Finding His Wife Using AI | Dan Novaes Digital Social Hour #72

So, you spent over a hundred thousand dollars on health hacks.

What did you learn throughout that journey?

I had never gone through a serious health problem.

Like, my whole life, I was totally fine, never had any issues.

Dude, one day I got like so sick.

I went to a doctor, doctor doesn't know what I have.

Then I go to a different doctor, doctor doesn't know what to have.

And eventually, I go to this doctor.

I forget this guy's title, his diseases of unknown origin.

At some point, I got up to like 63 pills.

And so, I was at 100 million, right?

Which was where we met.

And Gary was at the Miami one, and he's like, Hey, you should check out this thing called BP157.

It's a you know, specific peptide.

And he just gave me that little tidbit of information, right?

But then I really dove into peptides and have access to the best doctors in the world.

And my doctor in January, I tell him, like, hey, I'm taking these digestive enzymes.

I started taking these peptides.

Here's why I take them.

And he's like, well, Dan, I've never heard about any of these things that you're doing.

But if it's working for you, you should definitely keep doing it.

Welcome back to the Digital Social Hour.

I'm your host, Sean Kelly.

I'm with my co-host, Wayne Lewis.

What up, what up?

And our guest today, Dan Novaeus.

How's it going?

What's up, guys?

Thanks for having me.

Dan, absolutely.

Yeah.

It's in the building.

Nice to meet you guys.

We met at a mastermind.

We did.

Three, four years ago.

Yeah.

We bonded over getting SimHacked together.

Bonded.

Yeah, over SimHacked.

Yeah, I mean,

yeah, i mean once you get sim hacked you he does create a special bond you know for other sim hacked people trauma bond his work he lost money wow and then yeah and then it's happened twice

it happened twice back in the day and then so now it's like you you protect your phone number and yeah uh but yeah we did lose did learned a lot in the first lesson you know around it uh it was actually a crazy story because at the time uh you know we knew that that was potentially going to happen right um so we were we were cautious about it but these guys are so clever um and it was kind kind of before there was a guy that got hit simhack for like 25 million at the time.

But they went through this like flow through Gemini.

And it was a very specific flow that you didn't need to go through a two-factor.

And so, you know, the guys were able to liquidate the account.

And it was like, you know, it was like 40K or something like that.

And

I was like, it's impossible that they were able to go through this two-factor because it wasn't tied to a phone number, you know.

But they did SimHack me to get into the account in the first place.

And so then basically I get a call from the CTO of Gemini at the time.

And they're like, hey, this only happened to six people on the entire platform.

Please don't talk to anyone about it or whatever.

And this is like six years ago.

Please don't talk to anyone about it.

Yeah, yeah.

But they covered it.

So they did a solid.

So, you know, they just paid you guys off.

They did it because it was like a flow in their system.

And, you know, it's still like the SimHack sucked, obviously, dealing with that.

And like, you know, we've taken a lot of other precautions now on that.

But,

you know, they did cover it because it was such a unique flow and it was like not our issue wasn't your phone Yeah making the announcement like that you can you can kill a whole company they're public right

yeah I mean yeah again this happened like five or six years ago they hadn't even yeah it's just starting so talk to me about mode that's your phone company right yeah

so yeah background is you know we created this software

that

you know we start out as an app and we basically take everything someone does on a given day and reward them for it.

And we have this whole thesis that, you know, people spend 40 hours a week on their phone.

It's pretty big, too.

It looks like an iPhone almost.

Yeah, it's a six and a half inch screen, 128 gig.

And we built this software that basically rewards you for everything you do.

Thus far, we've been able to help consumers save and earn about $150 million.

And

the underlying thesis is that your attention is, I mean, if you're spending an entire work week on this device, you can create a lot of value.

Today, there's about a billion iPhones in the world.

There's 7 billion smartphones in the world.

So there's 6 billion people using Android, most of which tend to be more budget-conscious.

And so basically, we call it earn phone.

I see it as kind of like, you know, the evolution of what happened from TV to smart TV, right?

And so we see like the evolution from smartphone to a new category called earn phone.

It's not for every person, right?

Not every person to do that, but

we can create a lot of value back to these people and they get rewards and earn from everything that they do.

So how do they gain rewards?

And is the money, are they actually getting real money?

Or is it paid in crypto?

No, it's paid in real money.

So it's like a real, you know, revenue generating business.

You know, we started out as an app.

We have over 2.9 million reviews in the Play Store.

Over 40 million people

around the world have downloaded this product.

40 million people?

Yeah, over 40 million.

US is our most

revenue.

We have a lot of people interested in international.

Ironically, I just got a ping from my team three hours ago.

And last night someone tweeted at like 9 p.m.

from Argentina.

I was like, hey, I just got paid to play music.

And the tweet caught and it's at like 3 million retweets or something.

So we just had the surge of Argentinians.

Like there's like 60,000 people in the last 12 hours that downloaded the product.

And so it just kind of shows like there's a, and you think about what's happening in Argentina right now with inflation.

I mean, and the thing is, like, we provide the services that people are going to do anyway.

So we give them free music,

free streaming.

We work with a lot of the biggest game companies.

So like, you know, a candy crush or whatever.

And what we do to align incentive in the model is, you know these companies whether it's a financial service company whether it's a game they want to create alignment with the user they want to create habits so instead of us paying the user just to download an app we reward the user per minute they play that game and so that basically creates great retention and then you could give uh higher rewards when they do an in-app purchase or something for like a bank account like we were one of the biggest affiliates last year for a lot of crypto exchanges um ironically voyager was one of my largest customers and uh so we're dealing with that um that wholesuit but we're gonna get some money back

But, you know, and but you know, we work with a lot of the neobanks and the way that we'll align value with the customer is like, hey, you have an account at Chase or whatever, but if you open an account at, you know, Stash or QIIME or whatever,

you know, they're maybe willing to pay $200 if you deposit $50 in that account.

And so then we'll share that revenue back with the user.

And so basically it's about creating alignment on every facet of your life.

Wow.

So what is the cost per minute that they're playing?

Like, what are you guys playing in per minute that they play?

It varies on the game.

I I mean, every game has a different rate, so we pay a different rate, but that also, it's like the higher you pay, the more users you're going to get as an advertiser.

That's crazy.

And then the lower it is, and then the users just choose.

The thing is, like, there's so many opportunities for the user, but you know, if you think about your time and attention, your attention is the most important thing you have.

I mean, there's 164 hours a week, average lifetime is like 32,000 days.

If you do the math of the amount of time that you spend on your phone at 40 hours a week, the average person today, especially like the even, it's getting worse on the younger generation, it's 16 years of waking hours.

So, if you never slept for 16 hours, that's how much time you're spending in front of that phone.

And it's only going up, right?

So, fundamentally,

you know, like kind of the business model that we're going after is like, wow, we made this phone, and this phone is, you know, at Best Buy and Walmart.

I'm not really in the business to be a hardware business.

We're a software company, and we just created what we call ErnOS on top of this.

And now, what we're doing is we're licensing this tech similar to what Roku does.

So, if you think about the Roku business model that's created, you know, a multi-you know, 10 possibility company is they'll work with like a TCL or a CA, like a tv manufacturer to license the roku tech to the the tv maker and where that money is being made and why you see companies that had tvs that were a thousand dollars now they're 99 now there's a new company from the co-founder of pluto that just got like a hundred thousand times for a free tv it's because all the money on those tvs these 50 inch tvs is made from the advertising and the data analytics, right?

So what we're doing is essentially allowing other phone companies and carriers to launch their own urn phones.

So it's like, think about Samsung urn phone, Blue urn phone and so that's kind of like what i see is a new category in the space and i think it's a trillion dollar market because it's much broader broader

and you can cross over into people watching shows for like earn to watch tv just we do that already yeah we reward them watch video rewarding to charge their phone unlock their phone bro that's crazy are you serious so yeah so if i plug this in i mean you can't see it here but yeah if you plug this in it'll literally reward you to charge the device so basically we take every habit that people have and so what's interesting is like right now it's mostly android but i don't don't know if you guys have seen like what's happening with Apple.

So the EU,

which sometimes like, you know, as a, as a capitalist, you're like, you know, I don't necessarily like the things that the EU does because you're like, hey, it hurts business.

But in this case, you know, it's like very helpful where they were like, hey, Apple, you have this like.

umbrella that you're creating and like you it's not a fair market so now they're having to open up the uh iphone or the the ios

and uh starting next year they have to unlock a lot of components of the iphone really and so then we should you know pending once that happens, we should be able to be able, we'll allow iPhone users to turn their iPhones into earn phones, basically.

So then it unlocks the entire market.

And obviously, you know, the iOS market is a much more broad, you know, you know, generally kind of like a

tier one market in that sense.

So we're really excited about it.

And because there's 7 billion phones versus 700 million households with TV, it's a 10x the market, you know, it's a $100 billion.

It's changing the dynamic and creating more addiction.

Makes sense because people are on their phones so long, right?

Why not?

They're going to be

on their phones even more now because there's more of an incentive.

Well, at least they're making money now instead of just scrolling.

Yeah, you're giving back.

I mean, at the end of the day, if you're facilitating thousands of dollars back in people's pockets, that creates, especially if you think about like, you know, the people that need it most generally are who we focus on now, but we're kind of moving upstream.

What we see is like we're kind of moving into now like more middle income households and beyond, especially in the economy that we're in today, right?

You know, where generally like, you know, people are struggling.

There's inflation.

There's all these things.

And, you know, we basically teach people how to earn and save and earn hacks.

And, you know, we have a lot of hacks and, you know, that we've been a part of.

I want to get into

health hacks now.

Yeah.

Health hacks.

So you spent over $100,000 on health hacks.

What did you learn throughout that journey?

Yeah.

So, I mean, so I mean, I'll give you background.

So, you know, and I think that's why we related when we first met, you know, just like you, you know, I've been doing entrepreneurial things ever since I was a teenager.

Right.

I was always a kid that was kind of like, you know,

hustling.

And, uh

you know had created a bunch of companies was very focused on that up until i was about you know 22 and um i had never gone through a serious health problem like my whole life i was totally fine never had any issues was just focused on like kind of like the next you know thing like entrepreneurial thing dude one day

I got like so sick to the point that I had to call my parents to come pick me up because I was living in Chicago at the time and

I couldn't even like take care of myself.

And so I went to a doctor, doctor doesn't know what I have, have, then I go to a different doctor, doctor doesn't know what I have, then I go to a different doctor.

And eventually I go to this doctor that's like, his, I'll never forget this guy's title.

His thesis is of diseases of unknown origin.

And I was like, whoa, that sucks.

Like, you know, I was like, that's not good.

So,

you know, he kind of looks at it.

And this is after like two weeks.

I've lost 30 pounds.

I have crazy headaches.

I can't sleep.

Like, even though I'm exhausted.

And the guy's like, listen, I think that you have meningitis.

The only way for us to text is we'd have to like check and do like a spinal tap, but it's not bacterial because you know you likely would have passed away

and so you know a couple couple days later fever breaks and

you know I it took me like two months to feel normal again, but six months later I started having all these like you know gut issues right like serious gut issues and And it was from all the antibiotics.

They were just giving me whatever because they didn't know what I had right

and basically I

that whole thing created this auto autoimmune issue where I got like ulcerative colitis, right?

And so, you know, I'm 22, 23 now.

And then it was the first time I'm like, man, first I have to take this medication.

And then I would stop taking medication.

And all like, you know, it would get worse each time.

Then I have to take more medication.

And so it turned into this thing.

And then it started impacting like my subconscious and like starting having vertigo symptoms.

And it was this mess.

This is like all at the same time.

It's like 22, 23.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Same year, all six months.

It was a really tough time.

Like, and, you know, and then you also realize I'm really thankful for it now because it created so much new perspective of my, you know, of how I was seeing the world.

But ultimately, what I realized is like, man, like

these, this is a thing that's happening.

I mean, it's only getting worse.

Like the next 10 years, it has gotten even worse, like, you know, now that I'm 34.

But what I basically was like, is like, I'm going to figure out a way to

at least revert or subside these systems.

And I'm not just going to listen to what these white coats are telling me I should do.

And there is a time and place for that.

And so I started just diving into so much random things, like, you know, and I was down for anything, whether it's stem cells and Panama, whether it was like fecal transplant, whether it's ice bass.

Like, I found out about Wim Hoff.

Like, I was in a small group of 12 people in Australia.

And it was kind of around the time that the device documentary came out and found out the whole Wim Hoff

method and learned from Wim there, right?

And it was a super, super early because I was always looking for the next thing.

And some of these things I've had really good,

you know,

opportunities with and essentially opened up new doors.

And so, you know, going to these masterminds and stuff like that.

So over time, I basically kind of found, okay, this works for me, this works for me, this works for me.

And then I had a really big breakthrough.

Typically it's through these masterminds, but we're actually, I think you've had Gary Brecka on the show, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And so I was at 100 million, right?

Which was where we met.

And Gary was at the Miami one and mentioned, and I told him what I, you know, kind of like this story.

And he's like, hey, you should check out this thing called BP157.

It's a, you know, specific peptide.

And he just gave me that little tidbit of information, right?

But then I really dove into peptides.

And I noticed, okay, so this BP157, a lot of people use it for like muscle tears, and you can inject it.

And

it's a research-grade peptide.

It's not something necessarily a doctor

has to prescribe to you.

And then I dove in deeper, and I found out this company.

That's called like peptide sciences and then this whole component I found these longevity experts and they're like hey um there's this gut inflammation uh

like peptide mix right it literally the box says this is for research purposes only do not take it wow

but i'm like

i really don't want to take these prendisone and steroids and all these various things.

I mean, that is like, it'll fix you for now.

But it's like, if you think about like a tree that's dying, you don't go to the branches of the tree to fix the tree.

You go to the roots of the tree to see what's happening.

And so that's everything between diet, supplementation, whatever.

So I order the things like 300 bucks a bottle.

I'm like, okay.

The guy that I, you know, after Gary gave me that little nugget, I went to this other guy and he's like, look, I have a similar issue.

I take this thing.

I can't prescribe it to you, but you can buy it direct.

You have to pay these guys in the most weird way, dude.

You have to pay either crypto or you have to send it.

And I don't want to like, you know, I don't want this.

Actually, I would pay any amount of money for this peptide.

So actually, I don't like, we should edit out the name of it because I don't want to have an issue.

But

anyways, buy this, this peptide science thing, I go on my honeymoon with my wife at times.

This is last year.

And

man, like it makes this massive difference in my life.

Like, it's like this combo mix of these three different peptides.

And I go to the Mayo Clinic for my executive physicals, right?

Like, I have access to the best doctors in the world.

I'm really proactive about that stuff.

And my doctor in January, I tell him, like, my combo mix of like, hey, I'm taking these digestive enzymes.

I started taking these peptides.

Here's why I take them.

And he's like, well, Dan, I've never heard about any of these things that you're doing, but if it's working for you, you should definitely keep doing it, right?

And it just changed my life, man, because you have no idea how bad it is.

Like every autoimmune disease that people have, but I can relate to it, if it controls your life.

If you can't control them, you have to go to the bathroom.

If you have like extreme cramps, you have to get surgery, like it's an epidemic because of all the glyphosate in our food, all the like chemicals, birth rates are on the decline.

But I think that, you know, with peptides and also, you know, a host of other things, like I'm not saying peptides is the one and all savior, but every entrepreneur that I know, every founder, every high performer I know is starting to experiment with peptides.

And oftentimes they are these research-grade peptides.

It's like not for human consumption, but it's because there is a

it's kind of like a

it's kind of like a gray area, right?

Essentially, like they're kind of operating in this zone where it's like, you know, because it's research-grade, you're allowed to buy it as an end consumer, but you're not allowed to prescribe it because the lobbies here with the FDA and all those things are so strong.

But anyways, like these life hacks and all that stuff.

And at the end of the day, like, you know, I pay any amount of money for that because living a normal life is like.

Yeah.

Do you inject the peptide or is it a pill?

No, because my issues,

like, you know, in the gut, you take it via pill.

Okay.

Right.

So that was what I found out about BPP157 is like, you can actually take the pill formats way better.

But when I found out about like, you know, these other compounds like tributerine, tributarine, that's like another thing that's in it.

And this one formula, man, it just like literally changed my life.

And now it's like.

So did you ever find out what you had?

Back in the day, it was meningitis.

Oh, so it was meningitis.

I think.

Oh, okay.

I would say it's a 95% chance.

I have no idea.

Do you have to do a spinal top?

No, he told me.

No, he told me, he's like, dude, it's well, he's like, look, we can.

It's extremely painful.

I don't know what's what does that work?

They put a needle in your spine?

I think so.

Jesus.

That's my understanding.

They take some blood from.

Wait, we got to try out these peptides.

Yeah.

I mean, so literally, I create these little combo things.

These are like the pill.

This is my 10 years of experiments bag, right?

And these aren't, those aren't drugs.

This is for your gut health.

Usually.

How many of these a day?

I just do one pack a day now, but I've gotten one pack.

Yeah, I just pop all those in once.

And that's after

this goes in one.

This is one thing.

That's light.

That's me.

I'm like, literally.

No way.

So here's the deal.

So you like, you know, you drink some water and you take one.

Yeah, I would rip it now, but I like to do it with food, you know, because it just kind of sits there.

But I mean, that's actually pretty light.

Because at my max, I could do like 50 chicks of these.

You know what I mean?

These are all natural, right?

Yeah, they're all natural.

I mean, but it's like, this is kind of like my, this is what has worked over.

Oh, this is 17.

Can you send me, can you text me these?

I want to start buying these.

Yeah, yeah, I'll.

So, yeah, so you're take, you're, you take 17 pills every day.

Yeah, I take 30, but I feel like these are way better.

Well, but I was up my max, I was doing AM, MPM.

Like, my housekeeper, I have all these.

Uh, every single pill box has a number, and she makes those for me because I customize it and I would try new things and whatever.

At some point, I got up to like 63 pills.

And uh, the only other person

was uh, bro, Dave Dave Pills,

You know what I'm talking about?

Dave, Dave Asperry?

Oh, yeah, he's like the biohacker.

He's like,

and I met him one time at Summit, and like, he, this guy takes like 100 pills a day.

And I was like, you know, and I was like, you know, really into all that.

But then I was like, you know, more isn't necessarily better because I was taking so many pills.

And actually, I was having like sometimes if I didn't eat enough, I was having like nausea because it would get stuck here.

But I could rip like 60 of them at once.

Yeah, there's a gulp.

So you're taking 30 pills a day.

I'm taking 30, but they're like vitamins and stuff.

I feel like this is more efficient.

Yeah.

Because basically, it's kind of like what I find for me, and like every person's different.

So, what's in these, actually?

So, basically, it's like look, the orange ones are like a citrus cell, which is super basic, and you can get a SCVS, but we're not getting enough fiber in our diet.

And there's two types of fiber: there's typically, you know, there's the metamucil, which is like a wheat-based fiber, but that's actually very inflammatory for a lot of people.

And then there's like orange-based, it's like based on the orange peel, and that's what citril.

So, for me, that works really well.

And I've like experimented with both of them.

Then, I have like the peptide, the peptide's only one pill, right?

When I was like, look, he takes this for two weeks.

If after two weeks, you don't notice anything, it's not going to work for you.

And then so, but for me, it worked.

And then once I got kind of like to a, you know, steady state, I brought it down to one.

So what do peptides actually do?

What is a peptide's job?

So you have peptides in your body, right?

And so essentially, like, you know, it's, it's, there is something happening in your body that is potentially creating a deficiency.

What you're essentially doing with the peptide is essentially just bringing your deficiency back up to a normal level.

Now, you may not have yours.

For that area, yes, for me.

And then so it's kind of rehabilitating that area, right?

So peptides are naturally occurring in the body, right?

And so, you know, we're essentially just, you know, putting that back into your body.

So it's like, you know, I would

we all be taking peptides if you're deficient, right?

I mean, I think if you're deficient, look, I'm not a health.

I'm a tech entrepreneur.

I am not a doctor.

I'm not, but I always like, man, you read these stories, man, and like, there's been some difficult times in my life that like, you know, you're dealing with like such, like, because, you know everyone's fine and like you're thinking about oh like how can I create more profit how can I grow how can I do this but then when your health is off whether you're in sickness whether it's an autoimmune you feel that you can't control anything and that also then starts impacting your mental state and then you know I was you know I saw the previous guest talking about like you know gratitude and all these things and it's like you know those things I naturally gravitated to but it's all started at this like epitome of like going through a health scare severe health care

so I think that like you know take the like I like to take an entrepreneurial approach but when you read these stories there's a lot of people that don't have access to this information.

You go to the Midwest, like I grew up in Indiana, it's like, you know, and nothing wrong about growing up in the Midwest, but it's just like you have lack of information.

And, you know, doctors, you know, you should seek the best, but they're not always like, you know, trained.

And their job is also to mitigate risk.

They're not going to say, so I'm a huge fan of like functional medicine and like guys like Dr.

Mark Hyman and of that.

And so I always try and like, you know, find a balance in between that.

So how important through these tough times or how important was it to have a support system was your wife there the whole time or uh so my wife and i only got married in in june but yeah we've been dating for six years you guys dating for six years

how was that being being being married like how is it uh mid marriage is great yeah i mean well so i mean that was actually another little hack that we were going to talk about but yeah he hacked dating bro

early pre pre-ai the whole deal pre-pre-made an algorithm for dating apps so wow so basically and it ultimately led me to my wife uh so that's why i think like so you met her on a dating app I did.

Yeah, I met on Tinder.

Which one?

Tinder.

But here's the thing.

I'll give you the background on this of what ultimately happened.

Okay.

So, and now there's so much more opportunity around this because AI is actually good.

Yeah.

Like, right?

Like, it can actually talk like a real person.

I'll tell you what I did because I didn't have that model.

So

this is like...

So you met your wife using AI.

Well, not AI, I will say AI.

We were using...

We weren't using it.

So it wasn't AI.

It wasn't like what we make AI now, but it was automation.

And I wish I had AI.

It was basically a marketing funnel.

That's what I would call it in my head, right?

And I funneled it.

This is unique.

So, okay, so here's what we did.

So

this is like 10 years ago, and I noticed these dating apps kind of starting to pop up.

And I'm like, okay, I mean, everything in this is an algorithm of some sort.

So the way that I noticed that Tinder worked is basically like, you know, if you create a new account and you had a really well-optimized profile, like good pictures,

you know, it would kind of like find this coefficient um associated to you and kind of match you with people that are similar to you at that time right and so if you're getting a lot of no swipes it kind of matches you someone that's also kind of getting that level to kind of find the right level is what was my understanding so basically what i did is i templatized all these photos as like tinder top pick of the week you know and i created all these various different uh templates into my photos as if tinder was recommending that person in their algorithm that i was like their match of the week of what i could do right

And it's like

science.

Okay, so that was the first part.

So then I was like, wow, that like worked because my, you know, it went up and tied it to the account.

The next thing I did was like, okay,

it's a numbers game, right?

And so we just tapped into their private API and just swiped right on everything.

And then you got all these, you know, these matches.

You got to get into their private API.

Well, at the time, they weren't like billion-dollar companies, so it was way easier to do, you know, but yeah, we did a lot of those like little hacks when we were running just random social apps.

Like, you know, you tap into Instagram's private API, get anyone on the explore page.

Like, Like, you know, I got seasoned assists from Facebook, like from that.

But we were, you know, we were making like four or five hundred K a month, like, just like, you know, getting people on the popular edge.

But the Tinder thing, I didn't make as much money on, but it did change my life on this thing.

And I saw, well, from a personal perspective, here's what happened.

And, anyways, so then I found this really solid conversation opener that no one else did, and that it always led to the same outcome.

Right.

And basically, it was a group of emojis that I would send out to this person.

It was kind of like, you know, sushi, like a guy, girl, sushi, dance, music, present box, question mark, equals question mark.

All emoji.

That's the only thing that you send.

Someone would read that, and that means kind of like, me plus you, date, food, drinks, date, present box.

The person would then see, it's so unique, no one had did it.

So then essentially, the next thing was like, you know, they would either reply an emoji or ask a question.

Then I would have a back one that just said like, kind of like, you know, phone number, question mark.

They would give a phone number.

If they got the phone number and then I liked the profile meaning like I saw that this person could be someone I could go with I would hit them up on Wednesdays on Wednesdays you can set it up or I'd hit up on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because then you can set up a Thursday night drinks and there's no commitment you know what I mean if it doesn't work out and so basically I had it down to a funnel and once I would get the phone number you send that that whole thing so that's basically how I get the funnel of the conversation going and I just automated the whole thing while getting that and you can go to any place and essentially already have that because we can then basically change the location at the time tinder didn't have the ability to do that So, that's what we did on Tinder.

On like Raya, you know, so Raya, like six years, seven years ago, it was, I mean, today it's still pretty selective on it.

So, Raya.

It's just for influencers, right?

It's like a celebrity dating app, but it used to be really tight.

Like, you know, you can go to like a billions episode, like season one, and they're mentioning this Raya thing.

And maybe the year or two before, it was basically like you had Raya in New York, and then you had Raya in LA.

And then basically, it was like there was like 10% everywhere else, right?

It was like a, and it was all celebrities, models, like people, like entrepreneurs that maybe knew the founders.

Real people.

It was real people, but it was such a small network, right?

And now they've turned into a business.

Like they're actually making money and all that stuff.

So what I was like, you know, and I had a bunch of friends apply before I tried to apply because I, and none of them got in.

And I was like, remember thinking, like, I only had one friend that was in it.

And I was like, I don't want to take the risk, you know, get my profile and not get in there or whatever.

So I was like, I could figure this out.

And this is also six years ago.

Times were different.

But you could get, we had like a verified Instagram account and at the time you could change the username of that account so i found a celebrity that didn't have an instagram

changed the username to that person and applied as like a like a 65 70 year old person right that i knew was never gonna have like go on riot because like you know happily married they're 75 whatever famous person though got right in within 10 seconds So I get in and now it's, you know, this person with a name that's not even me,

but my photo, and it says I'm like 77.

Like, you know what I mean?

And so I'm then on these places, but being 77 and looking like me, people were just like, this guy must have the health formula of the century.

So it actually became its own conversation starter.

Wow.

Because people were like, are you actually 77?

And I'm like, no, I think it's a bug in the system.

But in my head, I'm like, yeah, I can hacked it here.

And that's how I'm in it.

So I matched with like.

A-list sellers, some of the biggest pop singers, like all the stuff.

So at the end of the day, why was I doing this?

It just opened up the door to new opportunities.

Right.

And, you know, I wasn't trying to get in a a relationship.

I was single and I wasn't even thinking about that.

But for me, and ultimately, what led me to my wife is that we did meet on Tinder and we just had a casual relationship for a year, year and a half.

And, you know, and it was like, you know, like we were friends, we would hook up and stuff like that.

But it was ultimate transparency in our relationship.

And after about a year and a half, like we had this very deep conversation.

And what brought us together was really our grandparents.

Like it was like, and I was like, because I would just see her more as just fun, right?

Which we had so much fun.

But then you're like, wow, this person's so deep.

And I didn't want to miss out on that.

So we started dating.

And yeah, man, like five years later, you know, we got married in June.

So it all started.

But we did all the opposite things, you know, like, you know, hook up the first night.

A year and a half of like, you know, wait, so y'all hooked up the first night?

First night?

All the way or just got it popping?

No, he said they got it popping the first night.

Wow.

Yeah, it was just so interesting.

It was like,

even in our wedding vows, like we got, we got married in last June and like people were like came to my wedding.

It was a pretty small wedding because it was still kind of on the brink of like, you know, COVID and, you know, whatnot.

And,

but all my friends were like, that was the most transparent, transparency vow.

Because we literally said that.

She, because my wife lived with me and five entrepreneurial friends in like a house that we have in Chicago that's called the Fun House.

It had like 7,000 square foot, all entrepreneurs.

And, you know, it kind of was like, is that a commune?

It's like, no, it's not a commune.

Like, we just live this way.

So we just live by our own ways of being.

Right.

And I think that that's like why me and my wife have always been so close to one another.

and is because like, you know, the relationship starts with a basis of trust and transparency.

We weren't pretending to be something that we weren't.

And we live life by our own kind of like rules and norms.

Yeah, and I the same, but it's like we have norms in a relationship.

You know, I think that, you know,

so you ask me like, how is it being married?

Things haven't really changed because, I mean, we try and be proactive about that.

You know, like entrepreneurs have board meetings with their, you know, found like with their team or team meetings.

You know, very rarely do people have like, hey, what's your like monthly spousal check-in?

It's almost like a board meeting, meeting right and you talk and you evolve and you do all these things but you know we like to live life in in in that way right and that was kind of like you know where it all started but it all started on tinder that's dope with the bot man it's dope yeah but now that you have ai like people can crush that because they can have the conversation man save so much time it's like dating now is like so amazing if you if you use gtp4 and whatever's happening like you know your life would change yeah you could fully automate the whole convo you wouldn't even have to talk to them until you meet meeting in person Yeah.

Exactly.

Because it can arrange the date for you at this point.

Exactly, man.

Yeah.

We had to do it the old-fashioned way.

Why do you think a lot of people struggle dating entrepreneurs?

I don't know, man.

I think it's, I think, I mean, I've never been on the other side.

I've never really dated an entrepreneur as being an entrepreneur.

I think it's

difficult because, like, you know, you're,

I think, like...

Why entrepreneurs are sometimes difficult to date is that, at least I know for myself, so I'm speaking for myself.

People think about work as like a thing they have to do right um i try and relax and you know i i like relaxing but like like this is like what i love doing it's like my creation it's like my art like i i would love it more than anything i sure there are parts of it i hate there are things i just do not like to do but i try and do those as least as possible but whether it's the stress or it's the creation like i just love it you know but it's almost like you're

it's like i want to always talk about it i always want to and like my wife always says like like, you know, it's like, Dan, like, you should really not

try not to talk, like, you know, there are other topics that people may want to talk about besides business.

And so, I think, like, you know, people have to kind of relate to that.

And that's why I would say maybe it's difficult to date an entrepreneur because of those.

I'm like that, too.

My girl's always like, do you have to talk about business all the time at dinner?

But it's not business.

It's like, it's just lifestyle.

It's just creation.

Yeah, creation.

It's just a normal thing.

It's hard to turn it off for real.

Yeah, it doesn't feel like work.

Yeah.

But I think most people have a, they kind of struggle with dating entrepreneurs because

entrepreneurship is viewed on social media as like this island, this cool place.

I mean, it's really cool sometimes, but like you said, like it's dark, it's dark times too.

And people struggle with that because they realize like it's a lot of work that goes into it, you know.

People paint a picture that it's all roses, dude.

It's not.

It's

it's it's look.

I wouldn't choose it to do anything else, but at the same time, like, you know,

things like this past 12 months, like it's been the most, like, you know, on the economy and the whole thing, like, do you know how many entrepreneurs have had had the most treacherous times they've ever had as an entrepreneur?

If I didn't have the health scare, like I don't like, you know, my mental state, it was a difficult as is.

And I've already had other things, like whether it was like, you know, you know, gratitude practices, other components, like health scares, because then you realize, hey, things would be way worse.

Right.

But at the same time, like, that shit gets you because this thing is not, it's not that it is me.

It is not me.

Like, my company is not me, but it's like, you're a little baby, you know, it's like you, anything that you could do for this this like thing that's growing You're always gonna do the best So, you know, but if you can keep a level head around it, that's why it's like entrepreneurship game is like a game of a steady state head and and like, you know staying positive, but also staying rational, right?

Right at the same time.

Because that's the other problem.

There's like toxic positivity where you're just like living in

delusional state of affairs.

And that is like also a big problem.

Yeah, Dan, it's been a blast, man.

That was great.

Any closing thoughts?

No, man.

Thank you for having me here, guys.

I really appreciate it.

I'm going to send you guys some mode to earn phones.

You said they're in Walmart and stuff?

Yeah, they're in Walmart, Best Buy.

Or you can just go to modephone.com.

But we're also launching.

I'm taking this, we're doing kind of mini IPO.

We're making all of our users, our millions of user shareholders in our company.

And so my goal here in the next like three or four years is to take this company public with over a million investors because every person that's a username there, we give them micro shares.

And so that's why we're registering now with the SEC to do something called this Reggae Plus that allows allows us to basically make that a reality and then make every person in our community an owner in this model.

That'd be unique for sure.

Wayne, what about you?

Thank you guys for watching.

Follow me on Instagram.

Sean Kelly here.

Thanks for tuning in, Digital Social Hour.

See you next time.

Thanks, guys.