Alan Chang On Building a Strip Club Empire, Going Public & Taking Over Las Vegas | DSH #211

You raised 9 million in five days?

Yeah.

So you must have really good like numbers.

Yeah, I do.

Yeah.

So that's that's why I was able to do it, right?

Because how much can these strippers actually make?

Like wow, a good one can make five to ten thousand a week.

What?

Oh, yeah.

Holy

easy.

You're making half a million a year?

Yeah, easy.

Holy that's crazy.

Yeah.

Welcome back to the show, guys.

Digital Social Hour.

Thanks for tuning in.

I'm your host, Sean Kelly.

Got with me an interesting guest for you guys today alan shang how you doing buddy good man so you're the first one on coming from the strip light strip club life yeah can't wait to hear more about it yeah well i started my career in vegas in 2004 and i'm the owner of peppermint hippo in uh las vegas right now so we have 10 10 clubs throughout the the nation wow so i started in 2018 and built it up from there to now Las Vegas is my flagship.

So you have 10 clubs in five years?

Yeah.

That's crazy.

So that's two a year almost.

Yeah, it started slow.

So it was like one a year.

And then all of a sudden it just ballooned.

Like once we got, you know, Vegas.

And then I closed three more clubs after that.

Wow.

You know, two are in construction right now.

So it's not fully up and running.

But

don't you need a lot of capital to start each one, though?

I do.

So originally, I was, you know, when I left the Rhino back in 2015, I was trying to...

open up a club in Vegas and I couldn't get it done because it's just too much money, you know?

So I was like, all right, I give up.

And I had to go to uh toledo ohio which is not exactly the place i wanted to be at yeah you know i was looking in cali i was looking in in in texas florida place i wanted to live right finally i gave up i was like all right i'm gonna go to this this place in toledo ohio and uh i ended up going there

and with me and three other guys and we put 100k in each

yeah each yeah i still had to finance 200 from the owner wow and within a year i was able to get the it was starting to be profitable and then i went from there and opened up another club and just kept going.

But when I did capital raises,

the last one I did was over 9 million.

I did that in five days.

You raised 9 million in five days?

Yeah.

So you must have really good numbers.

Yeah, I do.

Yeah.

So that's why I was able to do it, right?

Because

my dividends I was paying out, I was paying out on my very first couple of clubs.

There usually takes about a year, year and a half to start.

doing dividends but once it starts it really kicks in so they're paying out some on my two earlier earlier clubs are paying out over 100%

ROI.

A year?

A year.

Bro.

Yeah.

That's like a lifetime investment for most people.

And then my, my, my third and fourth club are paying about 40% right now.

Holy crap.

Yeah, that's still really good.

Yeah.

And it's going to go higher because it's like, it takes a couple of years to get it going.

Right.

So when I looked at, so when I looked at deals, I always looked at it as like, hey, can I do 100% ROI on a club?

Meaning like, hey, can I get these guys when they invest in, can they make 100% a year?

If their answer is yes, and I say I don't hit the mark and we're doing 40, no one cares.

Yeah.

So that was always my benchmark for it.

Wow.

That's crazy.

Even 40.

I mean, we're in a recession right now.

So to get 40 in any market is crazy.

Yeah, it's insane.

So that's, so, but, you know, I don't take over clubs that are like crushing it, right?

I go after clubs that are either non-existing or or.

or doing horrible.

And then I turn it around.

Got it.

So you're kind of like a fix and flipper of the club scene.

Correct.

Yeah.

Interesting.

So why do you think certain clubs struggle and others just?

Well, I think it's

on the smaller market scales because I come from a big market.

So I understand like, hey, you know, I came from Vegas.

Right.

So that market is just like a different level.

So like the biggest in the country?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Maybe Club 11 now is probably the biggest, biggest, but they're like a big hybrid, right?

Yeah.

So, um, but yeah, when I did that, it was, we we built it up and the other clubs are having struggles because they don't change with the times.

You got to change with the times.

Otherwise, you're going to be stuck.

Right.

And you say the times.

Are you talking about like this movement?

So

it did take a hit on us, you know, especially when the pandemic hit, right?

Yeah.

Everyone shut down, including us.

So the thing is with

took a lot of the girls away.

But now at this point is we don't have a problem really getting, getting entertainers.

And I think in the beginning we did, but now it's like it got flooded.

Right.

So it's like anything else, any other space, right?

When you get flooded,

you're not going to make as much money.

Yeah, it got saturated.

Every girl started doing it.

Yeah, every girl in the wage world is doing it.

And if you don't have a big social media following, you don't really make a lot of money.

And you literally got to do

to make money there.

Yeah.

So how much can these strippers actually make?

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Wow.

A good one can make $5,000 to $10,000 a week.

What?

Oh, yeah.

Holy crap.

They're making half a million a year?

Yeah, easy.

Holy crap.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

If they do it right, you know what I mean?

Like, if they do it right and they're, they're straightforward and they're good, they could crush it.

So what's the difference between a high-end stripper making 5, 10K a week versus a base one making 200 a week or whatever?

No, they're probably still.

Listen, the thing is with dancers is like they don't always come to work five days a week, right?

But if they did, they would guarantee to make at least 60, 70 grand a year.

Wow.

I mean, if they just came to show to work.

Yeah.

And that's without tips or whip tips?

That's with tips.

Okay.

Easy.

And then, I mean, that's on a very low end.

Your average girl will be making well over 100.

I didn't know they were making money like that.

That's crazy.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Because the average person in America makes 50K a year.

So they're making more than them.

Oh, way more.

Well, you got to think, you know, they're doing like charging like 200 to 400 for a half hour.

Right.

I mean, that's pure profit.

Yeah.

The margins are.

Well, they have to kick back to the club, though, right?

They do pay a house fee.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

How does that work?

It depends on the timing they come in.

Like, so sometimes like what we do is we charge a flat rate for the whole day.

And then we give discounts of, hey, if you come in before, say, five or six or seven o'clock p.m., it's free.

Oh, okay.

And then it goes up 40, 50, or whatever it does.

Interesting.

What are the peak hours?

It's different everywhere, but in Vegas, it's usually 11 o'clock to

5 a.m.

in the morning.

That late?

Oh, yeah, because everyone's coming from the clubs all drunk.

Oh, yeah, because the clubs close at two, right?

Well, the clubs keep it open, yeah, but a lot of people are leaving here at two.

Yeah.

And they're coming to the clubs afterwards wow so you're up late oh yeah and what what was that like transitioning into like a night owl basically well when i started this industry i was 29 so when i did it i i loved it in the beginning right yeah but now i work day daytime i'm all office okay but in in the whole meantime before that i was uh i loved it i mean i was in night nighttime club atmosphere i was in vegas yeah you know i grew up in pennsylvania so it was a world of world of different yeah that's way different Yeah, it's awesome.

You grew up on a farm?

No, not on a farm, but it's, you know, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is an Amish country.

Right.

It's around Amish people.

Yeah.

Yeah, we had a farm, but yeah, I didn't get them on the farm.

That's where I got my dogs from.

Amish people.

They're good at that, man.

Oh, yeah, they're great.

Yeah.

That's a big change for you.

And the networking is also really good, right?

Yeah, it's some of the best.

I mean, you will meet millionaires and billionaires in there that you have no chance of ever meeting unless you're in

a big networking space, right?

And this goes for entertainers, too.

They have the ability to meet high-level people that they would never meet on a regular setting.

Who are some people or celebrities or famous people you meet?

Like, well, Mark Cuban.

He came?

Oh, yeah.

He's, yeah.

Isn't he married?

Well, this was years and years ago.

Yeah.

I maybe was wild dog in the day.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, you know, Tyson comes in still.

Oh, Mike Tyson?

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's single, right?

So.

Yeah, Floyd, all those guys.

Floyd owns one, right?

He owns one, yeah, but he still comes into other clubs.

Not as much anymore, but he definitely does, yeah.

Nice.

Did he approach you to partner on one?

No.

I feel like you would have done really well with him.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, his club is just in, it's an old Sherry's club.

That was the very first club I ever opened, I've ever worked at as a host.

Oh, okay.

So that was the.

Oh, it's you used to work for him?

No, not for him.

He didn't own it back then.

Oh, got it.

So he bought it?

Yeah, he bought it later.

Was it struggling?

I think it was closed.

Oh, he bought it.

Yeah.

So I think he turned into like more of a hip-hop club.

Yeah.

So what were some of the struggles you had along the way?

I know payment processing was an issue, right?

Yeah, payment processing, we're considered like a high-risk business.

Yeah.

So

we get hit with a higher rate of

payment.

So like, you know, usually credit cards are like 2.7%.

Yeah.

We're getting hit at 4% or 5%.

And that's because people get drunk and then dispute the charge, right?

Yeah.

I mean, the win, it's just, it's just a reason for them to add on that extra percentage.

Because our win-loss rate is like 90-something percent.

90-year-olds.

Oh, it's you win most.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

Because you have evidence of them obviously walking in on the cameras.

Listen, we have cameras everywhere.

Yeah, you probably have evidence of them signing the check too.

Everything.

Yeah, everything.

So our win losses rate is great.

So that's not a real big issue anymore.

It's just that the credit card still charges as a high-risk business.

Yeah, that makes sense.

They do that with too, I think.

Yeah, us

banking is actually the hardest part.

Oh, really?

Yeah, because we can't get loans.

So even in the real estate, it's very hard to get loans.

In real estate?

Yeah.

Oh, just to buy the actual place?

Yeah, anything to do, like the banking won't provide us with any funding at all because we're considered, even though we're a legal business, we're considered a illicit business.

Wow.

That sucks.

Yeah.

I was able to get loans easy.

Yeah, we can't do it.

Even if we show $25 million in revenue.

Yeah.

It's so hard to get a loan.

We can't do that.

That's so wild.

Even personal loans?

Personal loans are a little bit there.

It's easier, right?

Because I show an income like, hey, this is my job.

Yeah.

But business loans, no.

Wow.

So you could literally have 20 million in revenue and they won't care.

No, they won't.

And we do.

We have 25 million in revenue last year.

No, last year we did 20.

We're going to do about 25 this year.

Holy

that's insane.

So it's scaling up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what's the end goal?

I want to get to 100 clubs and do

probably go public or private.

Wow.

You think you can manage that many?

Well, it's getting harder now.

So I got to build up a whole team for that, right?

So I'll need.

a bunch of uh you know GMs,

GMs, you know what I mean?

Probably 25 regionals, you know, a couple VPs, couple presidents.

Is there anyone that has taken something like this public or would you be the first?

No, RCI did.

RCI.

How many did they have?

I think that when they went public, they're pretty small.

They're like six or four or four or six.

Yeah.

So you're already ahead of them.

Yeah.

But they're big now.

Oh, they're big now.

Yeah, they have like, I think close to 60 clubs.

So they must be making like 100 mil a year almost.

At least.

That's crazy.

Yeah, they have to be doing it.

Yeah, 100%.

Holy crap.

These clubs are bringing in, you have 10 and you said you did 20 mil, so about 2 mil on average a year.

Yeah, but but it's going to change drastically now with Vegas, right?

Because when I was working at Rhino, and I know from like my other sources here, you know, we're doing like 60, 70 million a year.

What?

From one club.

Rhino does 60 mil a year?

Yeah.

I think at one point is going,

are you serious?

Dude.

One club.

That's mind-blowing.

Yeah, I think 11 is probably even higher than that right now in Miami.

Yeah, this is a whole new world to me.

I've never been to a strip club.

Well, you got to come by.

Bring your whole crew.

Thank you for watching.

Where you guys go.

I didn't know they were caking like that.

Oh, yeah.

They crush it.

So you're going to be, wow.

Where's the one you're opening here at?

So we had our one year was in April.

We did.

So we opened last year.

It's April.

And then

our second year.

Yeah.

Where's it at?

It's on Las Vegas Boulevard.

It's the old OG building, which is the Olympic Garden building.

Yeah.

So if you go past Stratosphere, it's right on the right there.

Wow.

Have you had any like weird, crazy incidents?

Because people are drunk and doing dumb things.

Oh, yeah, always.

Not as much anymore because we're, you know, now that we're like, you know, we are, we're corporate at this point, right?

But back in the day, you know, when before the clubs all went corporate, it was, you know, wild times back then.

Yeah.

You know, Frank Muir used to work with us.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

He was a head of security.

No joke, right?

Yeah, no joke.

Phil Baroni, he was he was working with, I think he's in prison right now, but yeah,

he used to work with us too.

So a lot of the UFC fighters worked in their club.

Wow, that's dope.

Do you have to have like crazy security every night?

Well, we do.

So we probably have,

you know, our hosts are counted as security too, right?

And the managers are all guys.

So we probably have 20, 25 guys on staff all

at nighttime.

Have you ever had to kick someone out?

Yeah.

Like not me personally because I don't do it, but any or anymore.

But yeah, we'd have to walk customers out.

You know, we used to hand, like, this is back in the day, so not anymore.

But we used to handcuff, like, guys wouldn't sign their tabs.

We'd be like, hey, listen, you know, this is theft of service, and they wouldn't sign their tab.

Yeah.

So you would handcuff them?

No, we'd handcuff them to the dumpsters in the back.

No way.

Oh, yeah.

So we'd be like, hey, listen.

And we'd tell them, be like, hey, listen, man.

We're going to call police metro.

It's a non-emergency.

They're going to take three hours to get here.

Yeah.

At least.

So.

you know you could either sign the tab and you know they can dispute or whatever they want but you know sometimes they're just drunk they just just want to be they just want to fight so they're like you know f you blah blah i'm like okay we handcuffed them to the dump we literally handcuffed them to the dumpsters holy so they'd be standing about and dude and it's stonk back there right there's handcuffed to the dumpster they can't sit there's sin standing there and then we'd walk back about and we'd leave them yeah so we'd walk back about an hour or so hey you ready sign the tab give me the tab

like that you know i mean because the metro's not coming there he'll be there three four hours wow

I didn't know there was like a separate line for non-emergencies like that.

Yeah.

And this is Vegas, right?

So like it's, you're going to wait forever.

Yeah.

Wow.

How much marketing goes into these or do they kind of market themselves?

No, we do, we do spend a lot of money on marketing.

We're probably in just Vegas alone, probably doing about half a million a year just in our marketing spending.

Like billboards, commercials.

Billboards, promos, our social media.

And social media is huge now, right?

So, you know, we get our girls to post, we get our waitresses to post, and that's how we kind of run it.

And it's always like an event, you know, that we try to do.

Yeah.

It's cool that you're adapting with the change because some owners are old school and they don't care about social media.

Majority of them are old school.

Yeah.

But you realize the importance of it.

I mean, I see it changing the restaurant space right now.

These food influencers are getting tens of millions of views and there's lines out the door at certain restaurants.

Yeah, you have to.

You have to adapt.

Otherwise, you're going to get run over.

Yeah.

You know, and hopefully we're going to be the ones running people.

That's the plan.

So you're doing Vegas and then what are you doing next?

What cities?

Looking at Dallas, possibly Minneapolis.

So now a lot of my places were small areas, right?

In the beginning.

I have a club in Reno, but Little Rock, Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, stuff like that.

But now I'm trying to go into like more larger scale markets.

Yeah.

Because it's just because you've got the capital now.

Yeah, it's different now.

And when you raised that $9 million, was that just from private investors, friends?

Yeah.

It was all friends, friends of family, a couple of private guys, and that's it.

I knew all of them.

Yeah.

Or friends of friends.

That's it.

Because a lot of people struggle to even raise six figures, but you were able to pull pull off almost eight figures.

Listen, when I was doing my first club, I couldn't raise anything.

So it was like, so I had a couple of guys that was like, hey, listen, we'll go in Vegas, but we're so undercapitalized.

I knew it was going to work.

And then when I went to my

first club, it was me and three friends.

So we each put $100K in.

That's it.

So we're like, hey, let's give this a shot.

You know, two of them were like, hey, we're not moving to Ohio.

So you have fun.

I was like, all right, I'll take it.

What was that like living in Toledo for a few years?

I only lived there one year.

It was not fun.

I remember calling my friends and I'd be like, oh, my God, dude, I can't believe I'm here.

Cause, you know, I came from Vegas.

I came from the number one club in the United States

to Toledo, Ohio.

And I was like, every single day, I'd be like, man, I feel like hanging myself, man.

This is horrible.

You deserve some extra commission on that one or something.

It was crazy.

Yeah.

It was good.

It was good times, though.

Do you still work with those same three guys you went in with on the first one?

They're investors with me now.

And one, when it broke off on his own, did his own club, but the other two are still, they're with me right now.

Nice.

So was it like a bad split up or was it all?

No, it was cool.

It was like, hey, we built it up to a certain level.

I bought him out.

Okay.

You know what I mean?

I bought his share out.

He took that money and he opened up his own club.

So he has one club right now that he's building his own thing.

He's like, you know, I talk to him all the time.

He's like, hey, man, I never want to get as big as you because I don't want to deal with the headaches.

So if I get a couple clubs, I'm good.

I feel that.

Yeah.

Certain people have a limit where if they make like 500K a a mill a year, they're good, you know?

Yeah.

And listen, there's something to be said about, you know, because I was making a lot of money

at four or five clubs.

And then when I expanded, it's like, yes, my gross is a lot higher, but because you have all that overhead now, it just, it compounds, right?

And the headache just compounds.

Yeah, that's the problem when you scale too quickly sometimes, right?

The numbers are all over the place.

And at the end of the day, when you look at them, you're like, wait, I didn't make as much as I thought.

Yeah, you're like, oh, I made more.

Only two clubs.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It happens.

So I guess what else do you do outside of the strip club stuff?

You got any other businesses or hobbies?

No, man.

It's just

a strip club.

I mean, I travel once in a while and stuff like that and have fun.

I used to have a lot more fun before I started doing this, like, you know, getting to a larger scale.

Yeah.

But now it's just all strip club.

You know, I have a

lot of animals.

I have pets and stuff like that.

But besides...

What that's you got?

I got

the one that everyone's interested in is always an African servile.

What the hell is that?

It's like a

mini cheetah.

cheetah mini cheetah you can have that yeah in vegas serious you can have anything in vegas i gotta see a photo you got one yeah dude i love cheetahs so it's like it's uh about 45 pounds so it's like a a dog that runs really fast basically yeah i think it's a it's the second one of the second second or third fastest land mount

yeah it's like in a quick sprint you know what i mean yeah yeah what do you feed it uh raw chicken eggs raw chicken eggs interesting it eats the whole egg or does it take it the shell off no it eats everything the bone everything wow yeah it's it's probably like it's like literally this big and probably this high yeah i'd love to see a photo i'm into like exotic animals i used to want a flying squirrel oh dude i like i want to get a tiger and stuff like that later on but it will we'll see when uh i used to want a panda but they're so expensive the pandas yeah they eat bamboo like non-stop can you even buy them not legally no

but if i ever moved to like some country one day yeah i mean vegas you could do a lot with so here

yo that's sick it kind of looks like a cat it dude it's it acts exactly like a house cat, man.

Dude, how much was it?

It was like 5K.

Bro, are they friendly?

Like, can you pet it and stuff?

It's friendly to me.

But not to others?

Yeah.

Like, you know, it'll sleep like, it literally sleeps between my legs.

Wow.

But it's kind of defensive of you, probably.

Yeah, a little bit.

Just imagine a big house cat.

Yeah.

That's exactly what they act like.

Wow.

You know what I mean?

But he knows his name, something, so you call him and he'll just run over to you.

Dude, that's sick.

I used to love cats.

My girl's allergic, so she might be allergic to that.

It's different.

They're

Yeah.

Their hair is definitely different.

Wow.

So do you like where you're at?

Because you seem to just be working non-stop.

Yeah, I do.

Like I said, it will get easier because I'm getting ready to hire a COO.

I'm getting ready to hire, you know, I'll need a CFO soon.

So hopefully they'll take some workload off me.

Yeah.

And then I could do a little bit of traveling.

But I know myself because what happens is, is once I get, once it starts getting a little bit boring, meaning that, hey, everything's going good, right?

So you get a little bored,

I always put myself right back in the heat.

So I'm like, all right, because once everything going great, all right, what other clubs can we buy?

So you don't like being content.

You like being kind of uncomfortable.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's the only way to grow.

You have to be a little bit uncomfortable to grow.

I agree, man.

And most people think the opposite.

Yeah.

Listen, you know, I don't even know if I'll ever fully retire because I think if you, when you fully retire, you're going to die.

Right.

So I think like, you know, hey, listen, once I get to a really comfortable state in finance and everything,

I will probably still do business.

I'll just take a lesser role of it.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

They've done studies on that.

Like people that retire, their brain just starts degrading immediately.

Yeah, I see that all the time.

You know what I mean?

Like my parents are retired.

You know, again, they're my parents, I love them to death.

Yeah.

But yeah.

Yeah, it's sad to see, honestly.

I saw it with my pops when he retired.

Yeah, it goes fast, too.

Yeah.

Within a couple of years.

Dude.

Yeah.

One year, his hair turned all gray like within a year.

Yeah, because they don't have anything to do.

Yeah.

So they're sitting there.

There's nothing.

They're just sitting there.

Yeah, it's terrible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't believe in retirement.

I believe in just doing something at least.

Yeah.

Well, you're still young, so you got a a long time to go.

Well, no, I mean, I've had friends my age that want to retire.

Really?

Because they make millions and they get bored, but it's like, what are you going to do for 50 years?

Yeah, what are you going to do?

Just travel?

I mean, traveling's fun, but you can only do it so much.

Listen, I've traveled for weeks at a time, but by two weeks, I mean, that's the most, I'm ready to come home.

Oh, yeah.

So, like, what are you going to do?

Travel like non-stop?

Yeah.

And then you have to have someone to travel with, right?

So you have to lose your girl or your wife or hopefully the best case is like a bunch of friends, too.

Yeah.

That would be the case, but who knows if that's going to really happen, right?

Yeah.

Traveling's interesting because I find myself wanting to work near the end.

Yeah.

Same here.

I get bored.

Yeah.

I get bored.

No matter what happens, I get bored.

And like most people are like traveling and they love it, but near the end, I'm like, nah, I just want to work again.

Yeah.

I love working.

How did your parents view this?

Because this was probably a foreign industry to them, right?

Oh, yeah.

They thought I was,

they thought I was doing something stupid.

For sure.

Your parents are Asian, obviously.

This is like totally different culture-wise.

Yeah, yeah.

So I was adopted too, but I do know my real mom and she's really close with me.

She lives in Vegas now.

Nice.

And yeah, she was like, always like, even when I started this, she was like, go back to college, you know,

you could be an accountant.

I was like, mom, I'm never going to do that again.

Yeah.

Literally, you know, Asian parents, accountant, attorney, whatever, doctor.

Yeah.

They're like, hey, can you do this?

I'm like, mom, I'm never doing that.

I'm never going to do this stuff again.

But yeah, they thought I was just doing it as a phase to have fun.

And I was in the beginning.

Listen, I worked in construction and I was in construction sales and marketing.

And when I went into the strip club, it was just literally just, hey, I just got to Vegas.

I want to do some fun.

I wasn't like cooped up in an office.

Yeah.

And

I did it.

And I just found a career in it.

And it was great.

Yeah.

So what was that turning point where they started to kind of believe in you more?

Was it at first or did it take a while?

No, it took a while.

Yeah.

Cause like, you know, no one knows the money we make.

Right.

Because like, you know, even like I said, when I was a host, people would be like, you know, you guys could make minimum wage, blah, blah, blah.

You know, at that time, you know, this is 15 years ago, we're making $120, $130,000.

Hosts are making that much?

Yeah.

Just for like coordinating girls to tables and stuff?

Yeah.

Wow.

I didn't know that was a six-figure job.

Yeah, it is.

Still is.

Even at clubs, too?

No, nightclubs are a little bit different.

Okay.

So the high, the high-level guys make a lot.

Right.

But, you know, all those junior hosts and those mid-level hosts.

You see so many of them in Vegas.

Yeah,

I mean, they work in the death.

They're probably working, I would say, 60 to 80 hours a week.

And they probably make about 50.

So what's the differential in the strip club?

Why do those make more?

Because

we're more tip-oriented with the entertainers and the customer base.

You know what I mean?

And we deal with more with the club, and there's less of us.

You know what I mean?

If you go to like excess, how many junior hosts are you have?

How many promoters do you have?

So many.

Yeah.

They run through them like.

Yeah, because they work them.

They work them.

Yeah.

So it's just like it's a different field.

And one of our biggest things is like we have a hard time with management, man.

And we're looking for more people all the time.

And I would love to find young or even a little bit older people that was willing to work and understand this because even in the restaurant field, right?

Our managers make way more than most restaurant managers.

In Vegas?

Anywhere in the country.

So we're trying to get more qualified people to come work with us and to work for us and to build because they have, because of our expansion rate, we could, you know, if they want to be a GM run a club, they can.

They just have to go through the process.

Wow.

They don't have GMs.

Yeah.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

So there's no cap.

So they don't have cap, right?

Like normally if you go into a place, you're like, if you're a worker, you're like, well, I'm probably never going to make a management or I'll never make it to running the club or whatever.

Right.

But here we don't have cap.

So you want people to just be there for years and to work their way up?

100%.

Promote that.

Listen, I'm looking for other people like me, how I was.

Like I started as a host.

No, I ended up owning my own clubs.

and i would love to find more people like that you know what i mean because it's like they are inventive and they could they could really do better for themselves yeah that's cool so what's the hierarchy system you start off as a host what's the next level host and then management would be management and then gm then gm and then regional oh regional yeah then probably vp president oh so you climbed all that well i went from like so there's other positions in there so i went from host to director of business development then i worked for someone else at rick's chicago for a little bit and i was the gm there and then owner.

So then I built it up from that.

So you had a lot of mentorship on the way up.

Yeah, I did.

And that probably helped you know how to run your own club.

It 100% helped me.

Yeah.

Like, you know, listen, my time at Rhino was invaluable.

Like, I learned from the best because they were the number one in the industry.

And it really helped me out.

And it helped me form a structure of how a club should be ran.

Now, did I use all of it?

No.

But I did learn a lot from there.

Yeah, that's cool because some people just jump in without any mentorship They get crushed.

That's hard.

Yeah, that's really hard.

You can get crushed.

And we see it all the time because what happens is sometimes you have like wealthy guys.

They're like, hey, they want to own a strip club.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, the only reason why they want to own a strip club is you know why, though, right?

And it's so like they do that.

They don't realize, hey, it's actually work.

And you could dump millions of dollars into a club and fail.

So after a little bit, they're like, oh, this is horrible.

It'll sell.

Yeah.

No, I literally knew guys that wanted to do that.

And I just didn't think it was a good idea.

No, they should at least partner up with someone that knows what they're doing yeah i mean otherwise you're just like it's being like me hey i want to open up a podcast i have no idea what i'm doing i'm just gonna throw a million dollars into it yeah it's not gonna do well so so do you have like an affiliate program with the clubs for them to send you people we do like with the hosts and stuff we do that's smart yeah everyone does but we do too you know so we we set it up with like independent hosts um you know club hosts you know even bartenders cocktail waitresses you know vip services yeah send us business.

Because that could be very lucrative for people that are in nightlife.

100%.

Listen, like the regular host out there or the junior host that's only making $50,000 a year, you know, they send one group to us.

The guy spends, you know, 10K.

You know, they make $2,000 right off the rip.

Wow.

20%?

That's pretty good.

Yeah.

I might have to start sending people your money

anytime.

Dude, I know people hitting me up to go all the time.

I'm literally just going to send them to you.

Yeah.

Set it up, man.

Pay less.

Well, what's next for you, man uh you know what i don't i'm just gonna keep building clubs and then you know probably do uh private funding and then put it all together and you're gonna raise more yeah i'm gonna raise more how much more uh the next raise i'm doing is uh it's actually a private fund probably gonna do about uh 40 million

that's a lot of money man it is yeah so like you know it's kind of crazy is like the the higher level i get the more people i meet yeah at the next level right right and that's what we're trying to do and is that for equity or is that like a loan type structure um Loan and equity.

Okay.

It's going to be partial, you know.

Nice.

Like part for real estate, part for the equity piece.

Yeah.

And then someone's a note, obviously.

So are you trying to retain as much ownership as possible?

Because I know by the end your goal is to go public.

I think the average CEO owns 7% or something.

Yeah, I'm trying to retain as much as possible, but obviously the more I raise, it gets diluted.

Yeah.

You know, because of the structure of my company right now and because of liquor license laws, It's, you know, the investors are invested into a holding company.

The holding company

funds the clubs.

You know what I mean?

So I actually actually own all the clubs.

But because of the liquid license laws, I have to do it that way.

Oh, interesting.

Because each state is different, right?

Each state is different.

Yeah.

So like you can't serve it past certain times.

Yeah, most states is like two o'clock.

What is it in Vegas?

24 or 24 hours.

Oh, it's 24.

Okay.

But every other state's like two, right?

Yeah.

I remember Jersey was super early when I lived.

130?

Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah, 1.30.

Everyone has to be out by 2, probably.

Yeah.

And I think, isn't Utah really early?

Oh, I don't even know.

Yeah, because they're Mormon.

Yeah.

Well, you know, my one club's in Arkansas.

We have a 5 a.m.

license there.

So we have a special license.

But the county above us is a dry county.

Wow.

It actually benefits us.

Yes,

they all come down.

Yeah.

That's sick.

Well, dude, that was a blast.

Where can people find out more about you?

Hey, man.

Just go check out our website.

It's Pepper Hippo,

Las Vegas.

And our Instagram handle is, you know, PHLB.

Love it, man.

If you guys are looking for a good night, hit them up.

Yep.

Anytime.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks for watching.

Peace.

Yep.

Bye.