. And then you would just pay the person directly as well as give them offers, for these kind of like, these, these individuals, that wanted to self-select for good behavior on a variety of different axes.
and it'd be kinda cool 'cause like- You just get deals everywhere. Like, if you think about most things in society- Whoa ... your cost is the result of, like, the average individual isn't a perfect fit or is pretty costly. Um, like a friend who owns a hotel says they have to, like, bake a certain amount in the rooms because, like, there's a chunk of people that just break everything in the room, and then it's tough to chase them.
Shubh: Philip.
Mark: Yeah, so Phil. Uh- So, like, everyone else is wearing that cost. Um, now there's some of that cost that, like, has to be [00:42:00] borne by a society for it to function for everyone. Um, but there's also some of that cost where there's, like, no reason. So for example, like, Phil, if, if he's, like, a pretty good eater, And, like, he just eats, like, a reasonable amount. He eats pretty healthy. there's probably, like, a lot of all-you-can-eat restaurants that would be like, "Hey, our all-you-can-eat buffet is $9 for Phil instead of $15 for everyone." Whoa. Um, but you could think about that. Like, you could pretty much compound that across every single type of business where- Yeah
they have a bunch of costs that are baked in for the average individual- Yeah ... but they're happy to pay to target a specific individual. This is- So you could even, like, show, like, hey, this is someone where once they try this thing, they're, like, a repeat buyer of this. That's a customer that's more valuable.
People would pay for that. there's a whole bunch of companies- So- ... where you could just start effectively, like, splitting their marketing dollars, with you, the individual that's- Yeah ... their exact target audience, and Snap or whoever, whomever they- This is like,
Philippe: this is like Palantir, but for- Yeah ... the individual, and we'll split the money
Shubh: with you.
Yeah. That's... And it's a, it's a thr- In the old days, we used to talk about N of 1 marketing, like the [00:43:00] goal was to market down to the individual.
Mark: Yeah, that's what it would be. Like, if you're a city- This is it ... you could even offer tax breaks where you're like, "Hey, this person spends a lot. Like, I've seen what Phil's spending in Calgary."
Shubh: Yeah. "
Mark: I run Medicine Hat. Like, if Phil wants to come here, he doesn't pay any property taxes. Like I've seen he runs his Tech Thursday stuff. I'd love to have him here." That's interesting to me.
Philippe: Wow. But y- everyone always complains about, like, "Well, it's my data. Why, why am I not getting paid for it?"
Right. "If advertisers are making a ton of money from it." Well, what's interesting about this concept is, like, well, well, maybe it's only because the, the data is not good enough for- Yeah ... for marketers to, like,
Shubh: um- Yeah, it's still averages. Data is still aver- We're still looking at averages.
Philippe: We're still looking at averages- Yeah, yeah, yeah
looking at, like, trends or, like, only specific uses on Instagram or Meta, like what does this person engage with? Yeah. Not the full fledge. So if you actually, like, if you actually built Palantir for individuals where individuals could give you even more information and even cleaner- Yeah ... and then, uh, companies could [00:44:00] just, like, filter a bunch and, like, "Okay, I wanna target this person."
Shubh: I'm not gonna let anybody else sell my data. I'm gonna sell my data myself.
Philippe: Yeah. People would basically self-select in.
Shubh: Right?
Philippe: Like- I'll give you more if it means
Shubh: I get more money. I will sell you my data- Yeah ... if my whatever, my mortgage rate is... I mean, we're doing that anyway, right? Yeah. We're just, we're just making it very difficult.
Um-
Mark: Yeah, and you'd get a bunch of cheaper stuff. It'd be interesting.
Shubh: It's pretty good. This is pretty good. Problem for you, Mark, though, would be like, uh, "Hey, this man's at the Diet Coke vending machine eight times a day."
Mark: Yeah. Would hurt my health insurance.
Shubh: Yeah, that's right. I'm worried about his bones.
Hurt
Mark: my health insurance, yeah.
Shubh: Uh, I don't know. This is really good, too. Um, I mean, but yeah, my, part of my brain goes to immediately how would this be weaponized? So there, there, there's that little nugget. Uh, and I guess there's probably, like, a- I don't know how to best frame this, but like, um, do you end up, as an accidental byproduct of [00:45:00] this, do you end up, uh, making it more difficult for some people, right?
Like be- Yeah, like that's
Mark: the problem- You know, because- ... is like eventually- '
Shubh: Cause we're all subsidizing, like with your point, yes, I'm subsidizing Philippe rep- wrecking the hotel room, but I'm also subsidizing his, uh, his tobacco chewing addiction.
Mark: Yeah. Which is kind of like an interesting conversation. Um-
Shubh: Yeah, uh, yeah
Mark: that's more like a social policy conversation. This is like, okay-
Shubh: Well, and
Mark: like if this case- ... you know, if this person's making life choices- Yeah, you're making, you're making the choice ... if they're 90% of my healthcare bill- That's right ... should I pay for that? That's
Shubh: right.
Mark: But part of that al- is also being part of a community where it's like, okay, we need to spread these costs across the community 'cause they're prohibitive to the individual.
Right. Um, that's definitely a broader social conversation.
Shubh: Yeah. But- Like all the kids, my kids often come home from school and they're like, "Hey, Dad, uh, I don't want this to get crass, but somebody, uh, pooped all over the place-
Mark: Yeah. ...
Shubh: in one of the stalls." And then the, you know, the, there's, there's an extra sort of effort to clean that up.
Now, I'm not [00:46:00] suggesting we monitor kids in the bathroom, but that, that is just a metaphorical example of like somebody doing more harm, doing more wanton harm than good.
Philippe: Well, you know, when Abdul Aziz was here, one of our past guests, he, he admitted to, uh, shoplifting.
Shubh: Right.
Philippe: But he called it the people's tax.
But like Loblaws and, and Safeway and, you know, he-
Shubh: They spend an enormous amount of money making sure I can't steal the shopping cart. I'm like, "I'm never gonna steal a fucking shopping cart."
Philippe: Right. Yeah, I mean that too. But also- Oh, sorry. I thought that's where you were going ... at, you know, everyone's prices, everyone's prices are higher- Yeah.
Yeah ... because of theft, because theft has gotten so bad. Yeah. So
Mark: Loblaws could just pay and be like, "Hey, I'm gonna try to get more of these customers- Yeah ... that clearly don't steal, except your buddy." Yeah.
Philippe: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Shubh: Yeah.
Mark: He'd keep getting invited to whatever store wasn't willing to pay for this-
Shubh: Yeah.
I
Mark: don't think
Shubh: Loblaws- ... this targeted- ... has the best track record when it comes to setting pricing though.
Mark: No.
Philippe: For, I think- ... I, but I think if it was like, if it was Loblaws, you would have a different price as someone who's never stolen from Loblaws.
Mark: Yeah, or maybe- Yeah ... they give you a [00:47:00] discount or-
Shubh: Yeah. So I mean-
a whole bunch of ways to play it ... uh, yeah, I think a lot of people get like, "Oh, you're gonna profile people," but I'm like at least we're profiling based on actions. As someone who once a, once in a while has been profiled, uh, I would prefer to be profiled on what I've done.
Philippe: Good actions, yeah.
Shubh: Not what I am.
At your choice. Not what I am. At your
Philippe: discretion.
Shubh: Does that make sense?
Philippe: Yeah. Yeah. Exact- yeah. I think it makes a lot of sense.
Shubh: Uh, okay. Uh, this one is pretty good too. Damn it. Okay, I'm bumping the last one up to 67 and giving this one to 65. So 65 is basically my floor for all these ideas- Right ... which is obscenely high.
Mark's like, uh, you guys sound like you're using a made up arbi- arbitrary scale. And we are. But it's still very important.
Philippe: Mark, I'm gonna keep up- The
Mark: scale
Philippe: is still unclear to
Mark: me.
Philippe: This is, this, this, this, the market cap for this is infinite, I think. E- especially if you were actually like Alex Karp and, and you actually wanted to build it, like a Palantir.
This is a 75 sauce idea.
Mark: Man, I think, I think, I think it's interesting. It will, [00:48:00] it will get built at some point, like by one of these platforms. Um- I think it's also, like, generally better. I, I don't love the idea of a nanny state, but there's gonna end up being so much data on individuals that, like, naturally countries will creep there.
But I think this is, like, a better alternative 'cause it's proactive and at your discretion. Um-
Shubh: Yeah ...
Mark: I also think things work better if, like, that's, it- you're electing to provide the data, um, and then systems exist to reward that, but then systems don't exist beyond that. 'Cause it also, like, gives stakeholders less of a reason to, like, monitor everyone else, which I think is also good.
Like, if you think about the two worlds where it's like, "Okay, I'm a business, and I could pay everyone just slightly more who doesn't shoplift to come there"
Shubh: Yeah ...
Mark: that probably actually is gonna mean that, like, I have less shoplifting on average, and then I don't have to monitor the broader community as much, which in general is good for probably a couple reasons.
Philippe: Yeah. I love it. [00:49:00]
Mark: Even just paying-
Shubh: Yeah, it's got a lot of tendrils.
Philippe: All right.
Mark: Okay.
Shubh: Well, imagine you get the dog data, what the dog's been doing.
Mark: Oh, yeah. What's a good dog, bad dog?
Shubh: Yeah, what the, what the dog's been doing. Like,
Mark: restaurants would be like, "I don't want that dog in here." Yeah,
Shubh: yeah.
Mark: I saw what your dog did-
Shubh: Yeah
I don't want that dog as the spokesman- ... at that other restaurant ... for my, my- Yeah ... food company. He was fucking eating that other dog's shit off the street, you know? Which I guess is a thing they do. I gotta- Yeah ... there's all this stuff online Well,
Mark: you can ask them about it soon. You can ask why, man.
Shubh: Why do you do that?
Mark: Why do you do that?
Shubh: Why do you eat other dogs' shit? That
Mark: would be the- Tell the, tell the dolphins. They probably don't know.
Shubh: If I could talk to a dog, then the very first question I would ask it is why do you think it's cool to eat another dog's feces?
Mark: I think it'll just be cool to tell the dolphins things that happen up here, like crazy stuff like that.
Yeah. They'd be like, "Hey, dolphins, do you know this happens up here?" And they'd be like, "That's insane. Let me tell you about something that happened down
Shubh: here." Yeah, it's just very dark down here.
Philippe: True.
Mark: Yeah,
Shubh: yeah. Like, they're just like, "You can't see anything."
Mark: Yeah, nothing happens.
Shubh: Yeah, we can't see it. We'd see, like, 12 feet.
Mark: Yeah.
Philippe: That'd be such a great documentary of just, like, the [00:50:00] first recorded long form
Shubh: interview- Yeah, what would you- Long
Mark: form podcast?
Shubh: Talking to dolphins. Oh, two dolphins hosting a podcast.
Mark: That'd be pretty cool. Dol- Ah. Dol-
Shubh: I don't know, actually. Kinda want to listen. I would listen to
Philippe: that for sure. Yeah.
Mark: DolFun. D-O-L F-U-N.
Shubh: Yeah. Oh. Or two dolphins starting a company where they, uh, buy up debt, uh, that's arbitraged for other dolphins. They
Mark: could. They're so smart.
Shubh: And they call that- They communicate ... they call it- ... they call it DolFinTech.
Mark: Yeah.
Philippe: Oh, that's pretty good.
Mark: That'd be good.
Shubh: All right. That'd be
Mark: good.
Shubh: Number six. I lost track. These are amazing.
Mark: I'm ready to sponsor whatever dolphin starts these businesses- ... for when they're listening to this in a year, and they can understand it.
Shubh: They w-
Mark: If you're a dolphin wanting to start these businesses- I will, I will write you a check.
Shubh: There's gonna be a whole inclusion problem when all the dolphins are getting funded but none of the dogs are getting funded, you know?
Mark: 'Cause, like, they'll probably catch up on our media. Right. Right? So they'll, like- First thing a dolphin- They'll listen to this podcast in three years. Like, I don't know how far down the list of media this will be. Hopefully not too far down. They- Like, I don't know what it is. Like, they're like, [00:51:00] "Hey, I'll watch Peaky Blinders- Right
and then I'll catch up on this podcast."
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Well, they'll probably watch any aquatic themed show.
Mark: Yeah, you're right.
Shubh: Right?
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Watch a bunch of Aquaman
Philippe: movies. Don't let them, don't let them watch that movie Blackfin or, you know.
Shubh: Yeah, it's a documentary. They lived that shit. Yeah. They don't need to watch
Mark: it.
Yeah, they... I'm sure they heard about that.
Shubh: Yeah, that's... No, they want... Although, we watch true crime, so, um- Yeah. Yeah ... maybe. Okay. Let's, number six or seven. Okay. I don't even know.
Mark: So this one, I actually think, like, there are a couple places that should do this pretty soon. LinkedIn, Twitter, any others could do this, or it could be, like, a good way to start, like, another media platform.
Um, but pretty much you would have social feeds, um, based on who is right. Uh- 'Cause, like, Twitter, Twitter's kind of w- It's extremely useful, but then it's also dangerous where there are a lot of confident people, and you'll be like, "Hey, I'll start following- Yeah ... like, this individual." Um- Yeah ... 'cause they've got really good takes on...
It could be AI. Um- Or finance. But then six months later- Or finance. Yeah. And then six months later, you'll be like, "Man, all that guy's takes were really [00:52:00] bad." Yeah. But it takes you like six months to realize that- Oh ... all his takes are really bad. Um-
audio cut raw: This
Shubh: is like retro Polymarket.
Mark: Yeah. So pretty much what you would do is you would take like a Polymarket engine, Oh
and you would say like, "Hey, go through all Phil's takes, and then just rank him in my feed based on how smart he is." You could build it as a wrapper on top. Um-
Shubh: Holy shit ...
Mark: or you could do it on LinkedIn and be like, "Hey, this, this, like, person that runs this recruiting agency, can you just, like, take a look and see how right they've been on, like, here are the talent trends?"
Um, so you would just have either a wrapper or a brand new social network that just ranked people based on how right they are, so when you opened it up in the morning, it was like, "Oh," like, "why can't I find Phil? Oh, it's 'cause he's been wrong on his takes for like the past year." And you'd have to scroll all the way down to, like, get his latest take.
Oh
Shubh: my God, this is... It's credibility.
Mark: Yeah, and it's kind of what people want in Twitter, but they have to, like, actually research and watch it for six months- When you have to surf through- ... themselves ...
Shubh: all the shit.
Mark: Yeah.
Philippe: This is so good.
Shubh: I, I... Go ahead. Sorry,
Philippe: Phil. Well, I th- y- you know, we should, I think, rate this.
This is [00:53:00] so good.
Shubh: This is my first perfect score.
Philippe: Really?
Shubh: This is 75. What's the
Mark: score out
Shubh: of? 75 salsas.
Philippe: 75. Out of 75.
Shubh: Obviously. 75 salsas out of 75. I would call this, uh, this social network plugin, uh, incredible. Because the credi- credible- Yeah, yeah ... credible- credibility
Mark: That's a good one.
Shubh: Uh, I would, uh, use it yesterday on LinkedIn.
I find LinkedIn super useful for the 1% of people that I can actually-
Mark: Yeah, it's actually a useful
Shubh: document ... curate down the feed to. Uh, Twitter's a great example. Like, it's an absolute cesspool, except- But some of it's so useful ... the stuff is so good.
Mark: Like, this person clearly understands- Totally ... what they're talking about.
Shubh: Totally. Right. Uh, geez.
Philippe: This is also a 75 for me. This is brilliant. But Mark, this is kind of engineering for you. Like, you, you've been so right about silver futures on LinkedIn- That you would like always
Shubh: be number one. I wish I would've paid a lot more attention to Mark when he was talking about silver futures.
Philippe: Yeah, he was like- [00:54:00] What were
Mark: you up to?
Shubh: I wish we could travel back in time.
Mark: Four years ago.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: Yeah. That's what I, uh, my friend Garth, who was on the pod recently, just texted me this morning, and he was like, "Hey, this, uh, if we'd have put $25,000 in this one stock three months ago, we'd have - we'd have three quarters of a million dollars."
Mark: And that's what you need.
Shubh: And I was like, "G-Mac, this is the info we needed three months ago."
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: We needed to be able to see into the future. So what we're basically saying is through Credible, we'll be able to accurately predict the future just by what these people are predicting.
Mark: Yeah. Or you'll have all the top people.
Yeah, Phil used to read all my silver stuff.
Shubh: Did you p- Used to come into work- Did you put any, did you put any money into
Philippe: silver? No, no.
Shubh: How much money would you think you would've made if you'd put, say, five grand into silver? Uh- Based on Mark's, based on Mark's learnings.
Philippe: Well, you, you probably know that better than me.
Like, uh, you made a post in October.
Mark: Yeah, it was probably like a-
Shubh: 12X.
Mark: No, so it would've been, um, 2022, like yeah, probably six times or seven times. He used to talk about always mentioning it on dates. Like he'd be like, "I read your silver article. I talked about it all night on a date." But I guess [00:55:00] he didn't, didn't buy.
Shubh: I could maybe there's-
Philippe: I just wanted to seem smart.
Shubh: This is why these- He's like, "The one
Mark: I'm buying a lot of."
Shubh: Uh- But
Mark: not buying ...
Shubh: so I don't wanna predict the future, but I think I coulda told you at that time those dates might not have worked out long
Philippe: term.
Shubh: Uh- What
Philippe: else you got there, Mark?
Shubh: I love the credibility thing.
Philippe: Are we gonna have time to go through all of these?
Shubh: Uh, we got another- When is time? We got another, we got, we got, we got like eight, eight minutes. We got like three
Mark: minutes?
Shubh: Eight minutes, 10 minutes. We can stretch it to 10.
Mark: Okay. I'll be really quick.
Shubh: No, no, you're doing great. Yeah. I would, I would cut you off if I thought any of these were bad.
Philippe: Do you, why don't we just do, just to make sure we have time, why don't you go to the one-
Shubh: Oh, yeah ... that you would also finance? I would love the second one you said you'd finance.
Mark: Oh, yeah.
Shubh: Mark's like, "Uh, which one?" I'm like, "You mean
Mark: the animal one?"
Shubh: Yeah. I think Mark and I are in together on that one. I think I might've just written him a check in the room.
Mark: Okay. So here's the other one. They're kinda like two others that I'd finance 'cause I think they're useful. Um, so one of them, I don't know if it's called Charity, [00:56:00] but pretty much what it is, so, um, my brother like has, has run a charity for a while. Like he built one, um, several years ago, and then like him and I do this big United Way campaign, each year 'cause we like the United Way.
Um, but one of the things, particularly from like his experience with charities, is you start going through the data of like how many charities don't actually give money to the cause, um, that you're donating to, and it's like an exceptional amount. and some of this is like, there's very little that's malicious, um, but it's just like, hey, there are other things required by the charity.
Um, and a lot of it is things that people ask for. so like I think one of the gaps in charity is like there's a huge donor pool where all they wanna do is like feel good, but you as a charity don't know what that means. So is it like, okay, Joe and Sally really like going to the events I throw, or do they want their name on the things, or do they wanna appear in like the annual report that I distribute?
you don't know what that specific thing is. so pretty much what you would [00:57:00] do is you would have, it would act as like a wrapper. and you would have, okay, the top 10 charities By like ROI on their contribution. Um, and you can look it up, like Canada has good rankings of like here's how much goes to- Yeah, yeah
charity and here's how much doesn't. Yeah. Um, so it would just be, hey, you're an individual, you wanna give back and like have your dollars go to work. You donate to this charity, um, that then distributes between the top 10 ranked ones each year. I think that on it own, on its own is good for the ecosystem 'cause it'll incentivize people to like spend less on superfluous stuff and put more towards the cause.
Yeah ... but then the thing that I think is really useful is you would have like, that individual would be able to select their recognition criteria, which is different than it exists currently. so you could pretty much have like 10 types of recognition where it's like, "Hey, I don't want anything. I wanna go to the event."
if you're Phil, maybe you want like your ex-girlfriend to see an Instagram post- ... that like you donated. Um- Or future ... so like- Or
Shubh: future
Mark: girlfriend. Yeah. So like, hey, like- Yeah ... I want a LinkedIn post that says I donated, but it goes to just women. [00:58:00] Um- So like you can, you can pick out of the like, you can pick out of the 20 things, um, 'cause-
Philippe: I could do that, but I need to be doing
Mark: that
'cause people, it's kinda like a wild thing where like people will donate-
Shubh: Yeah, why do people
Mark: donate? ... for like self-interested reasons. Yeah. Um, and like it'll sometimes be both where they'll like, they're like, "Yeah, I love the big gala where I get recognized- Yeah ... but I also like really think this is an important cause."
Yeah. Um, but it's kinda wild for charities 'cause they have to spend that money on everyone. So there's a whole bunch of people that are like, "Hey, I don't want that thing."
Shubh: Yeah.
Mark: Great. Don't pay for it. Um, then there's a whole bunch of people that are like, "Hey, actually, all I want is like a letter of where my stuff went.
Um, so can you just do that for me?" Um- Yeah. But charities right now have to do all of it for everyone 'cause they don't really know. Totally. Yeah So I think you put that as a wrapper. and then I like it for society because pretty much you'd get all these charities ranked, and then they constantly fight to, like, move into that top 10 that this wrapper charity, like, donated to.
I think it's good for society.
Philippe: This is really good. We, um... I, I mean, w- we give some money and, and, [00:59:00] uh, every year we-
Shubh: You also, you can say you also run a nonprofit. It doesn't sound- It doesn't sound, it doesn't sound... A- as the one person in here who's not associated with running a nonprofit, my... You know? Sure, it makes me look like shit.
Right. But, you know, I think don't be afraid to, you know, talk about the good work you're doing.
Philippe: Well, well, we had to, like, uh, fight to, to pare down the ceremony that, that they were- Yeah ... gonna have for us. Yeah. They were gonna, like- Wild ... they wanted us to, like, give a speech and, and bring a bunch of people and have a bunch of food, and we're like, "Please don't do this."
Yeah. Yeah. Like,
Mark: don't spend that money.
Philippe: Yeah, don't spend that money.
Shubh: The, the economics on those galas that they throw when you spend, like, $4,000 on a table and how much actually makes its way down to the charity are crazy.
Philippe: It's crazy. Yeah, it's obscene. I mean, we see that too, right? Like, I... W- we're, we're always trying to figure out, uh, who's the most efficient, where's this money going, and, um, who's taking a commission off of our donation checks.
Um, s- some of that stuff is real and, s- so we really want to, like, [01:00:00] w- we're super fortunate- So you're
Shubh: saying you would be a customer?
Philippe: Absolutely. Yeah. It would be super helpful.
Shubh: Do you got a name for this?
Philippe: Cheerity you said.
Mark: I was thinking, I was thinking Cheerity.
Shubh: Oh, Cheerity's pretty
Mark: good. I don't know if it's the right name.
Shubh: I, I like that.
Philippe: What about Cheapity?
Mark: That's definitely not the right name.
Shubh: Share, Share, Share,
Mark: Sharity. I don't know.
Shubh: This is so, this is so Times Square. I like it. I-
Mark: Oh, yeah, Sharity's cool. I-
Shubh: I like Sharity ... I like this idea a lot
Mark: Okay, let's quickly go through the these other ideas.
Shubh: 70... I was just, that one, one was so good.
This is 72.
Philippe: 72. Why don't you rapid fire the next, and we'll do a consolidated- Yeah, okay ... score on the, on the last
Mark: one.
Shubh: Okay. Yeah.
Mark: So these are the next ones. it's either consulting or recruiting business that's a wrapper on Glassdoor. Um- Glassdoor is kinda crazy, where it's some of the best data on the internet, but no one uses it.
Yeah. Not even Glassdoor. I don't know why they haven't built this. Yeah ... but people will literally post and complain about, like, confidential projects at big companies, where they'll be like, "Hey, you should go work, you should go work at X," except that all they care about right now [01:01:00] is this project. Um- This is corporate espionage as a service
and, and you're like, "Man, how are consultancies..." 'Cause I even asked a friend who runs a consulting business. Yeah. I'm like, "Do you just scrape Glassdoor and, like-
Shubh: Yeah ...
Mark: find out what the boss is angriest about, and then pitch the boss on that?" And he's like, "No, that would be good." Um- Yeah ... so, like, Glassdoor could do this, or recruiting agencies.
'Cause literally the person will just be like, "Hey, it's great, but all the CEO cares about is this, this, this." Yeah. And then you just hire people that are like, "Hey, here's my focus, this, this, this." Um, and it would be super high placements. Um, so Glassdoor wrapper, like, I don't know why Glassdoor hasn't built this
Shubh: as a real- It's funny 'cause there's so much outreach now done based on what jobs, like, job posting data really.
Yeah. Like, what are people hiring for? This takes it a further level inside.
Mark: Yeah, 'cause it's pretty much my boss is complaining about this thing that they care about- 75 ... the most. Okay.
Philippe: 75. I'm with you.
Shubh: 75. Yeah, I love that idea.
Mark: Okay. Um-
Shubh: Shy, if you're listening, let's, uh, let's start using that.
Mark: Okay. Uh, this one's super simple.
You could build it on top of Facebook, but, like, Facebook has too much noise. Um, but pretty much you would have, [01:02:00] like, a, a map or a grid of anything, like, that would really make a difference to someone within a select region. Um, so for example, you could have, like, "Hey, here's a restaurant that is willing to collect, like, excess food, and they'll give it to people."
Okay, here's a house, like, in your neighborhood where, like, the kid could really use a bike and they can't afford it." there is not a good, like, regional map of that without noise. and then you just go on and you'd be like, "Okay, what can I do that's special this week?" Um- This is,
Shubh: uh, Fuelled- I- ... but for doing good in your neighborhood.
Mark: Yeah, for good neighbor. Maybe we'll build it at Fuelled.
Shubh: It's incredible.
Mark: Okay, that's that one, and then the last one-
Shubh: I love that idea too. Uh, I don't even know. Just keep going. I'm just giving everything a 75 at this point. This is too good.
Mark: Okay, so the last one that I actually think you could do, ag- and again, this is one that, that I would fund if someone wants to start it.
Um, but you've got, you've got all these, like, new markets and exchanges that have started to be built. The weird thing is none of them have started to transact, and create a market for [01:03:00] certain types of cash flows. All of those are off marketplace. So what I mean is by, like, if you think about, um, different types of royalties.
So if you wanna buy, um, like streaming royalties right now, or you wanna buy a YouTube catalog-
Shubh: Yeah ...
Mark: all those transactions are still brokered. even in the oil and gas royalty space- Yeah, you can't go direct ... it's all brokers. but it's kinda weird 'cause, like, AI is such that you can immediately run what the cash flows are, like, at the current market prices for all these things.
Um, and just provide, like, "Hey, here's the AI," and it sits on top of this market, and now you can sell, like, YouTube portfolios, oil and gas royalties. Like, you can create a live market for cash flows. Um, and people can sell GORs on their business because, like, it can immediately compute, "Hey, at these 10 assumptions, um, here's what the, like, expected cash flows would be," and then people could bid.
And you could get a third party to do it. Like, you could get Groq to be like, "Hey, Groq is an independent party. It's on top and values all our cash flows," and then you can bid on them. but it's kinda crazy that there are all these markets for cash flows, whether they're- It's so good ... like royalties are [01:04:00] the perfect example.
Um, where you have governments, um, for example, that will wanna sell royalties, um, to fund projects, and they just won't or they'll take, like, a really bad bid because, oh, like, only CPP can understand these royalties. like, there are lots of deals where pension funds have bought them, and I'd be like, "Man, I'd love to, like, take a piece of that deal."
But I get that I'm not big, and, like, they're probably like, "It would take Mark too long to, like, diligence it," which is fair. But you could ju- have just an AI sit on top and, like, provide all the cash flow estimates
Philippe: Fuck. That's a 75. That's huge
Shubh: That's a- That's remarkable ... that's the best one. And that's the...
I love all of it about, like, you, we were talking about royalties for, you know, energy. Uh, I mean, I went through this rabbit hole exercise several years ago 'cause I wanted to make this ad at ZayZoon, and I was like, "Hey, I wanna license this song."
Mark: Oh,
Shubh: yeah. 'Cause it was like properly, hey, we could make a real ad, and we could put a real song in it, right?
And I was like, "How do you do this?" And then it was like, oh, you go to this broker.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: And then they get you, and they're like, "Oh, based on that [01:05:00] song, it's probably, like, 150 grand." And I was like, "That seems pretty arbitrary." Doesn't make sense. Like, what if I could just talk to the artist? Yeah. I feel like that would be their whole, their whole, like, quarter.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: Uh, I'll- I mean, again, I love it. Uh,
Philippe: 75. Yeah, 75. That's incredible. Yeah. I didn't understand the, the one right before this one, the doing good in your neighborhood, so I did not give it a points Oh, yeah, because- I do think- ... I forgot ... this is a, you know, uh, uh, this is a nine out of... This is a nine for nine.
Oh, a
Mark: new scoring system.
Philippe: Yeah. Nine for nine, 75.
Shubh: Uh- It's remarkable ... you didn't understand the one before?
Philippe: W- it, it...
Shubh: You're trying to give away a bike.
Mark: It just lets people put their hand up
Shubh: for good deeds. You, you, you got a bike to give away
Philippe: Oh, my mom would use that
Shubh: all the time You, you don't wanna give it away to just...
You know what's gonna happen. It's gonna be the people who come to get your bike off your, you give the bikes for free. Somebody comes, and then they go and sell that. What Mark's saying is there's probably a kid in the neighborhood- Oh, yeah ... who needs the bike.
Mark: You just raise your hands for good
Shubh: deeds on an app.
It's gonna ch- it's a double-sided marketplace.
Philippe: I love it. My mom does this with lasagna in the [01:06:00] freezer.
Mark: Nice.
Philippe: Yeah, she'll just, like, go on Kijiji and go, "Hey, this is for free if anyone wants it." Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah, so she would love it. She tried to do that my, at my house, 'cause she came over and had a bunch of stuff.
She... I'm
Shubh: surprised she didn't name your Garfield.
Mark: Man, I like that.
Philippe: Yeah, she tried to do it, like, in my apartment, and was like, "Hey, you got a bunch of stuff in your freezer. Can I give this away for free?" And I was like, "Mom, I gotta be honest, I don't want pe- I don't want people knowing where I live."
Mark: We'll, we'll, we'll do that in the neighborhood where it's like, okay, you know, our friend's husband broke their leg, so, like, we'll bring them dinner.
Yeah. But sometimes you don't know about that stuff. Like, it's just nice if people raise their hand and- Yeah ... they're like, "Hey, I could use this."
Shubh: I mean, I could've used some lasagna.
Philippe: Okay. All right.
Shubh: Maybe next time.
Philippe: Maybe next time if we have this abs... Okay, that's 75. That's, that's the 10 for 10- Oh, my God
for me on that. That was, like, a, that was a, a, a masterclass. That was-
Shubh: I don't even have, uh-
Mark: Hopefully someone uses the ideas.
Shubh: I don't even know what to say.
Philippe: I think hopefully someone uses the ideas, 'cause I, I genuinely think-
Shubh: I mean, Mark, I'm gonna text you pretty much every week about this animal thing.
Mark: Yeah. [01:07:00] We gotta
Shubh: do it. I think we might have to do it.
Philippe: And the, the Palantir ad one is genuinely a trillion-dollar business idea.
Mark: Yeah, Snap should do that. Yeah. Yeah. I assume it's probably on their roadmap. Probably just need enough glasses
Shubh: out there. I just think the re- the reason the animal one is so exciting to me is 'cause I think it would be hilarious, too.
Philippe: Right.
Shubh: Right? Like, you're just talking to your
Mark: dog. You could have an animal sitting here and being like, "I give it 10 out of
Shubh: whatever
Mark: your system was,
Shubh: 75" We could, we could have a, we could have, we could have a dog on this podcast right now and just be like, "Rerr re rerr re."
Mark: Yeah, and then it would translate it.
Shubh: It'd be like, "Oh, have you considered the, uh- Well, s- enough about silver futures, Mark. Uh, what about platinum futures? Yeah. Can you get into that a little bit, please?
Philippe: We, we should almost start a podcast knowing that dogs will soon be consuming human-
Shubh: We should start a podcast network, like a whole, like- Yeah
a Spotify- Yeah ... alternative.
Philippe: Just to be, like, the most famous two dogs. Like, dogs will think that we're, like, so dope when we, when they con- start consuming our content. Wait, so we're creating- And then like every- ...
Shubh: human content for dogs?
Philippe: Human content for dogs, and then we'll walk down the street, and like [01:08:00] every dog will see us and be like so happy to see us.
And the
Shubh: dog gets all excited. Yeah,
Mark: see- "
Shubh: That's the guy. That's
Mark: the guy" ... you just talk about things that you think dogs would like.
Shubh: Right. Yeah. Okay. What would some of those things be?
Philippe: Treats.
Mark: Yeah, treats. Parks. What parks are good, these are good parks.
Philippe: Yeah, or it could be like, we could be like how to spot, um, toxic owners, you know?
Shubh: And- Yes ... that's good. Oh, uh, how to, how to know whether that one dog in the neighborhood is gonna be trouble.
Mark: Right. Yeah, that'd be good.
Philippe: How to get extra treats from your owners.
Shubh: Yep. Yes.
Mark: You should do it. You should do it, but don't give any background on, like- No context ... that this AI technology has been making progress.
And just, like- And just- ... make it seem like you're just talking to dogs and you've lost it ...
Shubh: the, the podcast for dogs-
Mark: Yeah ...
Shubh: by humans.
Mark: Like, just start that.
Shubh: Actually, that- And
Mark: provide no additional disclosure.
Shubh: I do have to say that podcast would probably do pretty well.
Mark: Sponsors.
Shubh: People would just be like-
Mark: That's an untapped sponsor market
Shubh: people would be listening to it and be like, "Are these guys just talking to dogs?"
Mark: About business?
Shubh: Yeah.
Mark: Tate's like, "Why'd you invite me on [01:09:00] here?"
Shubh: Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, uh, wow. Yeah, now I think we should start a dogcast.
Philippe: Yeah, this is
Mark: good. It should be in the network, for sure.
Shubh: Well, Mark, uh, I can honestly say two things.
One is that is the, uh, n- most number of pitches that it's not close, uh, to what anyone's done. Uh, but there was a very high standard of quality across all 10 pitches.
Mark: Good
Shubh: I don't think that's... We gotta record another one right after this. I don't even know why we would.
Philippe: Yeah.
Shubh: We should probably just end the podcast.
Yeah. I know we talked about getting a full year of episodes. We should just end it, though. 2024 in.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: Mark ends the podcast. Cut them up
Mark: into five-minute segments. There you go. Very good ROI, yeah.
Shubh: Oh, I don't have that kind of time. Uh, that was incredible, Mark. Uh, you are welcome back anytime. Thank you.
We are gonna do the next one of Fuelled. Uh, go to Fuelled, for your energy marketplace needs. Helium plants, uh-
Mark: Power plants.
Shubh: Power plants- Gas plants ... [01:10:00] excavators.
Mark: We have some of those.
Shubh: Uh, generators.
Mark: Yep.
Shubh: Uh-
Mark: Tanks.
Shubh: Tanks.
Mark: Pumps. Boom.
Shubh: All good stuff. Uh, em- empty tanks, full tanks.
Mark: Air empty.
Shubh: Uh, empty tanks.
Mark: Which is good.
Shubh: Right. It's, uh, uh, uh... I prefer to call them, uh, glass half... Nope. The, uh, uh, tank full opportunity.
Mark: Yeah.
Shubh: Yes. Tanks. Uh, this was amazing. Uh, I don't even know. I don't even know. I'm speechless, Philippe. You wrap it.
Philippe: Thanks for coming by. Thanks,
Shubh: . Yeah. Thanks
Mark: for having me.
Shubh: And then I say, "That's a wrap."