Morgan Lavoie

I love how you take this sort of, there's a lot to do, but we don't have to do a lot and give people a framework that they can always sort of do a gut check of like, does this support the overarching goal? And we had the co-founder of Club Penguin come on the show a while ago.

And he said that they had a similar framework where, you know, the company was big and they were selling to Disney and they were getting invited to all of these conferences. And they were like, wouldn't eight-year-olds care about this? And that was sort of their their pillar. And so if an eight year old wouldn't care about it, they just sort of didn't do it.

And that was how they filtered like there's a lot to do. But what are the things that we're actually going to do and what should we be putting our focus on? And I know for for 2025, in fact, you may be announcing it today as we're as we're talking, but you're doing a partnership with Barrier Free Living. Can you talk a little bit about what that is?

I do think that that is such a smart way to provide that social impact because I remember even when I was going to college, my mom moving me in my freshman year, the first thing she said was, you have to make your bed because that's what makes you feel like you're having this fresh start in your home. That's really amazing.

I'm sure between your social impact work and the growth and profitability goals you have for next year, 2025 is going to be another great year for Rinse. And Again, like this is the time of year where businesses are making their goals for the year. Individuals are also making their goals for the year. We hear from a lot of listeners who are like, I've always wanted to start a business.

It's 2025, the year that I actually do it. Can you give advice for a founder in those shoes or a would-be founder about how to know when it's the right time to make the leap?

Yeah. And what about founders or potential founders who are in discussion with friends about starting a business together? I know that this is, of course, something that you did with James. You had known each other since college. And I think people worry if I start a business with a friend, how do I make sure that neither suffers?

The friendship doesn't suffer, but also the business doesn't suffer because of the friendship. So what advice would you give to friends who are considering starting something together?

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And that is something we've talked about a bit on the show. We do both business content, personal finance. And like you're saying about a marriage, it's so important to, once you feel like you're ready to put a ring on it, lock it in. It's like, how old do you want to be when you retire? What are your expectations about what our lifestyle will be like in retirement?

Similar to like, do you want this to be a unicorn? How long can you go without taking a salary? It's really helpful to be on the same page there. And so let's talk to some... not would-be founders, but founders, you say that one of the priorities for you is ruthless prioritization. Can you explain what that is and why that's important?

We end all of our episodes by asking our guests for one tip that listeners can take straight to the bank. That is such a good one. But if there's any other piece of advice that you could leave our listeners with on career or business, could be anything, fundraising, starting a business, what's one tip that you would leave listeners with today?

it's morgan the ep of the show filling in for nicole this week while she's on mat leave today we're going to talk about health insurance we're talking about this today because on december 4th brian thompson was murdered in midtown manhattan at 6 44 a.m he was 50 years old he played golf and wordle He had two sons.

He was also the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the health insurance company with the highest rate of claim denials in the industry. So Jia, at what point did you think to yourself, I have to write about this. That's a good question. That's Gia Tolentino. Gia is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the New York Times bestselling author of a collection of essays titled Trick Mirror.

In an interview on the podcast, We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle, Doyle said that if the news is ever dark or complicated, she asks herself her own version of what would Jesus do, which is what will Gia write about this? And I find myself doing the same thing in moments like this. Gia wrote a piece in The New Yorker about what Brian Thompson's death means to America.

It's an amazing piece, and I linked it in the show notes so you can read it if you haven't already. Here she is on why she wrote it.

comments that people were posting before the Facebook was shut down that are like burned into your mind?

merchants of violence in some way and in the way that that was just instantly flipped back onto this news story was so striking thompson's death his murder is a difficult topic to cover it's difficult because there are two truths that feel mutually exclusive brian thompson should not have been killed and the health care system in the united states is broken

If you acknowledge that second truth, some say it's disrespectful to Thompson's family or it validates this really violent act. And I do understand that criticism. But I think that reaction comes from an assumption. The assumption is this. Anyone who is talking about the flaws in the healthcare system right now is arguing that the ends justify the means.

That in this case, the ends, people looking critically at the broken healthcare system in the United States, is justifying the murder of Brian Thompson. I want to be clear, that's not what I'm doing today. I'm going to be talking about the healthcare industry, what the stakes are, and how we can have a better system. But I'm not debating whether the ends justify the means.

I'll tell you personally, I think Thompson's death is terrible and tragic. But what I'm trying to do, and I hope you'll do with me, is separate the ends and the means. to acknowledge that killing is always wrong, but also to look at how we got here, how we might be able to fix what is clearly very broken in the healthcare system.