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Leadership Insights with Mike Peregrina, Homie Co-Founder
4 Plays5 years ago
Being an entrepreneur is all about playing the long game and the best founders and their investors understand that the ups and downs of solving big problems require more than just big vision. It's a combination of traits and practices that will carry you through the lean times. If you want to know what cockroaches and good entrepreneurs have in common, tune in to hear Founder Mike Peregrina of Homie and investor Curt Roberts to bring you both sides of a perfect pitch. This episode will cover:
- The 13 C's of Entrepreneurship
- Why entrepreneurs should strive to be like cockroaches
- How to keep the investor/entrepreneur relationship healthy through difficult times
- The importance of looking "beyond the business" and nourishing your connections
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Entrepreneurship
00:00:00
Speaker
Being an entrepreneur is all about playing the long game and the best founders and their investors understand that the ups and downs of solving big problems require more than just big vision.
00:00:10
Speaker
It's a combination of traits and practices that will carry you through the lean times.
00:00:15
Speaker
If you want to know what cockroaches and good entrepreneurs have in common, stick around because today we're talking with Mike Peregrina, co-founder of HOMEY and investor Kurt Roberts to bring you both sides of A Perfect Pitch.
00:00:35
Speaker
What is Perfect Pitch?
00:00:37
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It's a podcast from Kickstart that reveals the minds of both investors and entrepreneurs throughout a startup's journey.
00:00:43
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So whether that's uncovering what everyone's really thinking during a startup pitch or learning how entrepreneurs like you have managed their first major roadblock, Perfect Pitch offers an honest, quick and tactical guide to help you on your startup journey.
00:00:59
Speaker
I'm your host, Karen Zelnick, and I'm thrilled to be here today with Mike and Kurt.
00:01:03
Speaker
Guys, thank you so much for being here.
00:01:05
Speaker
Thank you, Karen.
00:01:06
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Happy to be here.
00:01:08
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I am so excited to be here.
00:01:09
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I have so much energy for this.
00:01:10
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Thank you for having me.
00:01:11
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Thrilled to have you.
00:01:12
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So excited.
00:01:13
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We've got so much ground to cover.
00:01:15
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But first, I want to give everyone just a little bit of info about the two of you.
00:01:18
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So let's start with
Mike Peregrina's Journey & Homey
00:01:19
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Mike.
00:01:19
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You co-founded Homie in 2015.
00:01:21
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Prior to that, you were on the investment team at Mercado Partners and an investment banker.
00:01:26
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You studied architecture and finance at the University of Nevada.
00:01:29
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And what else should we know about you?
00:01:32
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I love food.
00:01:32
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I love my family.
00:01:34
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I love football.
00:01:35
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So all foods, I eat it all.
00:01:37
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Food is a wonderful, wonderful thing for me.
00:01:40
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Me too, as it turns out.
00:01:42
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I love food.
00:01:43
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And Kurt, we're so excited to have you back here to talk about the investor side of the story.
00:01:48
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So for those who might be joining us for the first time on our podcast, Kurt is one of the partners here at Kickstart with an investment focus on consumer products, health tech and ed tech and general B2B SaaS in the West.
00:02:00
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And I think something that really makes you a great partner, Kurt, with all these entrepreneurs is your ability to be curious and interested in just about anything.
00:02:06
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What are you interested in right now, Kurt?
00:02:08
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A lot of what I'm reading about right now is honestly the function of the human brain.
00:02:15
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I just find it absolutely fascinating.
00:02:17
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And I think what we're learning about how plastic the brain is and how it can regenerate, there is just nothing more fascinating to me.
00:02:25
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What's one tidbit that our listeners can take away from what you're learning about that?
00:02:29
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One tidbit I would say is that we are learning the brain has the ability to generate new neurons.
00:02:35
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I think we always believed that once parts of the brain were damaged, they could never regenerate.
00:02:40
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And we're actually finding that's not true.
00:02:43
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That's amazing.
00:02:44
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Very encouraging.
00:02:45
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Thoughts on that, Mike?
00:02:46
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I have no comment.
00:02:46
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No.
00:02:48
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As someone who's in my life, I have no comment on that.
00:02:50
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How do you follow that up?
00:02:51
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I'm still processing that because that, for many years, right?
00:02:54
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We've been told that neurons do not replace.
00:02:57
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And now we're figuring out that it does.
00:02:59
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Thousands per day.
00:03:00
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That's amazing.
00:03:00
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Thousands per day?
00:03:01
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Thousands per day.
00:03:02
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Oh my gosh.
00:03:04
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I learn things every day.
00:03:04
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Now I want to talk about that.
00:03:05
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The brain can actually regrow itself.
00:03:08
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That's amazing.
00:03:09
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It is pretty amazing.
00:03:10
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What book are you reading about that?
00:03:13
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It's called... It's a good name.
00:03:16
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That's not what it's called.
00:03:18
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That's awesome.
00:03:18
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We'll find it and we'll put it in the show notes.
00:03:21
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Okay, let's jump right into the discussion.
00:03:23
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I feel like we say this all the time, but Mike, it really is true with the story of how and why you founded Homey that it is just so inspiring.
Challenges & Innovations at Homey
00:03:31
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So why don't you tell us a little bit about Homey, what it does and why it matters to you?
00:03:35
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So Homey is really, really personal to me.
00:03:38
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I grew up in South Central LA, first generation, born in the United States, was the first person to go to college and graduate college for my family.
00:03:43
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So for us, that's really, really important.
00:03:45
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We moved to Las Vegas when I was about 15 years young.
00:03:48
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And then I finished my last two years of high school there.
00:03:51
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I studied architecture at UNLV.
00:03:52
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And during that time is really where the homey creation story comes from.
00:03:56
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I was putting myself through school by waiting tables on the Las Vegas trip, but I was making boatloads of money, money that no 21-year-old should be making at that age.
00:04:04
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I did not make a lot of money waiting tables.
00:04:06
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Gambling or waiting tables?
00:04:07
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Waiting tables and sports betting, but don't tell my mom.
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And during that time, it was around 2005.
00:04:13
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So Las Vegas is growing, it's booming.
00:04:17
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And we were buying homes two at a time, stated income, no money down, one year, two year arm.
00:04:22
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Everyone and their mother were getting their real estate license and their mortgage license.
00:04:26
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So not a lot of barriers to entry and getting that.
00:04:29
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So I unfortunately got caught up doing some things that I probably shouldn't have been doing.
00:04:33
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2008 came, 2008 went, and I lost it all.
00:04:38
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And I had this epiphany in 2009 that it's really my responsibility to fix the real estate industry.
00:04:44
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And it turned out that there's about five things that are really wrong with it.
00:04:47
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The consumer's not the focus and the center of the transaction.
00:04:50
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The fees are super, super, super high.
00:04:52
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The misaligned incentives are just out of this world wrong.
00:04:57
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So I put that idea in the back of my mind and then decided to go back to college because no one's hiring architects or designers.
00:05:03
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We're deep in a recession.
00:05:05
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So I decided about myself some time.
00:05:06
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Went back to UNLV, studied finance this time.
00:05:08
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And as you mentioned earlier, became an investment banker.
00:05:10
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I did that for almost two years and really learned a technical skill set and was lucky enough to be a part of the investment team at Mercado Partners, which was another wonderful learning experience for me.
00:05:19
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And then the idea to start Homey came back in about 2014.
00:05:21
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Started Googling some stuff, researching the competitive landscape.
00:05:27
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Got introduced to Johnny Hanna, who was a co-founder at Homey, and then Mike Trionfo, two wonderful individuals.
00:05:32
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And then we came together and started the business.
00:05:34
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And our vision is to make homeownership easy, accessible, and affordable to all, and really making it equitable for the people.
00:05:41
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It really is such an inspiring story.
00:05:43
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And I know we've only scratched the surface.
00:05:45
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I actually saw a really cool video cut that you guys put out.
00:05:48
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So we'll put a link to that in our show notes as well.
00:05:50
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I encourage everyone to go watch it.
00:05:52
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It's fascinating.
00:05:54
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And you'll just fall in love with Homie.
00:05:56
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I've been told that the real star of that is my mother.
00:05:59
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She's a huge inspiration in my life.
00:06:00
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That's awesome.
00:06:02
Speaker
Kurt, why were you so excited to invest in Homie?
00:06:05
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Well, it's an interesting question because to start with, I wasn't.
00:06:10
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In 2015, Mike and Johnny came past Kickstart and presented Homie to us and loved their passion, loved their resumes.
00:06:21
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And at the same time, the first thought that crossed my mind is these guys have no idea what's about to hit them.
00:06:29
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Real estate and the power of the real estate lobby has been so effective generally at squelching innovation that my first impression was these guys will be one of many that have tried and will have fallen on their swords in the process of doing so.
00:06:46
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So I would say that I was a skeptic.
00:06:49
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Here's what completely changed my mind.
00:06:54
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I think it was in 2018.
00:06:54
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Is that right, Mike?
00:06:56
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I think so.
00:06:58
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You guys came back.
00:06:59
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You'd been plugging away at all the business in the interim.
00:07:02
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I'd seen homies signs showing up everywhere, so I knew the company was making it work.
00:07:08
Speaker
And what I saw in that second meeting was a couple of people who had really figured out a business model that
00:07:17
Speaker
that was materially different than where you started and was starting to show some signs that even with that really low fee to sell a house, that you guys could build a business that could dominate the space and be very successful.
00:07:33
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That was incredibly impressive to me.
00:07:36
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It's so nice to hear that.
00:07:38
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Especially with starting with, he wasn't excited at the beginning.
00:07:41
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I wasn't that excited.
00:07:42
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I wasn't impressed.
00:07:42
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The technical piece was you had launched mortgages and the mortgage attachment rate was like from zero to 15 to 30.
00:07:49
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Yeah, that's right.
00:07:51
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Holy crud.
00:07:52
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These guys are onto something.
00:07:55
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So how many investors did you meet with, Mike?
00:07:58
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Everyone and their moms.
00:07:59
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We met with so many people and I think everyone had a very similar sense of the business.
00:08:04
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You're going up against a hugely, hugely, hugely large incumbent, almost cartel-like lobbying.
00:08:12
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One of the top lobbying firms or bodies in the nation and things have been the same for almost 100 years, right?
00:08:19
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So I think it's only fair to be skeptical and I think as entrepreneurs, it's our responsibility to solve those problems every single day, all day.
00:08:26
Speaker
But we met with a lot of investors and luckily found a couple that decided to lead the round and had faith in us and the relationships that we had built with them over time.
00:08:34
Speaker
And it was off to the races.
00:08:35
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That's amazing.
00:08:36
Speaker
Was there ever a point where you started to second guess your mission to change real estate with all the rejection?
00:08:43
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Yeah, that's a great question.
00:08:44
Speaker
The answer, honestly, is no.
00:08:46
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facing the no's are harder, but we always, and Johnny's amazing at this, is a no is a chance for us to look in the mirror and have that introspect and say, what can I do better?
00:08:56
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What does the business need to do better?
00:08:58
Speaker
Where should the business be?
00:09:00
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As an entrepreneur, we always think that the glass is half full and it's not a no right now.
00:09:04
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It's just a not right now.
00:09:05
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It's a delayed yes.
00:09:06
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I just don't know it yet sometimes.
00:09:08
Speaker
And we have a great team, right?
00:09:10
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I would definitely remiss if it wasn't, you know, if I don't share Mike Triomfo's name, our other co-founder and CTO,
00:09:15
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Joe Grover, our CMO as well.
00:09:16
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He's damn near a founder for us as well.
00:09:19
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And Joe is phenomenal.
00:09:20
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He's been an amazing hire.
00:09:21
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We're super proud of having him on board, but that team really is well-rounded.
13 C's of Entrepreneurship
00:09:25
Speaker
All right, Mike, now let's go into these 13 C's of entrepreneurship that you've developed and outlined.
00:09:31
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And this is what we've all been waiting for.
00:09:33
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So let's dive right in.
00:09:35
Speaker
Well, thanks.
00:09:36
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So here they are.
00:09:37
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Creation, which is really about the founding story and the founding team.
00:09:41
Speaker
Courage.
00:09:42
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I deeply believe that it takes courage to start a business and it takes courage to fight for things that are right.
00:09:48
Speaker
Care is number three.
00:09:49
Speaker
That's pretty obvious.
00:09:50
Speaker
Connection is one that I think is always overlooked.
00:09:53
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And it's the connection with your employees, it's connection with people, including your founding team.
00:09:57
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Collaboration is something that's also pretty obvious.
00:10:00
Speaker
It's the teamwork.
00:10:01
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No one can do it by themselves.
00:10:03
Speaker
Compassion is the other one.
00:10:04
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And it's compassion for employees, compassion for your customers and future customers.
00:10:08
Speaker
Communication, creativity, culture, choice, clarity.
00:10:12
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Kurt, which really is the secret of the capital.
00:10:15
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He made it on the list.
00:10:16
Speaker
And the last one is cockroach.
00:10:18
Speaker
I know that we went through those really fast.
00:10:20
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So for everyone listening, we'll be sure to have them up in our show notes at kickstartfund.com.
00:10:25
Speaker
So be sure to check that out after listening.
00:10:27
Speaker
So before we move on too fast, Mike, connection, why is that the most overlooked C?
00:10:32
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I'll have to credit Johnny for this one.
00:10:34
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One of the things that he's really strong on is mental fitness.
00:10:37
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And I think that's something that as investors, investment bankers, entrepreneurs, spouses, brothers, sisters, we really forget about or overthink or underthink and sometimes think of it as a stigma.
00:10:48
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And I think that being connected with people is really, really important.
00:10:52
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I think the most important things in life really are not things.
00:10:55
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They're really connections and relationships you have with people.
00:10:58
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Kurt, would you agree with that assessment that it's often the most overlooked one in startups?
00:11:02
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Yeah, I think that's probably true.
00:11:04
Speaker
Founders tend to be people who, when successful, feel like they can pretty much power through anything.
00:11:11
Speaker
And I think there's a tendency toward self-reliance that is absolutely critical to success.
00:11:17
Speaker
However, at the same time, that can sometimes lead to an unhealthy independence as opposed to a sense of interdependence and a willingness to share the load with people who've signed up for the journey and care as much about your mission as you do.
00:11:33
Speaker
I could not agree more with that.
00:11:34
Speaker
Well said.
00:11:35
Speaker
And I think there are probably a lot of people listening to who that will really resonate with and who will be relieved, I think, to hear that it's okay to have space for not being okay or to... Oh, absolutely.
00:11:45
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I think being vulnerable as a leader of a business, people relate to that.
00:11:50
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They don't...
00:11:50
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see these people, whether it's founders or an executive, as these perfect individuals, which we all know they're not, right?
00:11:57
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And I think the more real you can be with your employees, your team members, they have a huge tendency to respect you more for it because they realize that you are human.
00:12:07
Speaker
I love that.
00:12:07
Speaker
It's so important.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:08
Speaker
And it leads to more effective collaboration.
00:12:10
Speaker
A couple of these other C's actually.
00:12:12
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:12:12
Speaker
Creativity and culture.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:14
Speaker
They're all intertwined.
00:12:14
Speaker
They're all interconnected for sure.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:16
Speaker
And the one I really want to talk about though is cockroach.
00:12:19
Speaker
Yes.
00:12:19
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Everyone does.
00:12:20
Speaker
I mean, that kind of stands out a little bit.
00:12:22
Speaker
It's a little bit like, ooh, but why is cockroach in there?
00:12:25
Speaker
So you probably know this, but cockroaches don't die.
00:12:28
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I do know.
00:12:29
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I used to live in New York and I tried to kill a few.
00:12:30
Speaker
Those are bigger ones.
00:12:31
Speaker
Those are on a different level, right?
00:12:33
Speaker
But if you think about being an entrepreneur, you have to give yourself enough time to find that spark, that elbow, that growth curve where you really do find that product market fit at a fast pace and you can grow like weeds, right?
00:12:47
Speaker
And I think giving yourself enough time and all these C's, as I mentioned, are interconnected to be creative, to solve problems day after day, in and out, you won't die.
00:12:56
Speaker
So you just have to give yourself enough time to turn the corner, to find that right investor, to find the right product market fit, or even that right customer that ends up nailing this huge opportunity for you.
00:13:06
Speaker
And then it creates this flywheel.
00:13:08
Speaker
That's the cockroach.
00:13:10
Speaker
Okay, so I think I have an example of cockroach actually that involves both Mike and myself.
00:13:16
Speaker
After we wrote our first check into the company, there was a period of time in which the company was out preparing to raise its next round.
00:13:24
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And for a bunch of reasons, we reached a period in time in which the company got very, very tight on cash.
00:13:32
Speaker
And we had some hard decisions to make.
00:13:35
Speaker
And I remember going through conversations with Mike and Johnny in particular that were not fun.
00:13:43
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They weren't fun for me.
00:13:44
Speaker
Do you remember those conversations?
00:13:45
Speaker
Oh, I do.
00:13:45
Speaker
My hands are getting shaky just thinking about it.
00:13:48
Speaker
They were not fun.
00:13:50
Speaker
And I'll tell you what, what I appreciated about how Mike and Johnny handled those conversations was that it was never about...
00:14:00
Speaker
the person or getting personal or questioning motivations.
00:14:05
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We got through that process and I came out of it with significantly higher respect for the company and a willingness to get significantly more bold to make sure it succeeded because I could tell that these guys would not give up, that they understood the perspective that we were coming from and that we were going to solve it together.
00:14:27
Speaker
Mike, how does it not become personal?
00:14:29
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Like, what was there?
00:14:30
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Is there a C applied there?
00:14:32
Speaker
Well, it is personal.
00:14:34
Speaker
Now, the way that, you know, behind closed doors, like there was a lot of anger and distrust.
00:14:40
Speaker
I heard that.
00:14:41
Speaker
And I mean, I've known the Kickstarter team for eight years, right?
00:14:46
Speaker
Like, I've known these people.
00:14:48
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wonderful people for such a long time and it felt like betrayal, but that is distortion, right?
00:14:54
Speaker
That is not what happened.
00:14:55
Speaker
What happened was there was business terms that were expiring, right?
00:15:00
Speaker
And the conversations internally that we had between the management team, although there was some anger and some, you know, things and words said very passionately, we realized that we signed the dotted line.
00:15:11
Speaker
That's right.
00:15:11
Speaker
That would be really amazing, actually, to look back and see what happened.
00:15:15
Speaker
But amongst us, we put on our big boy pants, which
00:15:17
Speaker
We signed the dotted line.
00:15:18
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It's the agreement and the arrangement we made.
00:15:21
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But what I love, what happened after that was the support that we got from Kurt specifically and the support that we got from all of our other investors, which he wrangled together, was amazing.
00:15:33
Speaker
And I think that we love him and respect him way more because of that, because it did allow us to give more time to see that growth curve because it was bound to happen.
00:15:42
Speaker
We just needed a little bit more time, but there's no hard feelings.
00:15:46
Speaker
There's no disrespect, if anything.
00:15:49
Speaker
And we all came on the other side a lot better.
00:15:52
Speaker
Man, I can't be the only one listening to this that is just so inspired actually by that interaction and the story that went there and the takeaways personally for like, put on your big boy pants or big girl pants and just keep going and commit.
00:16:05
Speaker
That's really inspiring.
00:16:06
Speaker
So thank you for sharing that.
00:16:07
Speaker
And my next question is, could you tell us about a major roadblock at Homie and how you had to apply one of the C's to overcome that roadblock?
Overcoming Financial Challenges
00:16:15
Speaker
There's two that come to mind.
00:16:16
Speaker
The first one is courage.
00:16:19
Speaker
And as I think about courage, you have to be willing to put everything on the line to fight for what's right.
00:16:24
Speaker
And sometimes, actually all the time, it's never easy to do.
00:16:28
Speaker
The other C that comes to mind is collaboration.
00:16:31
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You cannot do it by yourself.
00:16:33
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You have a team for a purpose.
00:16:35
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You have to put an immense amount of trust on those individuals.
00:16:38
Speaker
And doing it together means you'll come out stronger on the other side.
00:16:41
Speaker
And I would probably say it was that...
00:16:43
Speaker
time in Homie's life cycle where we almost ran out of cash, right?
00:16:47
Speaker
It was looking at each other and looking in the mirror.
00:16:49
Speaker
How are we going to solve this problem together?
00:16:52
Speaker
How are we going to work together and collaborate so we can get on the other side of this?
00:16:55
Speaker
And it's that C that come to mind.
00:16:58
Speaker
Kurt, any thoughts on that?
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah, I will never forget a phone call I got from Johnny.
00:17:04
Speaker
I was on my way to a meeting in Utah County and we weren't even done getting through the difficult conversations.
00:17:13
Speaker
But I think the company knew that we were serious about providing support with additional money so that they could get to the point they needed to raise another round of financing.
00:17:25
Speaker
But
00:17:26
Speaker
Those conversations were very painful.
00:17:29
Speaker
And I knew there were mixed feelings over at Homey about Kickstart generally and about me personally.
00:17:35
Speaker
And I will never forget being in the car on the way to Utah County, getting a phone call from Johnny Hanna in which he asked me if I'd be willing to join the board.
00:17:45
Speaker
And I thought, am I hearing this right?
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, you're like...
00:17:49
Speaker
I just made your life kind of painful and you want me to join your board.
00:17:53
Speaker
And it gave me an immense amount of respect for Johnny's maturity and the maturity of the team to be able to take a step back from the difficulty of that moment and draw conclusions about what was best for the company going forward with all of the emotion out of the picture.
00:18:13
Speaker
It was a really defining moment for the relationship, I think.
00:18:17
Speaker
It's one of the best decisions we could have made too.
00:18:19
Speaker
Kurt's been super instrumental in the success of our business.
00:18:22
Speaker
He's one of the C's.
00:18:23
Speaker
He is.
00:18:23
Speaker
He is one of the C's.
00:18:25
Speaker
And we meet every word of it.
00:18:26
Speaker
So whoever's listening to this and feels like, oh, this could be a story that's just for a podcast.
00:18:31
Speaker
Like, no, that really did happen.
00:18:33
Speaker
And I do believe that the entrepreneurs at Homey are cut from a different cloth.
00:18:37
Speaker
I think it all starts with Johnny and his ability to think beyond the business.
00:18:42
Speaker
The business is not going to define us.
00:18:44
Speaker
And he and I have had conversations about how personal this is for me.
00:18:47
Speaker
And I will do everything and anything to make this happen and succeed.
00:18:50
Speaker
And so will my wife and our wives and partners, our extension of the founding team.
00:18:54
Speaker
And he helped me understand that whether Homie succeeds or doesn't succeed,
00:18:59
Speaker
It's not a reflection on us as individuals.
00:19:01
Speaker
And I think being able to have a relationship, it goes back to connection with our stakeholders, our investors, our board members.
00:19:08
Speaker
That is what really matters.
00:19:10
Speaker
And I think and I hope that entrepreneurs that hear that get past the cynicism, get past the I'm going to do this by myself, get past the Silicon Valley CEO mentality.
00:19:20
Speaker
The faster you get beyond that, the faster you're going to be able to grow a business that's doing things the right way and build a team and have a trustful team.
00:19:28
Speaker
Do you agree with that's why you think they're also cut from a different cloth?
00:19:32
Speaker
I do think they're cut from a different cloth, but I was actually going to emphasize a different thought on that.
00:19:38
Speaker
And that is so many of the companies that we will back have a really interesting idea, an interesting market, a good take, and they're going to build a great business.
00:19:49
Speaker
It's not very common for a company to have an overt set of enemies that are bent on their destruction.
00:19:58
Speaker
Homi has that.
00:19:59
Speaker
And there's something about the way that gives the team energy to say, we are going to do what's right for the customer, no matter how much pushback we get, how public it becomes, how vilified we are.
00:20:16
Speaker
This is about doing the right thing.
00:20:19
Speaker
I agree.
00:20:20
Speaker
We obsess over the customer.
00:20:21
Speaker
My house has been egged.
00:20:22
Speaker
Your house has been egged?
00:20:24
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:20:24
Speaker
But I grew up in South Central LA, so I'll take an egging.
00:20:26
Speaker
You're like, that's better.
Customer Impact Stories
00:20:30
Speaker
But it's something that inspires us is we do this for the customer.
00:20:33
Speaker
I'll share one story because I think it's really powerful.
00:20:36
Speaker
And there's 7,000 of these stories after every single transaction.
00:20:39
Speaker
There's a family in Utah that couldn't conceive a child and they use Homey.
00:20:43
Speaker
to buy a home, sell a home and get a mortgage.
00:20:45
Speaker
We saved them almost $25,000.
00:20:47
Speaker
They invested in in vitro and nine months later had baby Calvin.
00:20:51
Speaker
And when I saw that baby in a homey onesie, I cried.
00:20:55
Speaker
I couldn't hold it back.
00:20:56
Speaker
And when things are tough... I'm getting a little emotional right now, actually.
00:20:59
Speaker
I've actually never shared the story without tearing up.
00:21:02
Speaker
And I probably won't do it today.
00:21:04
Speaker
But that's why we do it, right?
00:21:05
Speaker
So when my house gets egged, when the bad guys are telling us that we actually don't have attorneys that are helping customers, that we don't have licensed real estate agents and loan officers and title and escrow people, and let them continue doing that because the way we're going to continue to win...
00:21:20
Speaker
is by focusing on the customer, not on all this other garbage that happens.
00:21:25
Speaker
But there's so many wonderful stories like that that happen on the Homey platform every single day.
00:21:31
Speaker
And that's why we do what we do.
00:21:32
Speaker
I really did get really emotional of that.
00:21:34
Speaker
And the conviction that you, another C, the conviction that you have, it's just, it's palpable.
00:21:40
Speaker
And that is an amazing, inspiring thing.
00:21:42
Speaker
And I have one final question for you.
00:21:45
Speaker
What's the most effective practice you've implemented in your work and personal life that's had the greatest impact on your success?
00:21:52
Speaker
It's definitely going to start with a C. I was going to say it doesn't have to start with a C, but we'd love it if it could.
00:21:56
Speaker
I think it goes back to connection.
00:21:58
Speaker
I think life is so much more than your nine to five job.
00:22:02
Speaker
It's the relationships with the people that you have around you.
00:22:04
Speaker
And it's professionally and it's personally, especially now during COVID, especially now during this digital revolution.
00:22:11
Speaker
We spend so much time at work.
00:22:13
Speaker
Sometimes, some would argue, more time at work than at home.
00:22:16
Speaker
And they overlap a lot.
00:22:17
Speaker
And I think that before we used to resist that, I think now we have to find a way to embrace it.
00:22:22
Speaker
Definitely have boundaries.
00:22:23
Speaker
But how do those things come together to bring you more joy?
00:22:27
Speaker
And another thing that comes to mind is just discipline, is being very mindful of the things that you do from nine to five, things that you do with your family, and really be disciplined and committed.
00:22:37
Speaker
Ah, another C. It's not discipline, maybe it's commitment.
00:22:41
Speaker
Just be committed to what you're doing and be very thoughtful about the relationships and the connections you have with people.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yeah, thanks.
00:22:47
Speaker
Kurt?
00:22:47
Speaker
I would insert an L. Oh, right.
The Role of Continuous Learning
00:22:50
Speaker
Mixing it up.
00:22:50
Speaker
Mine is learn.
00:22:51
Speaker
I think...
00:22:56
Speaker
What's admirable about the best entrepreneurs, what's admirable about Mike is that every day is an opportunity to learn something new from the customer, from a past mistake, from a comment that comes from a coworker, from something he just read in a book.
00:23:14
Speaker
I think everyone should see the experience of life and of entrepreneurship as constant and continuous learning.
00:23:24
Speaker
And if you ever feel that's not happening, it's because of you, not for any other reason.
00:23:30
Speaker
I love that.
00:23:31
Speaker
My face is always in a book.
00:23:32
Speaker
I love to learn.
00:23:33
Speaker
And I think that comes from my mother and she's 60 something and she's currently working on her GD.
00:23:38
Speaker
Just really, really awesome.
00:23:39
Speaker
But I love to learn and I'm going to find a C for that.
00:23:42
Speaker
Curiosity.
00:23:43
Speaker
Ah, there he is.
00:23:44
Speaker
Curiosity.
00:23:45
Speaker
I'm just going to be writing everything.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:23:48
Speaker
I like that even more.
00:23:50
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:50
Speaker
We're just going to be talking and C's the rest of the week.
00:23:53
Speaker
That's my big takeaway.
00:23:54
Speaker
There's a synonym for everything that starts with C. That's right.
00:23:58
Speaker
So anyway, thank you, Mike and Kurt, so much for being here.
00:24:01
Speaker
I love this discussion.
00:24:03
Speaker
Really appreciate you coming.
00:24:05
Speaker
And of course, thank you for listening as we dive into what it takes to create the perfect pitch.
00:24:09
Speaker
If you want to learn more about our partner, Kurt Roberts from Kickstart and our co-founder, Mike Peregrina, and what he and his cockroach loving team are doing at Homie to make buying a home more possible for everyone, we'll have a link to the company and a longer bio in our show notes at kickstartfund.com slash perfect pitch.
00:24:25
Speaker
And don't worry, we'll figure out what book Kurt was reading and we'll put that in the show notes too, along with the 13 C's from Mike and that amazing video about Homie and the story that includes his mom.
00:24:35
Speaker
We'll catch you next time.