Ted Elliott

We negotiated the term sheet in about three hours, and I never showed up for the meeting with Dixon.

Needless to say, I will never raise a dollar from Dahl Capital because you should not show up or not even call them.

But yeah, so that's how it all got started.

And unfortunately, our original business plan was a total disaster.

And so we've pivoted, I think, twice since then.

Yeah.

So they're, they're, uh, with preferred preferences, they're about 30%, but yeah, they, I've carried them the whole time.

Yeah.

Um, my dad and I have provided debt capital to the business occasionally, uh,

Um, but it's always been, um, uh, so that we have a preferred position over all the equity in the event of a total shit show.

So instead of going to SAS capital or going to a third party, a venture debt, you basically offer the business those same terms and you make sure it's commercially reasonable and you have a third party board member, um, Oh, before job science as general counsel of a company, uh, let's see structure it.

In such a way that it's an arm's length transaction.

But generally, we were willing to give the company debt when no one else would, but on commercially viable terms.

Yeah.

And most entrepreneurs don't have what I call the bankitary, who is my father, who I've worked with my whole life.

he called himself a midwife for startups.

And so over the time I was a young child, he was always starting a new company.

And he probably had three or four wins out of 10.

And over time, I really think the secret behind his wealth is that my mom bought a house every time he started a company and redid the house.

And then for whatever reason, the real estate always worked out, even if the startup didn't.