Mark Douglas: How Targeted Ads Revolutionize Marketing in 2025 | DSH #1532

You know, it's like, what's interesting is that so many people ask me, they're like, I could swear Instagram is listening to my conversations.

Like, you're not getting wiretapped.

That basically Instagram or TikTok was literally recording everything you said and then using it to deliver targeted ads.

The best ads,

or let's call it the best marketing.

All right, guys, got him back on the show.

A lot has changed.

Just went public last week, right?

That's Mark Douglas in the building.

That's what happened.

Let's go.

Yeah, it was exciting times.

Was that a surreal moment for you?

You know, I grew up in New York City and as a kid, places like now there's so much security, but as a kid, places like the New York Stock Exchange, Rockefeller Center, things like that, you just go there and just kind of like make it your playground.

Because I was when he was kids in New York, that I'm on the subway, I'm all over the city, which is what's great about growing up in a city like New York or London or something like that.

So I, to, to be like on a New York Stock Exchange and just trying to like, you know, get lunch or something,

like, like not there because it's this big 238-year-old institution, but just to be like, hey, let's, yeah, it's the middle of summer, let's go somewhere.

It's like, screw it, let's go to Wall Street.

Right.

Just like, and then go back there and like you're ringing the bell, taking a company public.

It's a bit surreal.

I have been there a number of times just for other things.

There's not really trading on the floor right anymore.

Now the floor in the New York Stock Exchange is almost like an events, event space.

I've been there a few times.

But, you know, CNBC is on the floor.

I did an interview there.

There's all, there's all these kind of media companies that are operating from the floor in the New York Stock Exchange.

But yeah, we literally like took a company public and you get first trade.

And

the process is really interesting.

Yeah.

How long did that take?

I'd imagine years, right?

Yeah,

it actually in the fastest possible time, it could be done in like four months.

Oh, wow.

But the stock market has just not been conducive to IPOs.

People,

you learn these terms like risk on, risk off.

Like, is the market risk on, meaning it's receptive to IPOs?

And, or is it risk off where everyone's like basically running for cover?

And, you know, everyone being like these investment managers at these big institutional investment companies.

So the market has been quote unquote risk off for almost three years because of inflation, you know, like all the stuff that's the backdrop of the market.

But, you know, we, we, um, once it's risk on, like it doesn't take a lot of time.

We made the final decision to go.

So So you do the, you, you do, the process is

there's all these big institutional investors who, who essentially form the market for your stock, right?

And you, and that part of the, and you do what's called testing the water meetings, where you go and meet with them and tell them, you know, kind of educate them on your, or in my case, mountain, and tell them what the company is about.

And they, they kind of start to understand the story and whether it's a good investment for them.

And we did 185 185 TTW.

Holy shit.

Yeah, seven rounds, 185 T did the bank.

Our banks were Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Evercore were the three main banks.

And they said that's either the highest number ever done or like just slightly shyer.

And

so we educated.

the market while we waited for essentially the IPO window, as they like, as everyone says, to open.

And so we had put in all this prep work.

And then the, you, you then just, you then look for literally, like, I think everyone thinks like this is something you do a year in advance and you schedule it.

And really, it's like, it looks like there's a good, it's, it's, it's more like a running back trying to find a hole in the line of scrimmage and then just get to that hole and, you know, now and do the roadshow where you, that literally the week of the IPO, you're meeting with investors and they're placing orders for to buy shares in the company we we made the decision to go literally the night before wow are you serious we were ready i mean we had done all the prep work you had to do file all these documents that were the biggest document is the s1 which like describes the company has all financials all that kind of stuff that was all fully up to date with the sec and way in advance like with like lots of lawyers there's like three law firms involved in coordinating with the SEC.

But the actual like, let's do this, that literally was decided on a Tuesday, two weeks ago.

And we decided, and we, on Wednesday morning, I was in New York City and we were doing it.

We were starting a roadshow.

That's insane.

Yeah.

So it's not as far.

And then literally the following Thursday, I'm on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange ringing the bell with the president of New York Stock Exchange.

That's how fast this this all goes.

How last minute it is.

And the banks all think that's normal.

Like, like, they just are like, yeah, this is how this, you know, it's like what the market is doing literally today is like affecting whether that, whether IPO is going to happen.

That's so cool.

Yeah.

Were any of those meetings with BlackRock?

Yeah, BlackRock.

I'd love that.

We could talk about BlackRock.

BlackRock invested in Mountain

when we were still private.

And then,

yeah, they were, we, we were what's called 14 times oversubscribed.

So, meaning that there were, we were selling

the exact number, I think, is 11.7 million shares.

And we had, I may not be doing the math right, but we had 14 times,

essentially 12 million shares that people wanted to buy.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

And then, so you're in this position where you literally, you can't sell it to everyone.

You literally have to allocate it.

And yeah, BlackRock's definitely one of those investors.

And they've been a great investor.

I think there's a lot of like

misunderstanding of Black Rock.

You've probably seen that.

Yeah, lie conspiracy.

Like, like they're telling the company, like they're telling people, the companies they're invested in, what to do and stuff like that.

That's not at all.

And the biggest conspiracy I think I've heard about them is they own, I think, the numbers I've heard are like 22% of all publicly traded companies.

that, yeah.

Yeah.

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Yeah.

So it's not true at all.

BlackRock doesn't actually own stock.

BlackRock's customers own stock.

They're just what's called an index fund.

They basically take your money and you say, look, I don't want to risk it on one company.

I want to spread it across every publicly traded company.

And so BlackRock does that for you, but

they're not making any decisions.

They're just allocating it, you know, like Microsoft should get some, Mound should get some, you know, Apple,

things like that.

And so BlackRock's customers collectively own, you know, a big chunk of every company.

But if you look at like BlackRock itself, ironically, is publicly traded and their numbers are not.

you know, the trillions that people claim they have.

I've heard 12 trillion, right?

Yeah.

So their customers, if you invest, if you put money into a BlackRock fund, then you would own a piece of every publicly traded company and you would be part of the 12 trillion.

But BlackRock is just facilitating you not having to do that manually,

which would be a full-time job, which is why it's a full-time job for them.

But yeah, they've been a great investor.

The great thing I like about BlackRock is they think long-term.

Ironically, they completely leave you alone.

Yeah, it's like the exact opposite.

It's like they're not calling me every, if they think I'm calling them and saying, like,

hey, what do you think about this?

Not for business advice, but just more like, I like I called them and said, you know, what do you think about this window to go in the IPO?

And there's someone there I really trust.

And it was like, I think this is really good timing.

I think you should go.

He's not going.

Oh, and by the way, I'm going to start wanting to know what your, you know, your policy.

They just want to make money for their clients.

They're not trying to like socially enter.

Corporate takeover.

Yeah.

That's not their best.

So I have, we have other investors where they do want to meet with your constant.

They're not trying to tell you what to do, but they, I think

they're more nervous.

Some investors are

like, you know, like, I invested in you.

I don't want to do your job.

Yeah.

And some investors are just nervous.

I think also it was a rocky rocky economy the past few years, especially with all the tariff stuff recently too.

Yeah, that's what made finding the right window really tough because we had to like

do the IPO between

all these things.

As a matter of fact, the number one question we got during the road show, like when we're out meeting with all the investors, is why now?

And it's like.

My answer is always like, well,

I'm out here.

It's a big market.

I'm executing.

So why not now?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're probably one of the few to launch in this kind of economy, right?

Yeah.

There have been articles about have we like re I use the analogy.

I grew up in New York City, we mentioned before.

And in New York, like if the elevator door is closing, just kind of throw your arm in there and let it get there.

Like you just, you know, people think your arm's going to get chopped off, but you're just like, no, I'm getting on this.

That's kind of what I think some of the articles have described.

Like, did, did RIPO and, you know, a couple others,

did they do that to the IPO market?

Like kind of reopen the window and so forth.

So if it did, I mean, companies need to raise money.

So, I mean, and

if you have this, if you, if your company has a scale, big market scale, and you're good at execution, you know, then being public is

a very, is a great idea, a very viable way of doing it.

Do you see social media and alternative media eating out the market share?

Because I know you guys are mainly TV stuff.

Yeah, we're 100%.

So what we do, what Mound does is we democratize streaming TV.

We bring small and mid-sized companies into the television advertising market, specifically streaming on every streaming network in America.

Like all of them that have ads.

I think Apple is the only one.

Apple TV,

right?

Apple TV Plus doesn't have ads, but the other networks, you know, can do.

So we're talking like Disney, Paramount, HBO Max,

which is owned by Warner Brothers,

all these networks we partner with, and we essentially create the long tail, like all, so that all small, mid-sized businesses, which could only do search and social before, can now reach

find their next customers using the big screen, using 30-second ads on streaming television.

And

so it's great for the, it's great for the industry, like because the television industry has been just dominated by a small number number of very large brands.

And it's great for the companies who traditionally

didn't have access as a marketing channel.

So that's what we do.

And

it's created a great opportunity for everyone, for my company, as well as for our customers and all the streaming networks we're partnered with.

The interesting thing is people are doing all these things.

I'm on social media today, but I'm also on YouTube.

I'm also watching shows on streaming networks.

Like I'm doing all these things for entertainment.

And so when you look at the numbers, more people watch television a day than use social media.

So 5.5 billion, worldwide, 5.5 billion people a day watch television daily.

And I think it's 3.9.

3.9 billion use social media.

They watch TV for three hours uninterrupted.

They basically get home from work and they have the TV on.

Or if they work from home, they have it on.

And then

the, and it's an hour day on social media.

Like, you know, the, and so everyone's doing all these things.

So if you're a business, you, you have a great product and you try and reach new consumers, then why not be on, you know, leveraging television to find consumers, leveraging social influencers, you know, search, all these things.

And so that's the market.

We didn't create obviously the market for television advertising.

What we did is we democratized the market for small and mid-sized businesses.

And yeah, and for a lot of emerging companies, a lot of emerging brands and, you know, and so forth.

And so now there's a good chance you might see them in multiple, like, oh, I saw that brand on Instagram, but I also, you know, saw them when I was watching Miami Housewives.

Right.

Yeah.

So the, it's great.

Like I said,

it's great for everyone.

And that's the market opportunity.

It's a big market, which is why, you know, we can create the opportunity for us to be a public company.

I just saw Netflix is experimenting with personalized ads.

I'm sure you're well aware of what's going on.

Absolutely.

But it seems like ads are going towards that.

All of that.

So the thing about it is if.

Your big brand, your T-Mobile, literally everyone in America could be a potential customer.

Even they could launch a product direct at kids.

I hope you guys are enjoying the show.

Please don't forget to like and subscribe.

It helps the show a lot with the algorithm.

Thank you.

Kids could be

a potential customer.

But if you're, one of my favorite brands is One Wheel.

They sell the single wheel skateboard.

You see, like, you see people on, like, in going down Manhattan.

It looks really cool, but also looks like.

You better know what you're doing on that thing.

And, you know, so

One Wheel as a company is doing very well.

People love the product, but they're not going to sell it to everyone in America.

So if you put One Wheel on, you know, like Bravo, for example, or an ESPN or anything like that, you have to really target who's going to receive that.

That's what enables it to be small, mid-sized businesses is that it's highly, highly targeted versus cable, which was like, like, you know, everyone in that city receiving the exact same man.

So, everything, all that, most of that advertising, I was about to say all, but not yet, all, is now super targeted.

You could be watching something in home and someone else in your home is watching the exact same thing, and both of you are at the exact same time.

You'd like hit the play button on your favorite show at the exact same time that both of you will probably get different ads.

That's crazy.

It's highly targeted.

And so, that's, that's

what, that's, if anything, that's what enables what we do is the targeting.

Otherwise, your business and you're spending, we'll call it 10,000 a month on our platform or, you know, maybe even less, maybe more.

And, you know, we would just run out of budget instantly and 90% of people, like 90% of people are not going to be a potential one-wheel customer.

So they'd be wasting 90% of the budget.

It's the targeting that makes it possible.

That makes sense.

Do you think TVs are going to start listening to people's conversations?

Well, I think the answer is no, because that'd be an illegal wiretap

you know it's like what's interesting is that so many people ask me they're like i could swear instagram is listening to my conversations like and that's you're not getting what it you're not getting wiretapped i mean that to talk about a massive scandal if it came out that basically instagram or tick tock was

literally recording everything you said and then using it to deliver targeted ads.

That would

maybe people think that wouldn't be a good big scandal because they already assume it's happening.

But no, but I think the thing is, is that the best ads,

or let's call it the best marketing, let's broaden it, are the ones where, ironically, where you do feel like it is because that's speaking directly to you.

Like, like it, it's what's interesting about marketing, and

you can touch on the topic like about privacy is

on the one hand everyone wants to believe that everything they do is private including me i that i i they including mark zuckerberg like like nobody's looking to just um put everything out there but it's a little misguided the the the the one of the biggest costs in the call it you know dollar amounts in the cost of any product is find marketing to you as a customer you discovering the product so the harder if you're going to be interested in that product you let's keep with the one wheel example let's say you're you know venture seeker you like to skateboard you like you know an electric skateboard real you know you you snowboard you a surfer in la like this is a product for you the harder you make it for one wheel to find you and just literally show you what they have, this product that they're passionate about.

And all they want to do is make you aware of it to see if you're going to love it and be passionate about it too.

The harder you make that as a consumer, the more expensive the product is going to be because that is

they that the one wheel then has to spend money with Meta, with Mountain, with Google.

All of that winds up being in the price of the product.

I mean, the myth is that companies don't pay for anything.

Consumers pay for everything.

In other words,

unless a company is literally losing money, every dollar it's spending are money just being shifted from its customers to whoever the company is sending the money to, you know, like their suppliers, essentially.

So that includes marketing costs.

So let's say.

the cost of marketing were 25% higher on a given product to find very hard to find consumers that might be interested.

Well, then the price of the product has to be 25% higher.

And so I think a lot of the privacy debate is there's this a lot of focus on like, am I being tracked?

Well, Google knows I'm in the room with you right now because I have an iPhone in my pocket and I have Google Maps on it.

So does Apple.

So does Meta because I have Instagram.

So is that like that's the real privacy is all the information you're freely giving up.

It's not like, you know, a small emerging brand just hoping you'll like what they sell.

They're not in any way getting any personal information on you, nor are they trying, because if they do, then they're responsible for protecting it.

Yeah, location-targeted ads.

Whenever I go to a new city, I get ads for restaurants in the area.

Right.

Yeah.

And the, and so again,

I mean, also, if you want business, when you go to those cities, you want those restaurants to be doing well, then the, the, like the privacies you should really care about about is like name, address, credit card number.

Yeah, it's not like social security.

Yeah, it's it's not like

the fact that you might have bought a skateboard in the past and would love,

I mean, bought a surfboard and maybe would love a product that people like surfboards might also be interested in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't mind targeted ads that are based off my previous spending

because I'll buy it.

You know, there's a good chance I'll buy it and it makes sense.

Yeah.

If I get random ads for random products, that'd be more annoying to me.

Yeah.

Well, I, I, when I'm on Instagram, um, I get, my girlfriend says meta has me completely, completely figured out.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, because I, I basically like, I, she's like, you buy the most random products, but somehow they figured out you're the person that's going to be interested in this.

That's how I feel about TikTok shop.

Really?

I bought quite a few things off there.

Have you played around with that one yet?

A little bit.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm more of an Instagram user.

It's funny.

I was talking to someone today about Instagram versus TikTok, TikTok, and she was talking about, like,

I was saying, well, I'd like to see a feed that has things with my friends.

And she's like, no, I don't want to see my friends in my feed at all.

I just want to be entertained.

And so I'm like, well, so I'm more lean Instagram.

She more leans

TikTok and so forth.

I can see that.

I like both.

I like having both.

Yeah, they do.

They're both fun.

And that's kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier.

So, like, during the day, I'm not watching like the most, what's the most one of the most talked about you know, things in entertainment right now, like White Lotus, right?

It's on TV, right?

Or the

few months ago, I guess now six months ago, the Tyson Jake Paul fight.

I mean, TV is still this like

big

medium that like like it and but they all play and obviously TikTok is a massive medium.

All of these are playing a role.

And I think for the average person, they're just like, look, I just want to be entertained all day long, essentially.

Yeah, I'm watching TV every day, I guess, if you consider the streaming platforms TV.

Yeah, yeah, I think when some people think of TV, they mean like the older version.

Yeah, that's why I say streaming all the time because, yeah, I'm talking cable is dying at the rate people move, essentially.

Cable's done, I think.

I think it's done.

I don't know if there's a coming back for cable.

Yeah, I used to say a few years ago, I say the last person to buy cable was born 30 years ago.

Wow.

You know, I mean, because there's not a 30-year-old who has access, like

the idea that someone used to run a cable to your house and then you would watch TV on the network schedule, like it's like there's not a 30-year-old who even comprehends that.

And then all the sports now are going towards streaming services.

Like, I think NFL is on Amazon now.

NBA might be on Amazon now.

There's a shift out there.

We have a lot of NBA companies as customers, which is kind of interesting.

That's awesome.

Yeah, they sell tickets and

swag via mountain we we actually did a social media post on that two days ago oh nice and um the post had ended with the phrase boom shakalaka and i was like do people i guess on in the nba they say boom shakalaka i was like i've not i sounds old i don't know which team that does that one

exactly have you been watching the playoffs um i grew up in new york city so i'm a knick's fan you guys made it far this year yeah so um and i was in new york during

the with the who they were playing at Boston.

Pacers or Boston?

Oh, Pacers, yeah, because I was commenting about how it's like a throwback.

You know, that's a throwback.

Reggie Miller.

Yeah, Patrick Miller.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I remember.

I've went to a few games at Madison Square Garden.

It's electric, right?

Yeah.

It could be replaced, though.

You think so?

Well, I never thought they would replace Yankee Stadium.

That's true.

And then it's like they just built a new one in the parking lot of the old one and then just tore down the old one.

So I'm like, can we do that to Madison Square Card?

The new Clipper Stadium is insane, I heard.

Oh, I haven't been yet.

In LA?

Yeah.

Everything's like state of the art, you know?

Yeah, I need to go.

I used to live in L.A., but I haven't been there.

Well, I've been there, but I haven't like lived there since they built the stadium.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'll have to put that on my list for him.

You got out of there too, huh?

I left as well.

Yeah, I saw your

podcast on the Rubin report.

Yeah.

I thought that was pretty cool.

Thank you.

That was the the first big show I've done.

Shout out to Dave Rubin for taking a chance on me.

I'm a bit of a wild card.

It's an interesting story.

I feel like now I should start asking you questions,

except I'm not as good at it as you are.

You got good with the reps.

I'm sure you've learned from Ryan Reynolds how to do interviews as well.

Ryan does know how to, he doesn't give me any advice on it.

I think he, you know, it's funny.

The first time I did an interview with Ryan,

it was more like business.

I think it was like on CNBC.

And

on that format, you're done in like four and a half minutes.

Damn.

Yeah.

Like, like when you're doing the news hits, like it's not like 30 minutes.

It's not sitting on a couch on the tonight show.

Like, it's like they hit the topic.

And, and, you know, I remember

after he said, he literally said, wow, that's fast.

I'm like, yeah, this is, they're not here to learn about your life.

They're here about you to comment on something very specific.

And then they move on

to the next topic.

Well, that's, that's a good segue into like attention spans these days.

Yeah.

I feel like there's breaking news stories and the next day people forget about it.

I agree.

My own assistant, I like,

she's going to love hearing this because I was playing a video at a company meeting.

The video is four minutes long.

She complained after why they play such a long video.

Wow.

Four minutes.

Four minutes.

Even myself, when I watch YouTube videos or whatever, even on Netflix, sometimes I'm doing like 1.5x speed.

Yeah.

2x speed, depending on the video.

I do some of that on podcasts.

Yeah.

I can't do 1x, man.

It's too slow.

Should we just talk faster?

That's just a testament we're not processing thoughts fast enough.

Yeah.

We need to speed it up.

But yeah, I mean,

like, like...

You don't want to be that guy.

It's like, I remember when people used to watch YouTube videos at 1x.

Whoever invented that feature, shout out to that person, whoever that was.

I hope you made a ton of money.

That was the best invention I've ever seen.

Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, I mean, the tension spans, I mean, it just keeps speaking that people are consuming everywhere.

I mean, I feel like everyone has ADHD.

Am I pronouncing that?

These days, yeah.

ADHD, yeah.

Yeah, they, I, I mean, I feel like it's so hard.

for me to know what I should be doing next.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

So I think a lot of people have just, they're doing this like chop up the day in the 30 minute increments and like 30 minutes done move on and that because otherwise it's hard to be like okay i just finished that what am i supposed to do next and then you have like 300 emails waiting for you i have text messages on on you know three different text messaging platforms and um like it's hard and the same way with with entertainment you know it's 100 like i i when i watch shows with my girlfriend I'm like, are you paying?

Are you paying?

I like to sit.

See, I like to be told a story.

Like, I like to sit down and just like consume a story, like, like a movie.

Yeah.

And a lot of people just literally can't do that anymore.

No.

Like, I wouldn't even say a lot.

I would, it feels like the majority are just like, nah, I don't have, I'm not, I just can't sit for an hour and a half.

I mean, I just saw the movie

Sinners.

Yeah, Sinners in the Theater.

Everyone was on their phone the whole time.

On their phone in the movie theater.

Yeah.

And you're supposed to go to the theater to not like to basically sit in the chair, start munching the popcorn.

I guess no one wants, would that be considered carb if you're munching, no one wants the carbs?

Is it carbs?

Yeah, it might be.

I don't know.

But yeah, they used to have the commercial before the movie, like don't use your phone.

Remember that one?

Yeah.

It was like a viral.

Yeah.

I didn't see it.

Yeah, I haven't been in.

I watch movies.

I love watching movies, but I haven't been in.

Well, I probably shouldn't say that if I work.

Actually, ironically, the last movie I saw was Deadpool.

Deadpool.

I was at the premiere.

It was fun.

Yeah.

There's some good ones.

I just saw the Minecraft one, but yeah, I don't go to the theater as much as I used to.

You watch it like at home.

I'd rather wait two months, three months till it's on Netflix or whatever.

Hulu.

I have every single thing.

Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Paramount, literally every stream.

Yeah.

I'm in, well, I have to for work, but even without that, like there's good shows on all of them.

Yeah, so they like even networks that you don't

Necessarily remember their good shows on there.

There's generally good content everywhere.

So yeah, it kind of forces you to get every single one.

Yeah, like I used to watch iCarly growing up.

So that's on Paramount and then random shows will be on Amazon.

Now Apple TV has one I just found out.

Yeah, the front.

Is it that the front?

The one where the guy loses his job and is robbing all his neighbors.

Losing his job or not.

Is that on Apple?

That's Apple.

That's like Friends and Neighbors.

Yeah, I think that's the one someone just told me to watch.

Yeah, that's a good show.

I just, I just, I'm fully up on that show.

Oh, yeah.

You'll enjoy that.

Okay.

Yeah, don't miss that one.

Yeah, times are changing, man.

Leaders are going to go out of business.

Everyone's just watching at home.

It just creates more opportunity.

Yeah.

It's good for you.

It's great for me.

And, but I think it's great for everyone.

I think it's great for consumers.

Like,

I think of people, I say entertainment consumers, like it's what the golden age of television is golden age of social media.

We'll see what's to come.

Everyone wants the crap on social media, but

you have to kind of take some responsibility for how you manage your own time.

100%.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Part of it's on you.

You're just doom scrolling, they call it.

Yeah, just scroll, all, scroll all day and stuff like that.

Well, another way to chop up your day, just like, but Elon Musk does it all day and somehow gets a lot done.

You'll be tweeting often.

I don't know.

I like that dude.

I I don't know Elon.

I know.

I have friends that know Elon.

I just don't see how it's possible.

He's very impressive.

The amount he gets.

Like, I thought I was ambitious, but then you watch him and it makes you feel like a failure.

He's got to be cloned or something.

There's two of him.

Well, there's a lot of people like him right now, but I guess he's back to building cars and rockets.

So now they're like, you just keep doing that.

I did get a little political for you.

Yeah, they were like, politics, stay away, but just go back to building cars and rockets and we love you.

Yeah, that's it.

What's next for you?

What's next for Mountain?

Where can people learn more about what's going on?

The, well, we just

continue to grow.

So technically, we're in a quiet period.

So I'm not supposed to

talk too much about it.

But anyway, the company is doing well.

The stock did insane.

It went up 67% on the first day of trading.

Holy crap.

It rose so fast they had to stop trading.

It went up 50% in the first five minutes of trading wow and which then triggered an automatic halt in trading just to like cool it down damn and then and then it ended the first day of trading at 67 well done man yeah well there's two ways to look at that one it's great for investors two i left 67

table double dollars

but um no it was great and the um so we see that we're just going to continue to grow the company and

we have a lot of plans and just

make it happen.

And so

the interesting thing is before,

so we went public on May 22nd.

So on May 21st, I had two constituents, the people who work for the company and have a, and, and I've, we try to make it an incredibly, an incredible place to work.

Like just, just, we want, we treat.

working at the company as like you're in a relationship and you you want to like you so you take a job

and you and the

actually just earlier today and a person was telling me about their boss and so you're essentially now this is a new relationship in your life it's not a romantic relationship but it's a work relationship and like any relationship you want to feel trusted you want to feel respected you want um to have a lot of freedom and if you don't get those things then like any relationship it's a you it's it's you feel controlled so we invest a lot in basically making everyone feel and hold like

they have personal freedom, even at work, that they can be ambitious, that they can be themselves and so forth.

And so that it's just a fantastic, they want to be there.

There's actually been studies that show.

Most people would actually take a better work environment, meaning those feeling trusted, those kind of things, over a higher paycheck.

Wow.

That the pay, the additional pay is not worth feeling like, like think of it again, back to like a personal relationship.

If you're in a personal relationship and the person was like, you need to be here at this time and they're constantly critiquing you and you felt completely untrusted, you'd be like, I'm out of here.

I'm not putting up with this, right?

Well, most people feel like that way about work.

And so if you want to have a great company culture,

you have to basically treat people.

You have to invest in that relationship the way you invest, meaning the company, the way you invest in your personal relationship.

So going back to it, so we had two constituents.

So one is the team and the second is the customer.

The next day, we now had three constituents, a third constituent, which is our investors.

And,

you know, now there's, it used to be there were like 10 investors.

Now there's, I don't know the exact number, but, you know, hundreds of thousands at the very least, maybe millions and so i take that very seriously and all they want is consistent growth so this is the thing about going all the way back to the topic of an ipo investors all they want is consistent growth they want to be like i want to take some money i want to put it into a stock and i mean some people are trying to day trade but for the average investor they're like i just want to park that money there and see that grow over a long period of time and the other interesting thing i said to the team, the

company, you know, all the people on the team after we went public, I said, you know,

for the successful publicly traded company, something like 90 to even 99% of the value, like the wealth essentially, is created after the IPO.

Wow.

Right.

So think of Netflix.

Or, I mean, Netflix probably went public.

Their valuation was a few billion.

Now it's, I think it's in the range of 600 billion.

Jesus.

Right.

And it doesn't have to be a Netflix.

I mean, for Apple, it's trillions.

For Google, it's trillions.

But it could be for any successful publicly traded company.

99.

The IPO.

I also get asked, so what are you going to do now?

As if I'm like, drop the mic,

ring the bell,

drop the hamper, and just

walk out and like, I'm done.

And it's like, no, we've only created 1% of the potential value you're just getting started yeah just literally getting started and so like when you ask like well what's next the next is to go create the other 99

but not just for me to create it for all of the constituents created for the team create it for our customers in the form of they get value from our products and then now create it for the investors and so that that's that's what's in my head and again all the investor wants is just consistent growth.

They're not,

they would rather take consistency over like a roller coaster ride, right?

Because

we've been in a roller coaster ride the last few months.

The market was up and it was down, and people were like, literally, I'm out.

A lot of people pulled out.

Warren Buffett pulled out.

Right.

You know?

Yeah.

And, but, and, but if they were getting just like consistent growth, they, they're all in.

Right.

Yeah.

So that's, that's, that's what I'm, that's what I, I, I feel that's like a responsibility.

Like the, um, just because I don't personally, so again, on the 21st, I knew all of our investors personally.

Like I'd had dinners with, because these are probably, we were still private companies.

Now I have all these investors that I haven't met.

And it's interesting, like that, I was in, um, I've met some investors like, oh, I invested in Mountain, which is kind of crazy.

I've never

like I, I, I just meet random people and are like, oh yeah, I bought shares in Mountain.

And

so like, I feel like, well,

I better not, like, I better make this person money.

Like, that's like, they're, they're like, and, and so that, that's kind of what I'm really, what's in my head.

And the way you, to me, the way you do that is you keep doing what you were doing.

You don't like kind of alter your game, but at the same time, you have to be smart.

Like, now more people are going going to be coming after us because they're like you got a target on your yeah yeah I mean that's the thing about announcing anything it could be announcing a product it could be you know something like an IPO the moment you do like everyone's attention is like well should I be doing doing that yeah that's 100% yeah I try to tell my team like let's delay announcements or as late as like like the only people I see benefit from us announcing stuff are our competitors

that's why I try to move in silence yeah exactly like when I've like a ninja coming on I don't tell anyone.

Yeah, I don't tell anyone to what errors.

That's the way we do it.

Yeah,

absolutely.

Mark, it's been awesome, man.

I can't wait to see where you take this thing.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

Touch, man.

Thanks for coming on.

All right.

Thank you.

Top guys.

We'll link the website below as well.

See you next time.