The Hard Truth About Building a $100M Startup ft. Christian Facey (Audiomob)
episode
Funds and Founders: Untold Journeys Behind Their Breakthroughs
1h 0m
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 13 days ago
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What does it really take to survive the first years of building a startup?
A lot of people do not fundamentally do not understand the sacrifices it will take in order to become an entrepreneur. It's not just about the idea. I tell people that I mentor, luckily a lot of which have gone on to become successful, you've got to sacrifice ten years. I'm telling you, you've got to sacrifice everything in ten years and you'll probably do it.
And I think one thing that folks don't talk about when starting a company is
close loved ones passing away and you have to go up on stage like the day after the the founder that's the anchor. It's like as Jordan Peterson said and all of my most successful friends have all been through this exact same thing, whether it's you know they've you know lost a loved one, they've gone through a really bad breakup, they've been financially screwed or whatever, and you have to be an anchor for, you know, your employees, your family, etc. And that shit is hard. a lot of people don't know, for instance, you know, I had a job at Google as a scientist of Facebook. Like it pays all right, right? But I was broke. Throughout the whole process, again it's gonna sound harsh, but you know, it's true.
Yeah. Not everyone's meant to be a founder. So you're saying that if you, you know, really good product guy or really good CTO and you're the tech guy, that's your founder thing, right? And someone comes and screws your marketing, something leaks, oh you get sued or something, right? Yeah. Or in your finances, right?
I think one thing that to your point founders don't understand, if you're chasing those big checks, those big checks come with all of this associated customer service and you know going out of your way and then you also wanna close the deal, now you wanna leave a good impression.
Hey guys, welcome back to Funds and Founders. We have Christian on today. Um I'm in New York for the week, so I just bombarded everyone I know and asked folks to come on. Before we get started, Christian, why don't you just tell listeners who you are, what you're working on, where they can find you in one message if you want someone to just if they drop off right after this, what what should they remember?
Yeah, sure. So I'm Christian. I'm the uh co founder and CEO of Audio Mob. Uh we invented non intrusive audio ads in mobile games, mobile apps, etc. So let's say you're uh, you know, racing uh a car, you crash it, you usually get an annoying video ad that pops up in the mobile game. With us, for instance, uh an audio ad would play out of the car's radio. So it's that background kind of non intrusive stuff. Uh so yeah, that's what I do. Uh Launched it in 2020. Uh grew up in London. Now I'm bouncing between New York and Abu Dhabi. And in terms of a key, key thing to remember, because I'm quite blunt. I'm gonna give a lot of advice if I'm asked for it. Yeah. But uh I would say a lot of people do not they fundamentally do not understand the sacrifices it will take in order to become an entrepreneur.
It's not just about the idea. I tell people that I mentor uh Luckily a lot of which have gone on to become successful, you've got to sacrifice ten years.
Yeah.
You got I'm telling you, you've got to sacrifice everything in ten years and you'll probably do it. But we can sp we can, you know, talk a bit more about that later. And in terms of where to find me, Instagram, Christian Facey, LinkedIn. I actually do want some I DMs. So Okay, nice.
Sweet. Um, one thing I wanted to get started with is we started twenty twenty. They've been a lot of peaks and troughs in the entrepreneurship space since twenty twenty. A lot of money flowing in, a lot of money flowing out. Yeah. Crazy, crazy valuations. If you were to look back, everything you know now, everything you've learned in the last five years, would you still go back and start Audio Mob or do you just stick to the path? I know you're at HP, Samsung, Google, big tech, you've you've done the rounds on the corporate side. How would you My company
wouldn't be worth a hundred million dollars would be worth a billion dollars if I had the knowledge now and started it back then?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does it really take to survive the first years of building a startup?
0:00–7:18
2
How does resilience help founders push through personal loss and pandemic shutdowns?
7:18–15:07
3
Why is relentless focus more important than hustle quotes for early‑stage founders?
15:07–21:51
4
What legal pitfalls should a first‑time founder watch out for when raising capital?
21:51–29:26
5
Why must founders understand finance basics and monitor their own books?
29:26–39:07
6
How can you hire the right team early and why don’t contractors scale?
39:07–49:24
7
What mindset shift is needed to attract investors and close big deals?
49:24–57:40
8
How do you rebuild company culture after rapid growth and perk overload?
57:40–1:00:25
Speakers
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