Jordan Rich:
Welcome to the Hub of Success with your host David Elmasian. Today, David’s guest is Carlos Cashman, founder and co-CEO of Thrasio prior to Thrasio, Carlos has started a number of successful businesses and truly fits the description of serial entrepreneur with a background in technology, sales and marketing Carlos has been a leader in the next big thing multiple times. Let’s listen in now.

David Elmasian:
Carlos, welcome to the podcast.

Carlos Cashman:
Thank you. Glad to be here.

David Elmasian:
Great. So you and your team have really gone through a real high growth period. Wanted to share, but with everybody kind of you know, I got to this point, you didn’t go into everything. But just, you know, briefly, how’d you get to this point with with what the name you might want to tell us the name of the business. First of the name of the company. How did that come about?

Carlos Cashman:
Well, so a lot of people call us Thras because it’s Thras.io that if have heard some guys, that’s a pet peeve of mine. But I guess it’s our own fault for doing it that way. I know it’s possibly the worst name ever. But when you understand what it means and where it comes from, it makes sense. It was never intended to be a consumer name. Right. Somebody goes out to customers. It was really it’s ah, it’s a holding company kind of behind the scenes what we’re doing. So Thrasos is a Greek word. Thrasos was an Amazon queen.

David Elmasian:
Oh, Nice.

Carlos Cashman:
The word means boldness or confidence. Which is very cool. And we thought that was kind of appropriate. But given that we are businesses entirely on Amazon right now where we are buying Amazon third party sellers and the products they sell. Right. It made a lot of sense for us to name some for us on Amazon Queens. And so you go and we have a couple of different sub companies name for other Amazon queens like Hippolyta and tramcar.

David Elmasian:
I didn’t realize there was so many!

Carlos Cashman:
There. Yeah, I’ve got some interesting ones, you know, aside, but I’ve lost it there. A lot of you can go on. You can Google the names, really big list of them and they’re really hard to spell once you get past us. You don’t go that far. We start making mistakes everywhere. But that’s where the name comes from.

David Elmasian:
Okay, so so how did the business get started? What was the genesis, so to speak, of it?

Carlos Cashman:
So, you know, look, a lot of my business is actually, you know, like a lot of businesses they start from doing something else. Right? So I was I had a terrific performance marketing agency that really was focused on Facebook almost entirely. So we did Facebook performance advertising. And in doing the performance advertising, because, you know, we weren’t just buying likes for people. Right. We were actually getting customers.

David Elmasian:
It’s not what Facebook is, you know, five years ago. I haven’t paying all that money to six years ago.

Carlos Cashman:
People were spending an enormous amount of money on that. Would it actually matter? It’s funny, but so we came at it with that with a look at it as entrepreneurs, as people would run our own businesses. It was part of the tenth company. I started like. I got how important it was to get customers at the right price. So doing that, you know, meant that most of our customers were e-commerce customers or lead generation companies. And so we were now helping them build their business. I mean, getting them customers and looking at their e-commerce landscape. You know, what happened was we scaled very quickly. We know we use the terrific Boston companies software named Nanigans as our backbone of our service offering. And their software was so advanced that I think still is was so good that it allowed us to do the customer acquisition better than anywhere else. That’s why we ended up focusing on e-commerce. And so we were we were at a scale pretty quickly where we wouldn’t couldn’t take on a customer that wasn’t big enough, you know, spending 50 hundred grand a month. But I was seeing lots of small e-commerce companies, tons of them, because they saw the work we were doing for big brand names where there was no bark Box or Nike or, you know, and Jammie or some like that. And they said, hey, can you come to consumer action for us? And they didn’t have enough to spend. They didn’t they weren’t making enough cash flow. Right. Look, that catch 22. Yeah. These performance marketing mediums, whether it’s Google, Facebook, whatever, like, you got to spend a good bit of money there to know whether it’s going to work or not. Right. I mean, pretty quickly, you can get a sense of it’s not going to hit, but I mean, quickly. I mean, ten to twenty thousand dollars is bad. But, you know, if it’s going to work, it may cost you a hundred plus. So, you know, these guys didn’t have the cash to spend. Right. And, you know, I was looking at these businesses that had done a couple million dollars, you know, a year in revenue, built up a nice little Shopify biz or whatever else. And they basically figured out the supply chain problems. Right. And they you know, they I’m sure there always are when you go to stuff you don’t know and they’ve proven that there’s a market for the product, you had a million bucks a year to have here. That’s that really shows that people want what you have. So the question is scale again. Look, not every business is going to scale performance marketing, but so, you know, I’d look at these medlar, I would see dozens. I’d be like, wow, that one will. That would probably well, I wouldn’t want these. And, you know, like if they had the capital spend, they’d be able to test it and then prove out the performance marketing channel and blow it out. Right. So our original initial thinking and all of this was that we would put together some money and start to acquire these small Shopify or Magento or whatever businesses. And in the e-commerce world. It’s very fractured, right? There’s two dozen software packages out there you could be using to run your site. So it’s a little more complicated play. And in the in the course of modelling that building that out, my partner Josh and I were looking at this together and he was modelling out the sort of the acquisition capital raise and all that. We started to look at Amazon figuring, hey, if you’re gonna sell stuff in e-commerce, you should be selling on Amazon.

David Elmasian:
Yeah, that’s a few people that buy stuff on there. Yeah. Well I. Yeah, yeah. So.

Carlos Cashman:
So we started looking at Amazon and we start looking at and you know, the Amazon businesses there, these third party sellers. And you know, this was about a year and a half ago. And, you know, Josh did an analysis which he is extremely adept at and looked at the whole thing. Comped it with with consumer direct companies in the public markets and said, geez, these Amazon sellers are doing terrifically. And it’s way easier. Like you don’t have to like, I would’ve had to take a, you know, an e-commerce in that greater space. You take someone on WOO Commerce, someone on big com or someone on Magento, so much outfight and you got to sort of rationalize that infrastructure would’ve been a bit heavier lift. When you look at Amazon and its place, it’s like, hey, everyone’s on Amazon.

David Elmasian:
Yeah. So it simplifies things.

Carlos Cashman:
Yeah, it does. I mean, look, it is way more complicated than most people think. Well, she’ll get good at it, but it dramatically simplifies that process. Yeah. And so that’s what happened was we said, well, why don’t we just start looking to see if we can find good, great products on Amazon and great companies on Amazon. And go talk to them.

David Elmasian:
So let’s step back on a second on that. I think most people don’t realize that when they’re buying something from Amazon, they just think they’re buying it from Amazon directly, like Amazon contacted Procter and Gamble and they bought their soap from them. And when you buy your soap, you’re buying it from Amazon. Yeah, that’s not true, is it?

Carlos Cashman:
That is not so. Well, that’s what’s fascinating, actually. That’s, you know, like that’s what everyone’s used to. You go to Safeway. That’s how you buy, right? Safeway bought her wholesale. They’re selling it to you. Yeah. And you know, and if they don’t sell it often, dump it back on the manufacturer. It a whole different marketing marketplace. Miller, Amazon. So Amazon, they’ve never said that they were that kind of company. You can look at Jeff Bezos as letters back in 2000. He was say, no, we’re a marketplace. He knew that’s what they were building, where they were going. So it just took a little while to really get there, right. So they do sell a certain amount of their products on that. But the last year and to 2018, 58 percent of what was sold on Amazon. So the gross market value of goods sold was sold by third party sellers. So that’s anyone from you know. And there are two and a half to three million of these third party sellers on third. Now, look, of the ones that do any real business, six figures a year and up, there’s two or a thousand of them. But there’s a whole lot of smaller ones, too. All right. But so, yeah, these are, you know, below 0 quite often individuals. I mean, Amazon has really pioneered the solopreneur category. Right. I mean, for the first time in our history, I think you can see like an individual person running a business pretty much alone doing like three or five million dollars a year. It’s amazing. It is totally amazing. Yeah. And it’s because it’s not just Amazon. I mean, it’s the whole supply chain infrastructure in the world, the shipping infrastructure, the way China has commoditized manufacturing to an incredible degree. So you put all those things together. It was just kind of a magic soup. Yeah. Stuff happening and stuff like storm. Yeah. All right. So it’s that, you know. So again, most of what you’re buying on Amazon is from a third party. So the you know, the early on when people are these sellers were reselling product, let’s say. Right. Might have been a store who was, you know, getting Procter and Gamble goods and putting it on Amazon. Right. That’s become a smaller and smaller portion. Right. That’s harder to do. And Amazon can do that. They can sell directly themselves now. So they’re what they what you have at these other companies. People build their own brands, essentially, and they’ve procured their own products. And one way or another, I had a good idea, went to Ali Baba or went to the product fairs in Europe or Asia. He found products, find a supplier, made it happen. And now they’re shipping, making sure I get shipped and gets gets put in there and building it up. But, you know, it’s interesting to see because, you know, the space Amazon occupies in the consumer goods arena. Right. It’s you know, this is not like, you know, when you think about it, everyone talks about consumer goods startups today. And there’s all of it’s it’s it’s fairly exciting space. It is like a way luggage and stuff like that. Who build a very differentiated, unique product. And they say we’ve got to win our customer, go direct. Right. Well, you know, look, if you got a product that’s retails for two hundred, three or five dollars, you can go directly to afford to do Facebook and Google acquisition marketing. If you’ve got a $15 spatula set of spatulas or a $5 spatula. you cant do that but you can sell a ton of them on Amazon. That’s where the people are. So it’s amazing. So so what you see is like I think it’s something like 77 percent of searches on Amazon are unbranded. So this goes back to what you said. Like people think they’re buying from Amazon. They go there and say, I want a spatula. Right. And they see a page full of them and they buy them over the best ratings and the most the most stars and the most reviews that say it’s a rational decision. It makes a lot of sense. And in a sense, they are buying from Amazon. They know they can return it to Amazon and they know they’ll they’ll get taken care of by that, even though it is sold by someone else. And those names who use these third party saw used to be more prominent in the resource space, you’d go, you’d get a list of them with other stars. You could say I can buy from any of these 10 guys. But now they’ve really, really taken that sort of out of the interface. You see it last and that branding point happened sort of at the bottom of a funnel. Now, like, you know, all things being equal, you look at all the spatulas on the page and if there’s a brand you recognize, if it’s equal, you’ll probably buy that one. Right. But otherwise, you’re buying the brand. Is the product while stars in the right?

David Elmasian:
Well, exactly, because I isn’t really what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to take the brand away, too, because that would really diminish Amazon in a sense, because at the end of the day, I think, you know, looking at consumer behavior and I can only based upon my own and like my wife and people that I know. Sure. I think there’s certain things, certain items that people that can still look to specific brands for. But now it’s all about OK. I type in the keyword, whatever that is. Like you said, spatula. They’re going to see what shows up. You know, first three or four items. Look at the price. Look at the reviews. And the brand is really kind of irrelevant.

Carlos Cashman:
So so it is. I don’t think, though, it’s accurate to say that Amazon is trying to get rid of the brand. Amazon doesn’t care. They’re helping. They’re really kind of neutral to the brand. I think you’re going to start to see brand play more of a role in the coming year to go, because it’s one way to differentiate yourself. Right. But you’re absolutely right. I mean, most people, most commodity type products, you don’t. That’s why I say it’s bottom of the funnel, right. Seventy seven. Seventy seven percent of these searches are starting with unbranded. I’m looking for a spatula, looking for a running shoe, even even. I mean that that’s again, what’s amazed, even things that have traditionally been very specialist manufacturing like Nike or Adidas could make running shoes bad. There are no name, no brand running items that are equal quality coming out of China, Vietnam, elsewhere that you can find on Amazon now,.It’s pretty amazing.

David Elmasian:
Arent those those guys like scared.

Carlos Cashman:
You know, I don’t know. I mean, Brand is still enormously powerful. Right. I mean, Nike not going anywhere.

David Elmasian:
I’m not saying they’re gonna go out of business. But if I if I if I had an ownership position in one of those brands, I would be awful nervous about the fact that people are now looking for items on the largest marketplace out there, at least that I’m aware of. And like you said, they’re not really looking for my brand. They’re looking for something similar, but maybe a little less expensive.

Carlos Cashman:
So I think you’re. So that’s a good point. You’re right there. There’s an element of being scared, too, perhaps, but they’ve been reacting wrongly to it. My reaction is Amazon is hostile to brands. And I you know, I’m not I’m going to I need to own my customer. They’re running away from the world’s largest marketplace, which is totally crazy. I mean, Amazon is a mall, I think. Right. And you could just you could say that Simons, who owns a bunch of malls, they’re hostile to my brand because they own a Simon store. Well, it’s still you still want to have a Nike shop. They’re selling the shoes. So what they what’s happened is a lot of these brands have ignored it to their own peril. Now there’s resellers selling there because they like he’s got 30000 different resellers. Right. Some of these are distributed. Some are stores, whatever. No. Trying to cut that number down. I hear it works every summer. But anyway, they have a lot. So their shoes are going to show up there when my the other. And look, you know, and they they had an experiment there who now they’re they’re ending their direct relationship. I don’t know why, but, you know, and they may be a unique example of brand power over the world. But but essentially, these brands like they should be embracing because what happens is I was just looking at a product today of a company that has a fairly decent brand in an electronic space. And they’ve ignored Amazon. And I went on to Amazon. I searched their product category, which is very competitive and crowded. And they barely did show up on the first page. I did look for them particular. So they’re not they’re not understanding the ecosystem. They’re not playing. And it’s their products are showing up. And what I did find them. They had like three and half stars. Right. And they all had like 20 reviews. Like they’re never going to sell. You know, they can’t catch up.

David Elmasian:
It’s like it’s like car rental agencies. You know, every once in a while, you you’ll do a search for a car rental and there’ll be eight of them that are in the terminal. And there’s one guy that’s like five bucks less. And he’s like, oh, we’re just two blocks outside the terminal. Why would you do that? Yeah, why? You know, it’s kind of it’s kind of the same thing. Why would you not be on. I know. I’m sure there’s good reasons for it, but.

Carlos Cashman:
I’m not sure there are good reasons.

David Elmasian:
Well, those are your reasons.

Carlos Cashman:
I’m not sure they’re good. I mean, again, understanding what Amazon is and what the role it plays, an ecosystem like you should be playing there. You should, you know, look, you’ve got to be where your customers are, right. And if your customers want your product there because of the convenience and the ease, make it there. You can also be on your own site. You know, it can also be able to be bought elsewhere. But I mean, you should be there. So, you know, when you look at that, again, it’s it’s it’s I really think that they could be doing that. You know, we’ll give they the big, big brands who are worried if they were playing this game properly could be out there because it still plays a role. As I said, at the bottom of the funnel. So you go look for a spatula. Just say whatever. And let’s say there’s, you know, two spatulas with equal number of reviews and equal ratings, 4.8 stars and forty five hundred reviews. If one of them is a brand you recognize, you’ll probably buy at that point. Right. Right. But if but if look, you know, let’s say. There’s a recognized brand of spatula at some sort of Unilever brand or something. And it’s got 200 reviews at 3.8 stars and there’s no name spatula next to that with forty five hundred reviews at 4.8 stars. Right. You’re buying a known. All right.

David Elmasian:
Because at the end of day, how important is it?

Carlos Cashman:
No. Exactly. So the brand is becoming inherent in the product listing, the ratings, the reviews, but it will have impact on all other things being equal. So it’s a fascinating discussion. We could talk for hours. No, no, I don’t.

David Elmasian:
So let’s let’s let’s let’s roll back a little bit about and again, for people that aren’t familiar with the space as much as obviously you are so fulfilled by Amazon is not something that’s in people’s everyday. You know, talking about it is in your world, obviously. So what does that mean? No. You know, why do I want to be fulfilled by Amazon if I’m selling again? Let’s go back to our infamous spatulas.

Carlos Cashman:
That’s OK. That’s a great example. Well, look, I mean, it means you it means you you you can use the Prime program and that’s it. I mean, so if you fulfilled by Amazon, I mean, it’s in their warehouse and they’re shipping it. Right. So and that means it can be done in some areas, you know, certain products within a couple of hours. Now, if you’re in cities. Right. I know people here in Boston. Yeah. They could. They’re able to get products same day. It’s crazy. Yeah. But, you know, certainly the late like Prime is now one day they’re starting to guarantee. Right. Which is amazing. I mean. Right. So what? Look, what they did was they built this massive infrastructure. And then they’re getting other people to pay for using it. It’s the same thing that if they dis with AWS (Amazon Web Services).. Yep. So, you know, again, you look at Bezos has letters, he talks about what is important to the company. Right. And it’s it’s the FBA program, which is prime. Part of that prime. Is one of the three pillars. Right. And so does the Amazon Web Services. Right. And third party sellers is their other pillar of their entire business. Right. So it’s pretty exciting.

David Elmasian:
So, you know, let’s say I’m an Joe Entrepreneur or Jane Entrepreneur . And in my travels in the world, I come across a little trinket. Maybe it’s a spatula that I think it’s a spatula if I can find. And, you know, I think, hey, you know what? Maybe I should start selling these because I like them. I think a lot. And I mentioned a few other people and they like them. What process compare what it would be like in the old days as opposed to today. If I wanted to do if I want to sell spatulas. Look, I think you could get a short version now.

Carlos Cashman:
I don’t know, but in the old days I think you couldn’t have done it. But if I were, what would I have to do it? Extremely difficult. Well, you got to build that relationship with whoever made that spatula. So you found it. You go me. Maybe it’s item manufacturers. Nearby. I would definitely go talk to it. And you get a relationship. You say, I’d like to import these and they’re going to say, OK, well, you know, if you’re gonna do it, you’ve got to buy a thousand of them to start with the first time round random. While that may be cheap, you need to have all that inventory, right? You’re going to buy that. You’re going to ship it somewhere, probably to your house. So you got a garage full of a thousand parcels. Right. And, you know, hopefully they were boxed nicely or packaged. If they weren’t, you’re going to source a package from somewhere else. You gonna buy it? You’ve got to buy 5000 of those, probably. Right. Whatever it is. And so then you got to put it together in your garage and make it look nice. Then you got to take it around the back of your car like Phil Knight originally sold. Mackey All right. And you got to go to stores. You’ve got to go to GM. These are these physical locations where people are buying spatulas and got to get a bang on doors today. And everybody might try. They might they might order five of them. They might order 10. And, you know, they say, hey, if you sell your old or more. And if they don’t, they’re given back to you. Right. So some store may take you know, maybe you got the local Sears to buy 100 of them. But then after a month, if these got 75 left, you’re getting seventy five back. So that’s what happened in the old days. Oh, isn’t. Look sometimes it worked out. Do you do that. But it was a long.

David Elmasian:
Yeah it was like there was a lot of infrastructure involved and a lot of people and it was very complicated.

Carlos Cashman:
That’s why you had you know, that’s why you had the power consolidated in a handful of large consumer product companies. I read a great stat recently. I think it was Ryan called back who tweets a lot on this stuff, consumer product goods, packaged goods and stuff. But that from like the early nineteen hundreds to like the 1980s, the top like twenty five companies in consumer product goods basically didn’t change. I mean twenty three of them were the same. Right. Right. From the 80s to now there’s like for laughter. So I mean it’s amazing like it’s changed dramatically because of this commoditization of manufacturing ability online to sell to the 90s and early 2000s. Now to get this stuff out, their supply chains have changed all this stuff. So today you say contrast it. You know, I only have to go to the place and find that special. I go on sitting on my couch at my house and I go online to Ali Baba. Okay.

David Elmasian:
I can find, you know, for those that don’t know, Ali Baba is kind of what I do.

Carlos Cashman:
It’s this website of manufacturers products. Right. Yeah, right. There’s probably a couple of them, not just one. I know if I had the church was a few. You can find these companies online. They say we make specialize in very minimum orders 50 or something like that. Right. Oh and if you want to order one, you know, instead of costing you four bucks each, it’ll cost you 10. They’ll still show up. You’re walking. It’s crazy. Yeah. So, you know, you can go on, you can find a product you like. Couldn’t get it shipped to you. They’ll take a look at it, see if it’s good. And if you don’t like it, like I actually did this before I started thrashing, I was looking at another business. And we were thinking about doing something in the sunglasses space. Okay. So I went on there and ordered like 50 pairs of sunglasses. Mean, it was unbelievable. Right. And, you know, checking which manufacturer had good ones and not which ones were fake or knockoffs and all the stuff. Such fear was fairly easy to do and they were cheap. I mean, it’s I believe I still get this, you know, some sunglasses. I should’ve brought you a pair. I’ve got a pile of them. But because you got them in the trunk of his car for those they lost. So. So, you know, you see, you get this. And then once you’ve once you find one, you like it then. And you set up the world your minimum. Yes. You sale at Amazon, you could ship, let’s say, a hundred of bonanza. So what you do is you have your manufacturer, wherever it is in the world, generally China. Yeah. Right. Put it out on a boat and ship it to Amazon’s warehouse. You know, sign up for the SBA program. They’ll receive it. They’ll tag it in with your account information. And now you have a product. You create a product listing. All right. And you there’s lots of online courses that’ll teach you how to do this on Amazon. And yet they’re worth taking. To understand how to, you know, how to do this search engine ranking on Amazon. It’s a product search engine, basically, and how to take the pictures of the product. All that stuff. You own that, right? You put that together and you make up your own name for the brand, as we just said. Yeah. It may not even matter. But you make them. You have to you have a name and it’s your brand and you have a certain look to your badge. You have to have green handles or something like that. Right. She’s taken all my good eye.And then you’re in business. It doesn’t sell. So sell it.

David Elmasian:
Now, I have a bunch of people when they look for bachelors, they do the search. Again, I may not be at the top, but it’s funny how good I am. But now I’m on the marketplace and I’m in what is considered the largesst marketplace? Is it good luck? It’s a large e-commerce market. Okay. Well, I just think so. Smaller than Wal-Mart. Right. I said okay. Sure. So a sale occurs. Somebody buys it. What happens next?

Carlos Cashman:
Well, Amazon ships it to that person. They are complete,.

David Elmasian:
So they take the money. They handle all the payments and all the rest. They do the shipping. They do the customer service prompt some.

Carlos Cashman:
The problem with it, you should do customer service. You need to. And, you know, like, you know, Amazon rates you on how well you do that, actually. So if someone depends on how they’re dealing with you. So generally, if they they they will find, though, the brand, the owner. Right. And send you an e-mail through the Amazon messaging system that makes it easy to do. Or they’ll post a question to your your page or whatever like that asking about it. So the speed with which you respond to that is a is a factor in your rating as a merchant on Amazon. Right. So you have to be a good merchant. You got to respond quickly. How do you with customer inquiries, you don’t want to get returns. So you know that some will handle it. Well, if a person doesn’t like it, they can throw back in, then go to Amazon. Just returned to Amazon. But that is a real big ding against the manufacturer. So, again, this customer service part is you on you. OK. And if you get an e-mail from the, say, dispatchable, the handle fell off, then you can be like, great, I’m sending you another one tomorrow. Right. Just keep that one right because it’s worth this. It’s maintaining or it is. And that’s why this is why so often people are amazed nowadays, what with, you know, getting products that aren’t that expensive. If they if you do this contact, you know, to the manufacturer through Amazon, they’ll almost always say, you just keep it. We’ll send you another one. Right.

David Elmasian:
Right. And I think the other thing at that, that when that occurs and it’s happened to, I think, anybody who uses Amazon. Right. What’s nice about that is that creates goodwill with the company, doesn’t it? Yeah. Sure. Because people feel I should say there. Right. Yeah. And so when you when you experience a situation, when you buy something elsewhere and they don’t treat you the same way, you’ll like these guys are jerks. Yeah, I got a return and I got to go through this. I got to go through these hoops. I got to do all this other stuff. We get lulled alert into the same is on the way of doing business, which is a good thing. Yeah.

Carlos Cashman:
Now, look, I think it’s only is that it’s it’s everything they do is to try to encourage a better customer experience. Right. I mean if again and you study Amazon, if there’s one thing that is their true north, it’s do right by the customer. Right. Right. Always. Yeah. Whatever that means. And they are so maniacally focused on that. So if you if that’s your goal as a seller, which it is Rs now do right by the customer then you’re going to be in alignment. It’s growing. And you know, look, we want to find the best products. We want to verify that they’re good. We get them, we look at them. We beat them. We make sure they’re high quality, you know. And that stuff. And then they become part of our of our product portfolio. Right. And then we’re offering them and we are responding instantly. You know, I mean, we have a 24/7 customer response team that’s working all the time. So making sure that questions are answered right away. E-mails are answered right away. Anyone who has a problem is taken care of.

David Elmasian:
Right. Yeah. And that’s a good thing. It really is. So let’s talk about the other side of the business, so to speak, which is. So I went through that process and I have had some success selling on Amazon, you know. And somehow somebody said to me, hey, you got check out these guys, Thrasio. They’re buying businesses like ours. Why would I want to sell my business to you if I’m doing okay?

Carlos Cashman:
Well, you might not. But the ones that do you know, there’s all sorts of different reasons. I mean, we don’t know if we don’t buy just any business. We generally look are people doing a million a year in revenue and under special circumstances? We’ll look at some below that, let’s say down to five thousand. Some like that. But for us, again, it’s a game of scale. We need to really be able to do this at, you know, at larger numbers. It makes more sense for us. And there’s also there’s a certain stability that comes to the product when he gets a little bit larger. But so why would you want to sell it? Some don’t. But I think a lot of people. Couple of reasons. I mean, the businesses can get very difficult. They get difficult to manage. This is a competitive marketplace. Right. And you hear the stories with the bad actors and the Chinese manufacturers. That happens. I mean, you get negative stuff happening. You get if you’re hot enough space, you know, there’s people who will who will attack your listing by buying bad reviews and things like that. It gets really hard to keep up with. Right. This is one reason. So, you know, the business grows a little bit out of your hands. I mean, you get to a point also, you have to maintain stock and inventory to maintain sales ratio. Right. And let’s say you’ve you’ve started selling these bachelors and now you’re doing four or five million a year. And it’s going up. And you’ve got to do a big inventory order. And lots of times, you know, a lot of these entrepreneurs, solo partners are you know, it’s the first time the job they like their idea came out of college and started selling something or it’s a retired executive who just had had a want to totally retire and try this. And now they’re having to write a check for four hundred grand for inventory, and it’s kind of freaking them out. They don’t have the if if they haven’t have it, nobody. Look, they don’t necessarily know how to do that. Amazon advertising is growing like crazy right there. They’re unlocking more and more inventory for advertising. And it’s stuff that they were doing in the past. You’re right. Because they would ever you know, they would advertise. Amazon still does or a large advertiser. They follow you around. What can I write? But they’re putting more of that on the sellers now. So now you got to understand how to do that. That’s complicated. I’ve run several performance marketing agencies. That’s hard to do. Yeah. So you got to know it. So the business is getting more difficult. And then beyond that, also, you got I mean. Let’s look at a business doing two million in general, let’s say it’s got a 25 percent margin. Right. So it’s making five or ten thousand theoretically in profit. Right. But you’ve got to order this inventory. It’s got to pay your designers. You’ve got to you’ve got to do this and that. Right. You know, the person may you know, that may cost you two hundred three or a thousand right there for that stuff in working capital. So and then you’re paying tax on the 150 you got left and you’re making 100k or less than that. Right. Depending what country you’re in. Lots of these sellers are in different countries making even less than that. So everyone says you got a business to add two million a year in revenue. Wow. How much you take it home like. Well, 50 k less than I made is it? It’s an exciting but you know, it’s worth a lot more money. So being sold, they can get an immediate, large payout for that. And you know, when people realize that I mean, generally when they get a business to that point, this is an asset that represents an enormous amount of their net worth. Right. On ninety five, 90 percent plus of their net worth. And a lot of people didn’t realize they could sell. All right. I mean, it’s not been a, you know, hugely liquid market for third party sellers. It still isn’t particularly, but it’s growing like that. And we are, you know, as a cash buyer out there, it’s you think of this like a home now. It’s like, you know, suddenly realize you can sell your home. Wow. That’s pretty cool. And if you need to. And look, some of these people want. So some people we bought from have retired. The vast majority had another product they wanted to launch. They wanted the cash to help. What they’ll do is it’s a bigger product is better. Yeah. Move on. And more excited about that one. And they’re going to grow that today down with a bachelor’s. Right. So hopefully they’re going to bring it back and sell that to us today in a year or two also. So.

David Elmasian:
So let’s switch gears a little bit. So this is your most recent business. But, you know, I you know, I don’t want to use too many cliches. But, you know, I think people because they use the term serial entrepreneur in your case. So, you know, we ought to go into each each business and everything you’ve ever done. But where do a lot… And we touched upon a little bit. But where do most of your ideas come from? Is it just aha moments? Do you have a process for it?

Carlos Cashman:
No, I do have a process for it. I wouldn’t I would not quite say aha moments, but it is kind of like you could say aha moment. And that’s a little bit longer to develop. It’s like they usually grow out of something. You know, I was doing before. OK. Yeah. So like you mentioned like grass here. Right. I mean, you know, a company I started in New York, the first company that was really my own startup, I’d done a few startups before. So one of the founding team. But that was Opus 360. And it was an enterprise software company that grew out of software. I built for a previous company called Grapeshot Great, which had been another startup. But we wrote software there to manage that business, realized it had potential for any other business. So we said, hey, let’s go and sell this to someone else. So it usually grows out of something like that, an experience I you know, we have going on. But, you know, I’ve started other stuff that’s just been, hey, that’s a cool idea, right? Those are a lot harder to make work.

David Elmasian:
So a lot of people have great ideas. We’ve all had them ourselves. We’ve seen people. I’m sure any time you’re smart, you go anywhere. You know, people say, hey, I got this great, you know. Yeah, but going from the great idea to a business is a whole whole other ballgame.

Carlos Cashman:
Oh, yeah. So.

David Elmasian:
So you know what? Looking back on it now, what are some of the things that make you different? How how is it that you’ve been able to take the idea and then actually create a business?

Carlos Cashman:
You know, I mean, it’s persistence as much as anything. And then it’s and it’s connections. I mean, it’s your network, right? I mean, I like I like people. I love people. I love meeting people. I like working with people. And I always have. And I start to build great relationships over time. Any almost every company I’ve started there, you know, it started with people I worked with.

David Elmasian:
Right. Let’s see if we’ve brought them forward.

Carlos Cashman:
I’ve got my buddies from Opus 360 working with me now 20 years later. I mean, you know, people who are who I’ve worked with and I’m joy work with. I always want to work with the Ghanim. And luckily, most the time I work with me again, you know, which is awesome. So I think that makes a huge difference. There’s there’s the whole thing. You know what you’re saying? Like the idea is literally 1 percent and it’s 99 percent perspiration. Right. And yet it’s filled, you know, Edison, quote, like it. It’s so true. Like entrepreneurs bring me. I do angel investing. I do it through funds. And I’m a part of now, not myself personally, but I’m an investor. If you funds, I bring deals through. But I see so much stuff. And quite often they’re like they want to be all secretive, too. And like, you got to sign NDA is like ever. Everyone knows that good investors like theses. I’ll never sign on. And it’s just for you to look at stuff. But the thing I always tell a young green entrepreneur or first time is I want to be young. Is like, you know, take your dack, your business plan and go make a thousand copies and put it in every coffee shop in Boston and then go tour the coffee shops giving presentations on your business. No one’s going to start your business. It’s it’s just bread. That’s how it is. The I. No one almost no one can recognize a great idea right from the start. So there’s and there’s so many things that sound like great ideas. I’ve got a great idea. But making that idea into something, his whole other ballgame. And it usually has to change a little bit. You know, if it’s a simple. Well, it’s like we started saying, hey, we’re going to do it. E-commerce company, software roll. But no, it’s not e-commerce, it’s Amazon FBA. This is third party seller. So that’s that’s fairly different, actually. It comes down to execution. But but sometimes it’s quite a bit different, quite a bit of a change. And, you know, really it just comes down to being able to put together the teams, put in and get out there and get started. Right. Just do that. It’s that it’s that impetus to begin that is so hard for most people. It’s like I think about goods like go to the gym. You always want to go to the gym. Rat a buddy buy taught me a good trick is like, you know, I do get on my gym clothes. I put them on and I go sit. Even if I don’t feel like working, I just do that. Right. And it’s sometimes if I feel like when I get there, I’ll just sit in the coffee shop and have a coffee. But once you’ve got the clothes on and you’re at the gym, usually you’re like a workout. Of course, the hardest part is getting. Yeah. And so starting the business is very much like that. It’s just taken that first step is just saying, OK, I’ll give it a shot.

David Elmasian:
Right. And I think also, like you mentioned, having a team and having that working knowledge pays great dividends because now, you know, it’s starting all over from scratch. Yeah. What you’re doing maybe is a little different, but you’re familiar with them. They’re familiar with you. And there’s always that the most is a lot of advantages to them.

Carlos Cashman:
You can have is people you can trust. Right. I mean, look, I’ve done so many different businesses from, you know, body shop consulting companies to, you know, to HRC enterprise software, to advertising agencies, to different software companies or lead gen companies marketing online. You can learn it. You can you can learn a lot of new stuff and then you can bring in experts. There’s always someone who knows it. And if you’re smart, you bring them in and make them part of your team. Right. But it is a controversial could be lonely. I’ve always done it with partners. You know, I’ve always had teams around me. I enjoy to do that. And it’s really important because there’s you have to rebuild trust. Stuff is getting done and right. And they’re doing the best they can with it. Right.

David Elmasian:
So, you know, that bounce goes into the context of what we touched upon a little bit, which is you always have a lot going on. Right. I’ll have to ask you. I know you have more than one thing going. I won’t go into all the details of all that. But how do you kind of keep it all together? How do you. You know, you don’t strike me as the type. And again, you know, I’ve seen you at work a little bit, but, you know, you don’t strike me as the type that. All right. I go to the office at a a half lunch at 12:00. And I you know, I don’t know.

Carlos Cashman:
I’m the opposite of structure. OK. So I’ll just sort of structure it.

David Elmasian:
How do you like how do you keep all the balls up in the air instead of having the ball drop and falling?

Carlos Cashman:
Well, you know, so from an entrepreneurial perspective, I’m not doing that much. So what I do is between things. I will. I’ll be juggling a lot of balls, although I kind of them in the air. All right. But then one of them starts to gain weight. Right. Maybe two. Yeah. Then you you drop the other ones and start focusing on those. And pretty soon one of them like Thracian is so big. That’s all you’re doing. Right. Right. So, you know, that is pretty much how it works for me. And between stuff now. Yes. As an entrepreneur and as an investor and whatever else. You know, I have other stuff happened the way I do it again as people, man. Like, I have great people. Like if it’s another investment that I’m a partner and like, I just have to be a partner and have a phone call, you know, a couple hours a month with that person because they’re great and they can run it. I’m just helping them make it happen. So I’m helping make their dream happen. Right. I never. And so I can do that. I enjoy that. My team, you know, Thracian Meghalaya I brought on, you know, have a very, very experienced quality people who I can trust to do stuff landing, frankly, not just contracts. They do better than I do. Right. Know, it’s like jobs. Steve Jobs said, right. We hire people better than us. Oh, yeah. Have them tell us what to do. So not the other way around. And that’s what I always try to do. And, you know, the most important thing I can do is clear the runway for a great team. Put that team together. Clear the runway. Get them what they need to succeed. And, you know, that’s sort of more of a coaching model like Phil Jackson kind of thing.

David Elmasian:
Well, yeah. But but there’s a lot to that, I think, because like you said, you can’t do it all and lie that you’re not always the best person suited for. I know myself in particular, I’m the same way. There’s certain things that like we went in before we get started. My wife’s a database program. Could I do what she does? Probably not. But even stretch to say I could maybe figure something out. But could I do it well? Absolutely not. And do I want to do it? No.

Carlos Cashman:
And is it time efficient for it? Exactly. No. Right. Like your time could be better spent elsewhere. Right. So that’s what you always got to think of. One of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is being the micromanager trying to do it. All right. There’s this there’s this whole mythos around the entrepreneur who does everything himself. You know, Snelson starts off coding it and run the company. And, you know, sweeping the floors at night. That’s great. But if but if you’re running a hundred billion dollar company and you’re still spending an hour every day sweeping the floors because you think you’re doing everything they make you do on their happy job and the company. Right.

David Elmasian:
It makes you wonder about the person or the team they’re putting around them, trust them enough to be able do something or something and you’ll lose good people very quickly that way.

Carlos Cashman:
Right. I mean, great people want to come in and have power and flexibility is not their job. Yeah. Let them do their job and they want to succeed.

David Elmasian:
Yeah, so along with this, I’ve seen you at Thrasio. You know, I’ve been over there more than once. And, you know, and I mean, this is the only the best way I can say it. Which is when you walk through, it’s it’s it’s it’s like the parting of the Red Sea. Not that people are getting away from you, but you’re like the celebrity red carpet treatment comes in. And I know, you know, personally, you’re not like that. You don’t you don’t have ears about you or anything like that. Why is it you think that people are attracted to you and want to talk to you and learn more about you and ask you about stuff?

Carlos Cashman:
Is it really like that in those labs? Yes. Yes. I thought would be a few twists and turns, I tell you. I don’t know. Mean, I look, I like I like people.

Carlos Cashman:
I like to talk. I like. I mean, that’s like any business. It, you know, is just about people. Any business, whether it’s, you know, Jinan Tech or Intel or a you, it’s about getting the right people together and deciding you’re gonna go after this hill and going and taking the hill together. So for me, that’s the heart of everything. And, you know, that’s I think people respond to that. I hope they do that.

David Elmasian:
They do, obviously. Yeah. No, seriously. And I mean, the most serious way, because I do walk into a lot of offices and and always but occasionally it’s the opposite. When the quote unquote, boss and everybody look at it and it’s the opposite with you, people make room for you, not because they want to get out of your way because it’s like a crowd forms around you every time I’ve seen you in the office. That’s what’s happened.

Carlos Cashman:
Oh, no, that’s that’s that’s funny. I’m glad we got a good team.

David Elmasian:
You do? So We’re called The Hub of Success. And I’m sure you probably know, you know, Hub is the acronym or another word for Boston. Right. So, you know, there’s a rumor going around that at one point you you you attended M.I.T..

Carlos Cashman:
Yes, I did.

David Elmasian:
I don’t know why I think I mentioned this to you in the past. Somehow, I’ve always I’ve gotten a lot of M.I.T. guys in this little recording booth here. No Harvard guys, though, for some reason. You know why that is. You know, that’s a problem. But we’ve had more than more than one MIT guy So what was your M.I.T. experience like and how does that fit into the overall picture of where you are today?

Carlos Cashman:
I was great. I mean, it was fantastic. It’s kind of like my mom will never forgive me for not going to Harvard. She knows everybody and they don’t know my t.r.’s and not trust. They will. A few people. I said, you go international. Everyone knows the ivy, the national rules. And that’s what she was worried about. Oh, you know, I don’t I don’t know. I mean, look, I think it’s really just because, frankly, tech has taken over everything. Right. Mark Andreesen said software will eat the world, right? Well, it is. It’s changed everything. And it really was beginning when I went to school in the early 90s. Right. I mean, you know, so you had the P.C. revolution. It just happened. Yeah, I we just habit it. Think how crazy that is. I know. And now we’re carrying these computers that are just more powerful than all the computers available in 1980. So, you know, it’s I think it’s because of that. And so tech became that much more important. And my is just a fantastic tech center. Right. You know, and it’s there’s maybe it’s culturally, too, but I don’t believe there’s necessarily any, you know, different that different culture between M.I.T. and. And, you know, Penn and Harvard or Princeton, maybe in terms of entrepreneurial spirit. Right. Attitudes, maybe, but not. Yeah, yeah. Maybe. I mean, but, you know, you get super bright people in all these places, too. And, you know, and there’s it’s just I think the tech has become a bigger force in entrepreneurship and business formation and particularly around here. But because they came from I.T. and there’s a great pool shows there’s 50 schools of Boston’s other great, great schools with great tech programs. Would it be you to be seeing a tough start? I am right now.

David Elmasian:
Also sounds into do you think that other than the education you got there, do you think that there are other benefits that came out of you going in?

Carlos Cashman:
Well, you know, this is going to be popular for me to say, like I took a lot of people get great education. And my. For me, it wasn’t about the education of MIT. You know, I was I was always into entrepreneurship and stuff that was kind of orthogonal to education. So I don’t think I think our higher education system is in dramatic need of reform. I don’t think everybody needs four year degrees and stuff like that. You know, for me, what I learned there, frankly, was, you know, being part of it in a little group of fraternity and then making a group of forty five unique individuals get along for everything from a party to rush just to every weekly meetings. And, you know, that was what made the experience so rich for me and so great. And I bet you’ll find us with a lot of the business leaders that came out of there. It’s been sad for me to see the tack that schools have taken against independence or these kind of living or fraternities. Sirees Everything in the last 20 years. But look, I get it. I get where it comes from. But but honestly, I think again, for me, a business when we manage business, I mean, if you’re in policy and government, you’ve got to get a bunch of people to agree to go after something. Right. So it’s about people. Yeah. It’s again, about getting people to get in. I don’t think like schools have tend to be very focused on you just learn this thing. And you around that, if you can put on that layer, that helps you. That helps you learn about the people and how to work with different people from different backgrounds. So that’s what these schools are doing just now by virtue of being what they are, who they are. I was also it was you get people all over. And if you get involved and get engaged, you’re learning those skills. And what he’s particularly good at that because it’s kind of him all over the world and it’s got a very inclusive culture. Yeah. And look at The Fantasticks going in there, you know, for learning and for, you know, anything particularly science related matters. Mean, it’s fantastic.

David Elmasian:
Yeah. And I think the other advantage of it is, is that they have a more global perspective. And because that global perspective, they’re not always looking at what’s happening today or yesterday. They’re looking at it from a larger picture. And so they’ll invest in things that other organizations may not invest in, like, for example, one of one of our people that, you know, he started at one of the outside offices. Down in Latin America and working with an entrepreneurship program where it wasn’t just simply, hey, we all throw some money into this into the community to to spur business. It was working with politicians, working with government officials, investors and people that want to start a business. And because their culture was so counter entrepreneur, because of all those factions and all those barriers, they really had to make a deep investment into the community itself and change things politically in order for that to happen, because of the corruption and all the other stuff that that occurs in a lot of places in the world. You know, not every organization or IRC can can do that has the ability to do it, but also have that that long thought process that goes involved in doing that.

Carlos Cashman:
Yeah. You know, that’s that’s really interesting. You bring that up in that kind of international and broader perspective. And I think that’s also comes from being, you know, more science focused in this. Hey, let’s let the data speak, which. Right. Right. Let’s let’s let’s understand. The system did, in fact, tell us something. It’s fascinating you bring that up, because I am just now I’m I’m putting up a a a math poster on my wall in my office, which is a picture. It’s a map of the world. But it’s from the point of view, as if you lived in Asia. Right. Or Europe. Now, most of us don’t realize is that at least I least I didn’t realize that it wasn’t a huge surprise to me that maps were made in a way that didn’t have the United States right in the middle. No, I think I don’t. When I first saw a map that didn’t have the, you know, North America, the U.S. right in the middle. So I was like, why would something was wrong? What is this? All right. But, you know, we are not in the middle. We’re the middle of our world. We’re not China. But, you know, so when you see this, it’s a shift in perspective. It’s a really big one. It really opened your eyes. I like going to M.I.T. is like that was totally that experience. Right? I mean, the day I showed up, just the different perspectives, the different cultures like it blew me. It was like that map shifting from us being in a center to Europe and Asia. And I sat up. Right. And so, like, I love that. And that’s why I like I want to put things up like that. As a little reminder here for people that, hey, shift your perspective and being open minded. Right.

David Elmasian:
Yeah. Now, I think that said, it brings up the good point, which is that we can we can take that even to our individual level as well, not just collectively but individually of saying, you know, it isn’t always all just about me. That goes back to what you were talking about with people and building a team and sometimes getting ideas and thoughts from people on your team that don’t have to come from you. Because I mean, entrepreneurs have we all seen and we’ve been guilty of ourselves that if it’s not my idea, it’s not a good idea. Right.

Carlos Cashman:
They try to do everything and micromanage. We were just talking with us before I came in. Yeah. You know, your company’s doing fantastic work for us. And I look at what you’ve been developing with my team. Right. And I just I love it like this. There’s great work going on. And I offered to do it. I know it’s happening. Like, I love get the credit card. Yeah, well, luckily, I’ve got other people look at it. There is a lot of stuff to cool down. But, you know, I love it when a company gets to that point. Right. Early on, like, you know, five, 10, 20 people usually like you’re involved in everything. But a company does get to a point, you know. And like, I’m very much the opposite of a micromanager. So pretty soon I like to get it. That book is you don’t want to build dependents on yourself. Again, it’s a mistake. I see a lot of entrepreneurs make they want to be involved in every decision. What happens is you. You can take a leader, a general in the army and throw them into a company where he’s a VP and you are you you’re looking at every single decision and you’re going to build dependence on that person. Suddenly they’re not going to be as sure it’s crazy. I’ve seen it happen with otherwise great leaders. So I want my team I want people to be empowered and to be making decisions that they don’t need me around for. Right. And that’s that should be the goal of any great leader, I think. And it’s exciting to see when a company, you know, gets to that place. Yeah.

David Elmasian:
Well, I think that it’s also about empowerment, too, for people, which I think is a huge thing. And that’s why Liz said you have people that keep following it. So the next opportunity, the next opportunity, the next opportunity. So we’ll wrap up in a couple of minutes. But I just want to get a couple other quick things in. And again, we’ll do a little cliche, but I think it’s important because I’m trying to look at it for the perspective of people that are listening. Like what? What? Like you and I talk. We we each list a lot of podcasts. I always wanna know about the person and, you know, that kind of stuff. So what would you say is your best habit and what’s your worst habit? We’ll get to two too personal. But you know me just generally, you know, I did.

Carlos Cashman:
That’s something I think about. I don’t really have a lot of habits. OK.

David Elmasian:
You ask your wife maybe. Yes. Hello. You know, I will tell you.

Carlos Cashman:
Look, I think I mean, like I would answer this differently, sort of personally and workwise and whatever. But one of the things that I think is overlooked too much that is super important as I have a health habit in the sense that I I eat healthily. And I guess what that means is get out there and there and study and learn, you know? I mean, the facts are out there now. You shouldn’t be eating processed carbs and things like that. Right. So, you know, if you don’t want to learn it, don’t. But so I eat healthy. And what’s healthy for me. Take everyone’s body is a little difficult. And I workout, I exercise and I try to do is just keep moving. And oh, and a long, large baseline of like even just walking like I take walking meetings quite frequently, take phone calls. I think that’s a good habit because it makes me better at everything else I do. It always does. Right. I mean, you know, you know how you if you if you’ve exercised before ever. You know how I can clear your head and make you feel good and pause when I’ve got a big problem or something. Weigh me down whether it’s a work or life, man. If I go ride my bike or go for a long hike or snowshoeing or whatever it is running like. Oh, yeah. Opens up and it makes it so it makes me better at work and makes me a better dad. Makes me a better husband. Like a better friend. I think so. So I think that is one of my, you know, my best habits. I would say my worst habit is when I do that, we all go through these. You get too busy and you actually stress or whatever. Oh, yeah. Look, you got to do the basics, whether it’s you have 15 minutes, a yoga in the morning in your hotel room. You know, and I’m terrible at that. But I’ve got the app and I try it or I just, you know, somebody in or out choosing to walk instead of, you know, taking cabs or trains and stuff like that. Right. You’ve got to do that. But, you know, we all get tied up and getting too focused sometimes in the minutia. Yeah. And you lose the losing. That perspective is bad for getting work, life, everything.

David Elmasian:
Well, I think that’s the kind of almost the negative side of technology because we’re accessible. We we’re constantly have things pulling at our attention. And because of that, I’m just as guilty. I find myself you know, I’m starting at 6:00 a.m. and then next thing I know, it’s 3:00 in the afternoon and I literally haven’t moved away from my desk.

Carlos Cashman:
Yeah, it’s not. So we can blame it to a degree on technology. It’s our use, of course. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It’s funny. I look at it is it’s it’s a it’s the blessing and a curse. Like anything. Right. It allows us to go. You know, I can go on vacation. And yet still be reachable for important things. Right. I can take longer trips. But yeah, I can take a day out here and there and work and take calls. That’s amazing. Technologies enabled. That’s right. I can be with my family somewhere else and my employees can, too. Tastic. It’s awesome. But I also know the look work will grow to fill the space. You get it right. And it’s really important to choose to put boundaries on that and be and be strong about that. And like, you know, when I’m done with my working day, I’m done. If I’m going to go see my son doing something at practice or something else, I just closed the system. That’s my closed my computer, whatever. I take the first time I did that, it was really hard, of course, that because I was. Like, I you know, I’m in the middle of these five things, I have to finish this one. But you know what? You do it. You realize the world doesn’t blow. Yeah. So you pick it up tomorrow so it becomes easier and easier at the same time. Like like, yeah, I’ve got my phone, I’ve got access, but I don’t open the email app very much and I won’t interact on it. I’ll look for it for if there’s an emergency or some like that. But generally someone would text me.

Carlos Cashman:
Well you’re getting that balance. Yeah. Yeah. You have to have that because like I said, if you work 24/7, that’s great. Makes you sound like you’re a warrior or whatever. But at the end of the day,.

Carlos Cashman:
It’s unhealthy. What’s the point? It’s nice, but it’s also unhealthy. Yeah. People are worse the more than working there. You’re introducing errors. They’re not thinking as clearly it is. I mean, it’s been shown over and over. There’s a great I think with BCG who did it. Another great Boston company. Right. Who did a study on workplace hours and stuff. Right. And there’s an author has a new book about this. I was listening to our podcast. And, you know, it’s it’s not effective to tour these banker’s hours, right. It’s certainly not over and over, over now, but it’s hard for people to really grasp on to that.

David Elmasian:
Yeah, well, I think it goes back to that perception thing as well, too. Yes. You know, if it if you have to say, oh, I work twenty three hours a day and I want all that kind of stuff, that’s how I you know,.

Carlos Cashman:
Look, our culture is built that into a bragging thing. I don’t know why. And I’ve seen companies be way more successful when people are working, frankly, less and and, you know, I mean, more balanced. Right. And people are fresh and healthy. And when they’re at work, they get a ton of work done in a very productive, shorter time periods than those times when people like A, B or twelve hours to impress somebody. So I’ll be on Facebook for an operation. I know I do this that. You know, then, then and then the quality the other hours you get aren’t as good. Right.

David Elmasian:
So what’s the next big thing? I’m not sure. You just you if you want to about what’s next, best thing for you, that’s fine. But what where do you see the next big thing is if you add you know, if you whip out the crystal ball,.

Carlos Cashman:
I don’t whip out the crystal ball that I have no idea. There’s so much going on, a change so rapidly.

David Elmasian:
What’s your view on A.I. then?

Carlos Cashman:
So while I was an investor in a a fund that has been an only investing in A.I. companies for the last five years, those that don’t know A.I. is artificial intelligence actually learning.

Carlos Cashman:
There’s no question that is having a massive impact on, you know, what’s on every aspect of our lives. I’ve got a very good friend who runs a terrific company here in Boston called Cogito, which does some amazing stuff with A.I.. You know, listening and coaching people on calls. It’s incredible. You can tell. Yeah, that you can do that. You have him on. I did that. Can you? But so look, that’s so I think A.I. and I also think health, you know, we’re learning we’re finally learning real stuff about our health. You know, you’ve got stuff like Nuzzi, the Nutrition Science Initiative. Right. Which is trying to get real data around health, because all this information we’ve had flapping in our faces for the last 30 years has been based on no real data. Frankly, it’s been based on, you know, epidemiological evidence, which is great to establish hypothesis. So which then you’re supposed to go test, but it’s not supposed to tell you what to do. And we’ve been using it as procedure, and it’s very, very dangerous. It set us down some bad. So I think we’re good. We’re starting to understand stuff about, you know, the gut microbiome and epigenetics and all this stuff. And it’s getting again, Boston is a fantastic center for biotechnology. So it is the capital of that now. And it’s exciting. I got a lot of friends who work in that space. So I think, you know, the kind. And then you can start to combine these two things. Right. Advanced neural networks and advanced machine learning technology with, you know, more. We’re learning about health and biotech, I think. And as such, they see some really exciting stuff come out here.

David Elmasian:
Yeah, well, you could we could talk about that. We could talk about privacy, which would even hit upon and we can go into all those things. But that’s for another time. So let’s wrap it up this way. Well, first of all, thank you very much for sharing your time and all your insights. And thanks for asking. I really do. For people that are listening, should you know whether they want to sell their FBA business? Maybe they’re looking for a job. I know you guys are always hiring. Hiring a lot. So. So what’s the best way for people to reach out to you for any of those type also?

Carlos Cashman:
So first off, we’re looking for you know, we we have offices in Boston and New York and Houston. And we’re hiring a lot and all of those. And if you’re selling you, the best way to reach us is on our Web site. Go to Thras.io all I all through RCL or ask that I know we have a, you know, simple form on there. If you’re looking to sell your business, fill it out. And our team will get in touch and we’ll start looking at people reach out to be on LinkedIn all the time. I you know, look, I I changed my I think I think we talked. So I changed the description. I said, I’m not going to connect with you. I don’t know you. But, you know, you can send me a message. You can message me. What I try to do now is people reach I said, what can I do for you or what do you need? Right. But I want at least know the person before you do it. Well, that’s the thing. But I’ll but I’ll respond.

David Elmasian:
So it’s that’s a good way to get hold of you. Well, thanks for joining us here on The Hub of Success.

Carlos Cashman:
Thank you very much for having me, it was fun!

Jordan Rich:
The Hub of Success podcast is sponsored by Tech Help Boston, the top rated local one stop tech solutions company. For all of your computer, home and commercial technology needs, visit TechHelpBoston.com.

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