Sam Eisenberg: What Actually Matters When Building a Company — Startups, Pitch Decks, AI, and Culture | Be Yourself Podcast

Sam Eisenberg

Co-founder of Design for Decks & Exponential — on AI in pitch decks, what separates winning startups, building a culture of A-players, and why the best opportunities are the ones you say no to

Watch on YouTube Design for Decks
40 minutes
Startups · Venture Capital · Culture · AI · Authenticity

About the Guest

Sam Eisenberg — Pitch Strategist, Co-Founder, Startup Operator

Co-founder of Design for Decks, a boutique pitch strategy firm that has helped early-stage founders raise over $3 billion in venture capital — still built around craft, not scale, five years in

He is also co-founder of Exponential, an early-stage AI startup in senior care; what makes his perspective unusual is the combination of exposure and restraint — and a willingness to say no

Who He Is
co-founder of Design for Decks, a boutique pitch strategy firm, and Exponential, an AI startup in senior care — with pattern recognition built over five years of fundraises
$3B+ in Venture Capital Raised
Design for Decks has helped founders collectively raise over $3 billion from VCs, angels and LPs — small client list, deep engagement
The "Care" Principle
his first hiring filter isn't experience or credentials but whether the person genuinely cares about the product's success
On AI in Pitch Decks
he uses AI as a collaborator, not a replacement — the easier it becomes to generate a deck, the more the human story inside it matters

Key Quotes

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I only hire people who care. My first concern is not how talented someone is, not how many years of experience they have. They have to really care and that's a non-negotiable.

Sam Eisenberg
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I view many of my engagements as projects more than businesses. A project can continue indefinitely, a project can close, can end, a project can evolve. And that's really where I'm at.

Sam Eisenberg
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You have to get out of bed and speak to people. You have to get out of bed and learn about yourself. Finding what excites you doesn't happen from watching from the sidelines.

Sam Eisenberg

Episode Chapters

0:00 Intro 1:05 Sam's Occupation 2:20 Is AI Changing Pitch Deck Business? 5:30 How DesignForDecks Started 7:40 How to Spot a Great Business Idea 8:55 Capital-Backed Start-Up Life 12:53 Should a Founder Be a Family Man? 14:08 What Sam is Saying "No" to 17:30 Clues to Successful Tech Startup 21:40 Building a Culture around Great Ideas 23:36 Can you Only Have A-players? 26:40 Putting the Right People on a Bus 28:51 The Importance of Authenticity 29:55 Do Businesses Limit Creativity? 31:30 Should Businesses Live Forever? 35:00 Sam's Confidence in Future 37:11 Final Message from Sam

Full Transcript

BTW: This episode of the Be Yourself Podcast is produced by Beverly Media. Want a podcast that looks and sounds this good? Check out Beverly Production →
0:00 Intro
Sam You've been designing pitches and helping uh founders to raise funds for over 5 years. You helped to raise over $3 billion in general with your DAX. I love working with small businesses. I love working with startups. I love seeing the ability for a small focused organization to do what a big organization couldn't do in in a much greater amount of time. My concern with startups has basically been the level of sacrifice that's needed to build and run a startup.
Serhiy Hey everyone, welcome to the Be Yourself podcast, the podcast on expressing your true selves. Today my guest is Sam Eisenberg. He's a co-founder of Design for Dex and Exponential. Thank you for joining me, Sam.
Sam Thank you for having me, Sergey. It's great to be speaking again.
Serhiy Yeah. Again, we had the conversation about two years ago and uh it was so eye opening that I figured that I I want to have Sam on my show again.
1:05 Sam's Occupation
Serhiy And I want to start it off by just simply reminding people what you do or what are your main expertise as far as uh design for decks go and as far as exponential goes.
Sam Sure. Um, so design at design for decks, we help early stage founders raise capital from VCs, angels and the like. Our primary focus is on helping them improve their pitch and their pitch deck materials. Uh, we also work very closely with quite a few VCs who raise funds from their LPs and investors. So that's what we do at Design for Dex. We're a boutique firm. Uh, we work with a very small group of clients and we've been enjoying doing this for over five years now. Uh at Exponential uh we're an earlystage startup that helps senior care, nursing homes, home health, hospices, uh increase their census. So I I don't want to get too deep into the into the US uh system at this very moment, but essentially we we help them um go through these huge packets that are extremely difficult to understand is a patient a good fit for their home or not. uh and very quickly make a decision based on their rules and financial information and so on and so forth. Um yeah, and that's that's where we're at today.
2:20 Is AI Changing Pitch Deck Business?
Serhiy I want to ask you the question that that's pretty obvious right now. You've been designing uh pitches and helping uh founders to raise funds for over five years. And I see it says that you helped to raise over three billion um dollars in general with your DAX as we're now living seeing this exponential raise of AI. Can you tell me if uh designing DAX uh is still of great demand or AI is becoming a problem?
Sam It's it's a great question. We definitely would not view AI as a problem. Uh we we encourage the use of AI wherever it's going to be helpful in the process. I've been very on top of the AI deck design tools from the from the first day they came out. I've tried and tested dozens of them from copy assistance to design assistance uh to everything in between. Um there are a few really interesting tools in the space. So for those who are you know building pitch decks at home uh pitch pitch.com is a great platform and they do have some AI tools. Uh there's another tool uh called gamma.app which is good for helping to structure I would say more basic style presentations maybe something you you use internally. I have used it a lot. I do enjoy the tool but it's not in the level of you know custom design or very high quality design you'd need to tell your very specific story. Um that being said we do expect that the tools will continue to evolve. We personally design everything inside of Figma. Figma's AI tools are very limited right now. Uh we know they are investing there and as Figma gives us more options. We'll continue utilizing those and we'll continue testing additional tools and if we reach a point where we say hey AI is producing design on the level that we do and we need to close shop we'll be very happy to reach that founders when founders can tell their story and present their story and design a beautiful pitch deck without human that would be amazing. Uh at the same time, AI also presents a really unique opportunity, which is it's really easy to create a pitch deck today. Really, really easy. What that means is that there's a much greater quantity of decks circulating. And what that means is it's also harder to cut through the noise. So the the additional element of really investing putting the human side into the story that you're telling of using really high quality designing your deck is actually an additional advantage at least for the time being.
Serhiy You see with video production my business we also don't see AI as a threat we see it as an opportunity and as someone pointed out so beautifully that AI isn't a tool it's a skill right so when you can work with it and not try to fight it will only complement the uh the uh outcome um so I'm 100% with you on this uh with this with this uh company design for decks.
5:30 How DesignForDecks Started
Serhiy You you started working um as a result of a pretty much complete surprise as far as I remember uh one of your friends. Can you tell the story briefly how how you got involved with the design for decks?
Sam Wow. Um the the long and the short version is that um my partner and friend at Frati um initially engaged with me to help him build a course. Uh yeah during throughout that process while I was helping him build the course he then met uh Jack Zerby our partner at design for decks and he said hey I have this you know Sam who has a lot of experience building courses. Do you would you be interested in him helping you build a a course on how to design decks? Now the background for that is Jack had raised a lot of capital himself. uh had had helped quite a few early stage founders design decks and he hated doing it. Yeah. He was a world-class designer but he didn't yet have a process around it. So he said I'll teach it. I'd rather teach it to people so people can benefit from this at scale. So we built a course and we started selling it. And then from the course we started getting this demand from our our students. Hey can you help us design decks? Yeah. Uh and we had first one came in and he he offered a very you know substantial sum of money for us to do it and we said Jack uh we have some ideas for how we can improve this process. Will you give it a go? And he said you know we've been partnered. We enjoy working with one another. Let's give it a go. So we tried one deck that way and then a second deck that way. And both times the process was far from perfect. It still isn't perfect. Um but it was vastly improved on what he had done himself. So at that stage Jack basically said all right let's do it. let's open the business and um five years later that's uh that's where we are.
Serhiy So this is so fascinating because you started the business out of the uh pretty much um necessity out of out of the um fact that the market wanted you to help, right? So you already found your first customers before you even started the business.
7:40 How to Spot a Great Business Idea
Serhiy uh as you are working with uh the multitude of startup founders, what are the what are the advice that you give to founders on how to find a good good business idea.
Sam We're not usually engaging with founders and telling them what idea they should or shouldn't build. Usually, at the point at which they're engaging us, they already have an idea that they're planning on building. I'm I'm never unless I'm explicitly asked. I would never tell a founder your idea is bad. Naturally, I have encountered you know a few decks that have come my way where I just said hey this this is not going to work. Um I don't I won't say it to a founder. At the same time uh for our main service which is you know the full endtoend designing their deck I won't take a client if I believe they have a 0% chance of succeeding. So at that point I'll say hey thanks for reaching out. Here are some resources resources that can help you. here's what I'd recommend. Give them, you know, a little bit of value and let them continue on their way. Not because um not because I don't think anyone should be telling them, you know, this is not a great idea, but I just don't think that's my role. I'm a service provider. They reached out to me for help with a specific item. I try to stay stay in my lane to the extent possible.
8:55 Capital-Backed Start-Up Life
Serhiy your own story. You told me the story or at some point in your life you you made a decision that the life of a founder uh who have attracting foreign capital or just right attracting capital is not the life for you and this idea has always you know been really close to my heart because I've actually gone through the similar path. So uh as as as we're uh talking about you know uh startup investments and or having investors on board can you briefly point out what are the things that always scared you know in working with investors and having board of directors or or a lot of cash and uh what actually entices you to work to being involved in for with more of a small business entity or maybe that's not the case anymore.
Sam Yeah, I think it's a great question and and naturally my my vision and my preferences do evolve over time both based on life circumstances and based on perspective. Um I love working with small businesses. I love working with startups. I love seeing the ability for a small focused organization to do what a big organization couldn't do in you know in a much greater amount of time. So that I really do enjoy that side of it. My concern with startups has basically been the level of sacrifice that's needed to build and run a startup. Yes sir. And and to a large extent I I I applaud founders. I support founders. I help founders. But at the same time I said you know I have I have a wife. I have kids. uh I have things working pretty well for me and I'm just not willing to sacrifice that to go all in on a startup. At the same time, over the past two years, I have deeply engaged with two startups currently exponential. And what I would say is there there's there's a few different elements there. One is I still am pulled in to ideas that I love. I'm pulled into companies that I love. So even if I say, "Hey, on paper this isn't what I would want," when I see an idea on a team that excites me, I'm there. Uh the second thing is going to be because I I've been blessed of working with a lot of very successful startups and less successful startups as well. I I have a certain perspective and I can say that I know with 100% or even 90% confidence who will and who won't succeed. But at the same time, I've learned a lot about what it does take to raise capital, what it does take to succeed as a founder, uh what it takes to build a healthy culture. And I wouldn't consider myself an expert in that per se, but I I I do have a pretty good sense for what those are. So when a startup comes and I feel that, hey, they meet those criteria. This is a successful startup, I'm much more likely to engage them in a conversation. And I've had quite a few of those conversations. For some, I determined it wasn't the right fit. For some, they determined, for some we determined. Um, and then sometimes you just find the right fit.
12:53 Should a Founder Be a Family Man?
Serhiy Wow, this is so so cool. You know, it's almost if we want the founder to be a family man because uh he would understand that. And you know, there's actually in my experience uh people who are have families are really really responsible. You know, mature people who men who are fathers by definition are responsible, right? And mature because they have families to feed. Maybe they cannot work late hours, but they know how to make the job done.
Sam There's a lot of I've heard a lot of arguments made one way or another. I I don't I don't know if I agree as a general rule that fathers are responsible. I don't know if uh you know sometimes it doesn't matter about the general rule but sometimes you can look at an individual and say based on their circumstances there's a certain advantage and there's an advantage here of you know people will talk about the ability to to properly manage your time better. Um but but there's a whole there's a whole list of other items uh that go along with that and um when you can find the right organization that can benefit from those then uh you know obviously that's something that's worth highlighting.
14:08 What Sam is Saying "No" to
Serhiy You told me that one of your main uh takeaways from you know last years of your life is that you have to say no to certain opportunities. Can you give us some examples uh where you said no to something that was really enticing and why and what are some lessons learned from these uh these encounters?
Sam Yeah. So um I mean one obvious example will be what we had just discussed many early stage startups where I met the founder and I said wow this person you know has has a lot to offer. They're extremely driven. They have very strong domain expertise. Uh they know how to they know how to lead. They know how to bring people in. And over and over I keep reminding myself, Sam, you said no to the last five startups for the same reason. This is not something that my life wants or will allow at this moment in time.
Serhiy And they wanted you to be involved with the operational business and everything.
Sam Yeah. Obviously, as a service provider, that's something I would allow. But businesses that net, you know, tried pulling me in to be a very deep engagement, whether it's as a co-founder or or or is a very very significant engagement that would require that same level of sacrifice. Even when they told me that's not the case, like, oh, we just need you to help cover this one area. I'm like, that's not how startups work. You know, you have to care if you have to care about the startup. You have to be there to lift up the team. You have to be there to help anywhere you can. And roles are are not static. They're quite dynamic. So, that's one example. Uh another example is I I did have an opportunity with a a reputable uh private equity firm and the same the same consideration was I actually didn't want that you know on one level it was very exciting to me and then on the other hand I just said I don't want that I love working with small businesses where I can make a lot of impact I love working with very close teams I love I love working with um you know places that respect me uh for my talents and for my abilities and I have to worry less about red tape and more about where can make more impact.
Serhiy Is this something that that you understand your about yourself more and more as you are faced with this these challenging choices and has this understanding of yourself been consistent?
Sam The understanding has definitely not been consistent and I'm not sure that it'll remain consistent either. Uh what I do know is that what I have learned over time is that as I've been uh blessed to have many opportunities presented to me, I do do need to be careful about the ones I say yes to and the ones uh that I say no to. Um my tendency is to say yes to things. I I was given a lot of opportunities and this is actually a great example. You invited me on to your podcast and over the past few years I've been saying no to practically every single one. But I enjoyed meeting you two years ago and I said, "Oh, I would love to meet Sergey again." And so I came on to this one and that's an example of an opportunity where in the past I would have said hey it's just a half hour it's just an hour just say yes. So I still do try to always evaluate each thing that comes in very quickly. Is this something where I belong? Is this something where I can help? And is this something within my capacity and my ability to give it? So um that's something that I've definitely learned uh in terms of the exact frameworks for when I will say yes or say no or determine if it's something looking further into. I do try to relate to the principles, but um I wouldn't say that they're consistent or will remain consistent.
17:30 Clues to Successful Tech Startup
Serhiy You said that you have a pretty good sense of what it takes to make a successful company. Would you mind sharing patterns for first a company that can become successful and maybe you can define successful because it's pretty broad term and second part of this question the the patterns for making uh for having great healthy internal culture.
Sam Yeah. So, um I I would just put a small reservation on that that I'm referring specifically to startups and innovators as opposed to general businesses. If someone wants if someone wants to say, "Hey, I'm going to start a plumbing business. If they're a great plumber, you know, and they can build a business word of mouth, they can grow a very successful business without, you know, without me being able to evaluate if they are a good or a bad plumber or whatever else is there." So, I'm speaking specifically about startup culture. Now, uh, one thing that I've found to be extremely important is a highly talented technical team. Um, and this is something where, you know, it's it's it's not me. Many big investors will say it and over time I found it to be true where at the end of the day, you know, a company's going to pivot, a company's going to have to make adjustments, a company's going to get user feedback, a company's going to deal with new technical or legal or, you know, whatever challenges might arise. and having a technical team that's adept enough to be able to actually adapt to those and solve those and beat the competition is going to be really really really critical. So that's definitely going to be one piece uh that I've learned. The second one is going to be I I love to see a founder with a track record. Now for some people a track record will mean multiple exits. Uh obviously that would be a very good uh indicator of success but I'm actually referring to a professional track record. someone who's shown that they can actually uh you know build teams and produce results. And I don't just mean titles. Uh if someone had a a big title at a big company, it's not always reflective of how much they've delivered, but you could actually look at an individual and say, "Hey, what are their actual achievements uh that they've that they've had that they're credited for?
Sam Uh in terms of culture, it's the ability to be completely transparent and that starts from step one. So, I I've tend to I tend to do this on very early conversations where I'll flag something that maybe not be my place. So, you know, uh one company I met with I said I told them I didn't like their name and I told them why and I wanted to see how did they react to that.
Serhiy You were playing devil's advocate.
Sam That's it. No, no, I wasn't playing devil's etiquette. I truthfully didn't like it.
Sam And you know if you say that to a company um first of all for many companies like that be like wow this person you know stepped where they shouldn't have let's uh remove them from the process let's not discuss with them further um but additionally just the idea that you see how they react to it. So, I'm not just going to say I don't like something. I'm going to explain why, right? So, I think, you know, they'll tell me about what their company does, what what about their idea, and I'll tell them, hey, what about this? I'll bring up a challenge or a concern. And then seeing how they relate to that as in like, oh, don't worry, you'll understand it when you're here. That doesn't work for me. If they're willing to communicate their why, why that's not an issue or why that is an issue, or hey, yes, we're aware of that issue and we need help solving it. Uh to me that's a very good indicator that they're actually going to have a culture of communication and and not keeping people in these small little boxes. Uh and then the next one will be to to speak to existing people working with them. So in a small team you're only going to have one or two people. So that might not be a big a big sample size. Uh but if they have other employees you can speak to if they have uh clients or service providers that work with them. anyone that works with them, you can speak to them and say right away, hey, u how is it working with them? And if people say, I hate working with them, then I know as a partner or an employee or a consultant, whatever it's going to be, I would hate it probably just as much as they do.
21:40 Building a Culture around Great Ideas
Serhiy I'm reading the book about Netflix. Maybe it's already pretty old, but still they talk about uh less protocols, less rules, more freedom, more accountability from upside down, all the way down. And I I sense that that's something that you can can side with, right? This type of uh kind of culture. So how do we nurture the culture where people want to take responsibility who want who are who want to come up with creative solutions? How do we do that as as leaders?
Sam I think it's a good question. Uh I would be a little bit less focused on how do we nurture the people who have great ideas. I think people who have great ideas might be the type of people great ideas. Uh to me it's more a matter of how how do you build a team around that. So, especially at the early stage, you may not have a lot you can offer, right? You'll your cash, you can't compete with the biggest players. Equity, you know, is is exciting to some people, but you're also somewhat limited because you can't give up all your equity to employees. Um, and you also a lot of people may not value that. So, it's how do you build a team when you have less resources than many bigger and established players and you need a players because if you don't have A players, you won't succeed. Just like the vast majority of startups out there. One parameter that I use and it's not something that's very easy to measure is I only hire people who care. I actually my first concern is not how talented is someone, not how many years of experience do they have. They have to really care and that's a non-negotiable. I will not hire anyone who I don't think actually cares about the success of the company and of the product. Um proven to be extremely extremely valuable.
Serhiy And you cannot be you cannot buy their interests. You cannot motivate them to care. They should just care, right?
23:36 Can you Only Have A-players?
Sam you can you can you can motivate people to work harder, but you can motivate people to do a lot of different things to hit certain milestones. But on a regular basis, the fact that I know that if something goes wrong on a weekend or when I'm offline or when I'm away and someone on my team will on their own, I've never asked them to do it. We'll get up and, you know, go ahead and answer that email, move it forward, escalate it to development, whatever they need to do. That's something that's happening on a pretty regular basis and I've actually not included it, not in their contract, not in their expectations, not in what I expect of them. The actually the opposite is true. I would say for all of my current team members, colleagues, people who report to me, um, I actually have to ask them to take breaks more than they currently are. I'll say like, "Hey, you're you're you're you're going away to a music festival with your girlfriend. Like, please don't answer me while you're there." And they still do. So, that's proven to be a really um, you know, a really important consideration. And it's been extremely helpful as well. So even if if I were comparing two applicants head-to-head and one had a much greater level of experience, I I would always choose the one who cares over that one, assuming, of course, that you know that they're qualified to to do the role and that I trust they can do it well.
Serhiy Wow, this is this is so interesting. I want to have people only people who care. But I think we always have this proportion of a players probably the ones who care the most and then we have like other other employees who might not burn burn a midnight oil. But because we have the A players, we the B players all always also perform well. So they they have someone who they can look up to. So we need we need these uh leaders inside as well. We try to strongly avoid B players. So uh like can but can you only have A players? Won't you know you know?
Sam Yeah. I think um I think that an A player again there's probably different definitions of it but for me it's someone who can excel at what I need them to excel at. So I can look at someone and say, "Hey, this person is really good at A, B, and C and really not good at D, E, and F." So what I'll want to do is confine them to A, B, and C to the extent possible. Okay? And and we do that all the time. So you can only do that if you have flexible roles. If every role is written in stone, and I need this person to be good at every single thing I listed in the job description, then yeah, you're going to end up having to either spend a lot on A players or compromise and go with B players. But what we do is anytime I have a published position or an unpublished position, I'm always going to look at the individual there and I'll say, "Wow, this person cares. This person is smart and talented. This person's really good at, you know, one or two of the skills or one or two of the tasks that are going to be very important to me." They're less good at it. Great. Let's keep them off of that task and keep them where we need them to be really good.
26:40 Putting the Right People on a Bus
Serhiy But what you're saying is true under the condition when you say let's put them here. It's it's speaking of placing the right people on the bus. But then there's this an extension of this concept that not only we should have the right people on the bus, we kind of want them to sit in the places where they want to sit, right? So uh what if and this is coming from my real business experience for example I have a girl who is really great communicator she's she would be she would make an amazing project manager account manager but she wants to be a video editor Sam so uh how do we walk the line walk this line?
Sam Yeah, if it's not I mean if if she's a not qualified to be a video editor, she's not qualified to be a video editor and that's that's just okay, you know, but we cannot make people to do what they're good at or at certain point they will fall in love with what they do. What's your what's your point here? No, not really. I think I think that you know when when you're filling a role, there's an infinite number of candidates for that role. Okay. So, so I'm not I'm you're you're right now saying, "I must hire this person." And I'm saying, "No, you don't need to hire that person if that person is great. If she's great, you think she's a great communicator and she's someone you you enjoy working with, then keep her very close and keep, you know, keep up to date and see when you might have something that fits for her. But to put her into something that she's clearly not going to do a great job at, uh, no, I wouldn't I wouldn't uh do that under any circumstance."
28:51 The Importance of Authenticity
Serhiy Shooting myself in the foot. Okay. Okay. Cool. Uh well the name of the podcast is be yourself and I I I I see you as a person who who actually sticks to his values and not compromising them saying no to even glamorous opportunities but those who would not let you live your life and be happy. Um how what what is what is uh authenticity for you Sam and how do you think uh how important is authenticity you think for you and for your for your colleagues uh in business?
Sam It's a good question. Again, not something that's easily defined or quantified, but I only like working with people who I believe are authentic, at least authentic in their communications with me, right? So, uh there are people who have a tendency to be dishonest. And you want them to be honest. Yeah. So, I honesty is an obvious one, but I think it it goes a little bit further than that. Like I actually want to have I want to always understand what's actually happening. So, I I appreciate people who can take accountability for the good and for the bad of of what they've done. Um, or what actions they've taken or anything they've taken ownership of. And, um, I appreciate people who are authentic, who are real human beings who I can work with as human beings on a day-to-day basis, day in day out. Uh, and I appreciate that. And if I feel someone's not being authentic with me, then naturally I I wouldn't really want to work with that individual.
29:55 Do Businesses Limit Creativity?
Serhiy What's your take on creativity and the limits that businesses sort of impose on creative people?
Sam It's a good question. I I always tell people I'm not creative and then they always say, "What do you mean you are creative? Look at the businesses you've done and projects." Like I I've had this conversation with many people that I'm very close to. I still don't consider myself creative. Like when you're looking in the traditional sense of creativity and art and figuring how to make how to like build things, I am a disaster. I am very very non-creative.
Serhiy It means you're not artistic, but you're still creative in other shape or form.
Sam Right. Right. That's that's that's what that's what uh people have communicated to me as well. But I I think um when you say that a business stifles creativity, to me, again, it all comes down to communication. If someone is comfortable to bring something up and and to, you know, suggest a better process and to suggest where I'm doing something not as well as I should be doing it. Hey, I was, you know, I joined the Zoom call that you just did with the prospect. Maybe you shouldn't say that. Those are things that are going to be really critical to the improvement of the company. Now, I don't know again if that's strictly creativity, but the but my the idea here is if if you have a culture where people feel comfortable communicating, feel comfortable giving helpful feedback, even if it's critical and even if it's to people who are supposedly, you know, much higher on the totem pole than they are. uh then that will allow people to also be creative in their own processes and the way they do things and improving things for your company.
31:30 Should Businesses Live Forever?
Serhiy I think we're gonna wrap up. I have a few questions left. The first one that I'm thinking of right now is seeing your experience trying things out. Uh understanding what works, what not. uh people who maybe you change your opinion about or you know some some uh topics that you change your opinion on. What is what do is there is there is there a thing that you think is there in infinite game in in business? I mean, do you think that business should always strive to kind of live forever or do you think it's totally fine in our day and age to kind of understand that there's there the game is finite with ever changing world especially right now and without adaptability and always uh you know uh seeing what's happening we're kind of doomed as as as entrepreneurs, for example.
Sam I'm not sure I have a a fully structured answer to your question, but I would say that I would say that a business does not have to exist forever. And I don't think that a business has to be built with the intention to exist forever. A business is is built to solve a need that exists. If I'm solving a need, if I'm solving a need, great. And if I reach a point where that I'm no longer solving that need, then I can either adapt, shut down the business or move elsewhere. Now, um like like I said earlier, if there were to now be a pitch deck tool that can produce, you know, custom really high quality pitch decks and would not we would not be necessary anymore. I would recommend people use that tool and not use us and I would have no qualms about it. If we had to shut down design for decks in two or three or four years because that's where uh the technology allowed that I would accept that wholeheartedly. At the same time uh a business a business owner has obligations. So as long as the business owner is meeting their obligations and they say great we served all our clients we did everything that we've committed to and now you know we no longer feel excited about this business. We no longer feel this business has room to grow. we no longer feel this business is relevant in today's age. They can of course make that decision where hey let us adapt or try something new or hey let us sell or pass on this business to someone who cares or hey let us shut down the business whatever decision they're going to be made a business owner also has obligations to their employees and to their stakeholders. So at the same time if that decision is being made it should be done with consideration to the people who they committed to you you committed to them and I don't mean strictly on a legal level. Yes, of course you have to give your notice and and pay final salaries and everything else, but every individual that works in your organization has is a human being and they have their own responsibilities and their families and everything else. And a business has to take that. That is your only obligation to take into account am I meeting all my client needs? Am I doing right by my stakeholders and my by my employees? If the answer is yes, then any decision uh that you make is okay.
35:00 Sam's Confidence in Future
Serhiy I kind of envy that you say that you can walk away from design for decks just like that. I mean it it requires a certain certain state of mind to to uh to to do that you know. So I think you're comfortable because you know that you're at peace, you know. And I think that you know that you will find something else. I think what you do here is that you translate confidence that no matter what you'll be all right and you you'll adapt. Is that is that is am I getting this right or why is you saying it?
Sam So yeah, I think I I think that yeah I I am confident that the right opportunity will present itself and and I mean I'm saying that you know based on based on my experience I've had a few really nice opportunities that went you know went sour. Um, I've had ups and downs just like every single entrepreneur out there. But at the end of the day, I know that if you're willing to do good by people, if you're willing to work hard, if you have a set of skills that people find valuable and you put in the effort, you will find the right opportunities. So that's that's on one hand. On the other hand, like design for decks was never built to be a business. This was like Jack, you know, Jack Zerby saying, "Hey, my my parents are teachers. I love that concept of teaching. I don't want to be designing decks. Can you help me make a course? So, it it was only meant to be this, you know, short engagement. And and I view many different things that way. Many things that, you know, people say, why do you call them I call design for decks a project more than I call it a business, even though it's definitely a business. So, to me, it's a project. It's me investing my time into helping, you know, combine talents of myself and Eton and Jack and Mustafa and other people we work with to produce really, you know, to produce something that's helpful to clients. But it's it's a project. So a project can continue indefinitely, a project can close, can end, a project can evolve. And that that's really uh where I'm at. So I view many of my engagements that way. Uh where they're they're projects more that I would call it a project more than I call it uh you know a business in a sense.
Serhiy Yeah. Yeah. It's not it's not a strict definition. It's just more a perspective. I totally understand. I think wording uh is responsible a lot for how we view the world and the words that we choose actually makes a big difference.
37:11 Final Message from Sam
Serhiy Any any any last message you know for people who are still struggling with finding something that they want to get up and do every day. people who are still struggling to get up and to find something that will get them out of bed, you know, and happily do every day.
Sam First of all, they're going to have to get out of bed and do it, right? There's no gonna have to you have to get out of bed and do you have to get out of bed and and speak to people. You have to get out of bed and learn about yourself. If you you know, if you say, "Oh, I want to find that job where I'm always happy 100% of the time and has no stress and this and that." It it doesn't exist, right? every every every business, every project, every job carries with it difficult times and challenges and that's just part of the process. But you have to you have to go ahead and do it. So say if something looks positive on an overall it meets most of what I'm looking for. I'm excited about what this organization is doing. I'm excited about the product this company is building. I'm excited to work with this mentor who you know this team leader who I think could be a great mentor to me. Then look at the positive and go ahead and plug in and work hard and give it your one or two years and it's not forever. You committed to something for a limited amount of time. You'll do it and if it keeps serving you, keep doing it. And if it doesn't, at some point you can say, "Great, let me build a business on the side. Let me move over to a new job." you're not um there's sometimes this this tendency where people will follow influencers on social media, on LinkedIn, wherever else, and they're reading and they're saying, "Hey, this person says that, you know, you should you you should definitely start your own business. If you're working for someone, you're, you know, you're basically underselling yourself." And this one says you should, you know, and everyone has their own perspective, but they're just one of a thousand different perspectives and and none of them are specifically true for you. So for you it's you got to put in the work, you got to work hard, you got to find the things that you know uh that that excite you on a general level broadly, even if they're not perfect. And and hopefully I you know I I wish everyone that they should find opportunity that they're that they're excited about and can have a lot of growth from on a personal and economic level.
Serhiy Awesome. Thank you, Sam. That was gorgeous.
Sam Thank you. Thank you so much, Sergey. It's good speaking. I hope I hope our next conversation won't be in two years.