March 8, 2024 • 37 mins
In the latest episode of The Founders Odyssey, host Nathan Byrd sits down with Scott Hughes, the founder of Saniderm Medical and RushVP. With countless achievements under his belt, including having built companies. Hughes has a wealth of wisdom to share when it comes to entrepreneurship.
Discover Hughes' journey as an entrepreneur, from his initial setback after failing to get into dental school, to stepping out of his comfort zone to build a revolutionary wound care healing and premium tattoo aftercare product company. He also shares his experience of founding RushVP, a novel foreign currency trading entity deploying algorithms and manual trades.
This inspiring tale of perseverance will provide invaluable insights into entrepreneurship for burgeoning business leaders and those interested in the journey of start-ups. It’s a must-listen for anyone looking to learn about the nuances of business growth, the importance of knowing your product, and the rewards and challenges faced along the journey.
Scott also describes his experiences with managing a growing team, from delegating responsibilities to employees, to maintaining trust and allowing flexibility in their roles for increased satisfaction and productivity. Furthermore, his views on business loans, staying ahead in stock, and maintaining inventory offer candid and insightful knowledge.
After stepping down from the operational role at Saniderm, Scott continues to contribute as a board member and dabbles in his new venture, Rush Venture Partners. Hear Hughes speak candidly about the trials and tribulations of the tattoo industry, his optimism for Saniderm’s future, and how he envisions the role of Rush Venture Partners in boosting global wealth and philanthropy.
Stay tuned to Founders Odyssey for more riveting entrepreneurial stories and subscribe to never miss an episode!
Learn more: https://www.rushvp.com
Podcast: https://www.thefoundersodyssey.com
Nathan Byrd: https://www.nathanbyrd.co
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Founders Odyssey podcast, where we interview people of built
companies, sold companies, taking companies public, raise funds,
and are making a significant impact in the world today.
My name is Nathan Bird, and I will be your host for today.
Our next outstanding entrepreneur, Scott Hughes, is an incredibly smart and
talented founder of a company called Saniderm Medical.
(00:23):
It's a global leader in wound care healing and premium tattoo aftercare products,
which allows for customers faster wound healing, vibrant colors, and reduced scabbing.
Scott has recently founded a foreign currency trading opportunity using algorithms
and manual trades called RushVP.
(00:44):
We're happy to have you on the Founders Odyssey today, and I'm looking forward
to getting to know you a little bit better as an entrepreneur.
Yeah, it's fantastic to be here. Appreciate the opportunity. Yeah.
So share with me a little bit about what your perspective is on the actual term of entrepreneurship.
What does that mean to you? So entrepreneurship is all about being,
(01:04):
creating opportunities, creating your own destiny.
It's controlling, you know, where you're at, what you do, how you spend your time.
And that is really the goal for me.
You know, growing up, I was always wanting to be a dentist.
I was studying, you know, in college, I was pre-dental taking all those classes.
(01:29):
And thinking that's what I wanted to do. Luckily, I didn't get into dental school.
I tried working, you know, a regular nine to five job and found out that there's
really no control there.
You know, you have your, your time set, you have what your time is worth set
and there's, there's a limit.
And, you know, for a lot of people, that's fine and nothing wrong with that.
(01:52):
For me, that, that didn't work. work.
You know, I didn't feel like I had the freedom to do what I wanted to do,
how I wanted to do it. I saw better opportunities in the processes that I was
doing for the company that I worked for.
And so that's when I really got the idea, you know, I want to be an entrepreneur.
I want to have this control. I want to control my destiny, control my time,
(02:15):
control, you know, how I contribute to the world.
So that's when I really started just being like, you know what, i need to learn how
to be an entrepreneur so first thing right off
the bat i'm like you know i just need to start reading so i started
getting books on amazon and just reading
you know how to form an llc you know things about business taxes things just
(02:37):
your classic books think and grow rich you know napoleon hill making friends
and influencing people just these books and started getting really excited about
it and really just wanted to push forward on an entrepreneurial path path from
there. What age did this start?
So this was, you know, I wasn't super young.
I mean, relatively speaking, I was about 29 years old. Okay.
(02:58):
You know, I, I graduated college. I worked, you know, in corporate,
the corporate world for about seven years before I was like,
you know what? I just can't keep doing this.
Yeah. Once you get the entrepreneurial bug, you really can't go go back when
you i know when i first made you know a sale by myself and then had money you know.
(03:22):
With a check, right? Somebody paid me for what I did.
And it was nobody else that was telling me what I couldn't or could do.
It's an amazing experience. Can you remember that first time where you had your
first customer? And what led to that?
Yeah, so that's true. Getting that first arm's length deal when it's someone
(03:43):
besides your mom or your friend buying your products, that's really exciting.
So for me, it all started. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, wanted to start down
that path, had no idea what I was going to do.
But I had read Napoleon Seale's book and the concept of a mastermind.
So I started meeting with my friends once a week, some of my coworkers and some high school friends.
(04:08):
We would discuss new business ideas every single week, like,
all right, which one of these makes sense? What can you do with these different ideas?
And out of that came the idea of selling bandages into the tattoo industry to heal new tattoos.
Now, you know, at the time I had no tattoos.
I'd never even been in a tattoo shop before, honestly. I thought this is a really cool idea.
(04:32):
I got my Excel spreadsheets and started mapping out like how many people are
getting tattoos, how much I could sell the products for and got super excited.
Like this is a real opportunity.
I want to try this. Right.
And right at that same time.
A mentor of mine or at the time he was something I just looked up to.
(04:52):
Very successful entrepreneur, very successful venture capitalist.
I grew up just as a backyard neighbor of him.
And I reached out to him and I said, Hey, like I'm really wanting to do the entrepreneur thing.
Do you have any tips or ideas or suggestions for me?
He's like, well, actually I'm doing a entrepreneur training starting in like next week.
(05:14):
I do this every year for entrepreneurs. Why don't you just come to to that. So like, sweet.
So I went to this, this training with him and it was, it went on for several weeks.
It was once a week and partway into it, he decided to make it a competition,
like apprentice style, you know, where we had different tasks and different
things we had to do, but we were, there was also learning and different speakers that came in.
(05:35):
And one of the key things that I learned, you know, in that whole process about
selling had to do with, you know, know, sell first, you know,
so many people get caught up in, Oh, I need to design something amazing.
I need to build something amazing. I need to have an awesome website and then I can start selling.
Right. So this idea of sell first really hit me and like, that's what I need to do.
(06:00):
Like, I don't want to waste any time building a website, doing any of these
other things until I know that this idea of selling these bandages is a good one.
So I found a manufacturer that could manufacture the bandages the way I wanted,
had them just make me one box of samples.
I had no packaging. I had no logo. I had no website.
(06:21):
I hadn't spent any money on anything else except for this one box of samples, right?
And I put those samples in a Walmart bag,
you know, just regular grocery bag and walked into a tattoo shop for my first
time ever and convinced them that that this guy with no tattoos had a really
great way of healing their tattoos.
(06:42):
Now I didn't tell them I didn't have any tattoos. I made sure to wear a long
pants and long sleeves and they couldn't see it.
I had this background from, you know, all the pre-dental classes where I could
talk intelligently about physiology, about the skin, about wound healing and
convince them just to try the product.
Right. And they tried it, came back a week later, they loved it and they bought the product.
(07:08):
And I was like, this is fantastic. I've got a real, real opportunity here.
So I went through all those samples and started selling them.
Once I'd gone through all those, that first first batch of samples that I got,
I'm like, okay, it's time to design a logo.
It's time to build a website. So I had literally been selling my product from
about July of 2011 up until April of 2011 before I even built a website.
(07:33):
Right. I did finally get a name. I did design a logo in that process,
but it wasn't until March or April when I had a website and I had kind of exhausted
the Utah territory and decide, okay, it's time to expand out.
But built the website, started making phone calls.
And I remember the very first sale I got, it was like April 11th of 2012.
(07:54):
Somebody came to my website, bought my product. And that is a fantastic thing.
Like you said, when someone that I didn't even know came to my website,
paid full price for my product, didn't have to give them any discounts,
you know, and it was, it's really an exciting feeling.
Yeah, let's walk through that process of, well, first, I like what you said
(08:15):
about just getting started.
I think too many people, they stop themselves from actually being successful
based on just getting started and thinking that they have to have everything
already lined up, right?
Exactly. And I think that you are a perfect testament of just getting started,
(08:36):
solving a problem, but also knowing your product in and out.
And I think for all those founders out there, you must be solving a problem.
You must know your product very, very well.
And then you must have the courage to just go out and step out and create what
(08:57):
you'd like for your future.
Right so share with us a little bit about creating your future and stepping
out being courageous so honestly walking into that first tattoo shop took a
ton of courage no I'm I've never been a super social outgoing guy.
You know, and for me to walk into a tattoo shop where I've never even been in
(09:20):
a tattoo shop took a, it was, it was really scary for me.
You know, I had no idea how they were going to receive the product.
I had no idea how they're going to receive me.
And it's kind of a tricky situation. These guys are tattoo artists.
They've been in the industry, you know, for years and years,
I've been healing their tattoos a certain way for years and years.
And here's some guy walking in saying you, here's a better way to heal your tattoos.
(09:42):
I've got something new that's going to, that better than what you've been doing
your entire lives, your entire careers, right?
That was kind of scary, honestly, but I'm like, you know what?
I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to walk in.
I know this product is superior. I know that these bandages are used in hospitals,
you know, in clinical settings and to, for to heal surgeries,
abrasions, wounds. And I know they're going to work on tattoos.
(10:05):
They're going to heal these tattoos so much better, so much cleaner.
And it's so much, you know, in, in a safer way than what they were using back then.
You know, back then they were using saran wrap and masking tape.
Yeah. Right. And a lot of people still do, unfortunately.
But when I walked in and had that courage just to, to try and be like,
(10:25):
here's a product, it is superior.
Your tattoos are going to heal better. Your clients are going to thank you, you know, and it worked.
Luckily that was just a good timing, a good product and people bought in.
Yeah, so share with us that kind of the maturation of the company, right?
So you went from yourself to, did you have some other people that you started
(10:51):
to recruit as a part of a team to help?
Or share with us the maturation of the company and then how you personally matured
through that process as a business owner and leader.
Okay, absolutely. So like I said, I started the company in 2011.
2011, I was actually still working nine to five in my, my corporate job.
(11:12):
And so I could only really go door
to door and deliver the products in the evenings, which is what I did.
Once we started selling online, I was married at the time and my wife,
she would ship out the product.
As soon as the orders came in, we would hurry or she'd hurry and pack those up and ship those out.
So I actually had this as a side hustle for the first three years where I was,
(11:36):
you know, making my phone calls at night, you know, doing my deliveries,
you know, here locally at night.
But the cool thing was in my industry, the tattoo industry, I could get home
from work at 6 PM and I could call tattoo shops until 10 PM.
Right? They didn't care. They're still open.
Right. And, and a lot of times when I would call I'd call them and I'd, I'd talk to them.
(11:57):
They'd be like, Hey, thanks for calling. You're actually like the first solicitor
to ever call us, you know, cause the tattoo industry was so overlooked.
The tattoo industry is really, really new when you, you don't,
people don't realize that it wasn't even legal to tattoo in the United States
and all 50 States until 2006.
Right. And I started my company here in 2011.
(12:18):
So it was right on that initial wave of the tattoo industry,
really kind kind of growing and they were hungry for new ideas, new innovations.
And these banded is that I brought were perfect for that.
So I built the company as a side hustle for three years, just working in the evenings.
Eventually it took more than just evenings, which unfortunately or fortunately
(12:41):
led to me getting fired from my corporate job because I ended up having to work
my Sanitum job on company time.
My boss found out and that was it.
But when that happened, and I wasn't even fully ready to be all in, right?
I wasn't making enough money to support me and my family and my business.
I thought, you know what?
(13:02):
If I put a full-time effort in this, it's going to work. And I did.
And when I started working full-time, the business tripled that year.
And I worked at just myself for that first year.
After that, the number of orders were growing and I couldn't handle running
the company and the orders.
(13:23):
So our first hire was just a neighborhood kid to come into our basement where
we had all of our inventory and to package orders.
Share with us a little bit about the all-in and how you started to structure
with organization your schedule because now, you know, you could be on or you could be off, right?
(13:44):
So share with us a little bit of how you structured your day to be successful.
And yeah. Okay. So the tattoo industry is unique.
Tattoo shops, you know, are often closed on Mondays. they
don't open until noon or one and then
they work late so i can reuse the morning hours to
prepare you know marketing material to
(14:05):
study seo because i did everything myself you know
and with my wife at the time and we you
know would prepare marketing material emails you
know create our ads and it was a
lot of work a lot of fun but the the timing was
perfect mornings could be spent and doing that and in the afternoons i
could get on the on the phone start making phone calls you know
(14:28):
just cold calls and i'd just get a list
and go through google you know google tattoo shops in
albuquerque and just go down the list start calling
and then just keeping track of them in excel spreadsheets and
that's how we grew the company you know
i think i i think a lot of entrepreneurs could really do the same thing
i mean we have so much information out there right now as far as contacts and
(14:51):
yeah segmentation and really when i look back at it you know and looking at
other people who start businesses you know i never raise money like some people
like oh i gotta go raise money i gotta build a website i gotta do this i gotta do that.
I didn't take that path i just sold go out and sell then design then build you
(15:11):
know you need to To validate your idea,
you need to get money coming in, and then you can build, then you can expand.
And using that model, I never had to raise money. We didn't take on any debt
for the first, like, five years, right?
Everything was grassroots, everything was cash, everything was self-funded,
because we were able to grow and grow.
(15:34):
This grassroots method. I think more
entrepreneurs need to hear that the grassroots, the grassroots method.
And I think it's almost a cop-out to have to raise funds, you know,
you know, before you really find a product market fit.
Yeah. So many people are like, Oh, I don't have the money to start my own business.
Oh, I don't have the time to start my own business.
I was working nine to five, right? I had a full-time job and I started this as a side hustle.
(15:58):
Yeah. And I didn't necessarily So I put in 40 hours a week at first,
you know, I was putting in, you know, six until 10 PM in those evenings.
And that's it. It took a little time to really get going.
But at the same time, we were also changing the behavior of an entire industry, right?
We had to educate like, this is how these bandages work. This is how tattoos need to heal.
(16:20):
This is the physiology of your skin. This is why it works.
And so we had to really craft a message to educate people. people
and you know even doing that
we still were doubling in growth every single year at
least doubling so you went from the
basement it was just you then your
wife helped you and now we're stepping into
(16:41):
doubling every year right so so
let's walk through that once again maturation of
the company did you end up getting a warehouse a 3pl
yes so once you know
once the basement wasn't big enough all my
neighbors were so fed up with the semi-truck blocking the road
for half the day while we unloaded the semi-truck by hand because we didn't
(17:04):
have forklifts or anything like that and we would literally just call up all
the neighbor kids like hey come here we'll pay you 15 bucks an hour to come
help unload this truck and we would just take the boxes out i had to I had a
hole cut in my garage into my basement,
and then we put a ramp, just like a giant board.
We'd put the boxes on there, and it would slide down into the basement,
(17:25):
and then somebody in the basement would go and organize the boxes in there.
And we'd fill the entire basement. We just had paths, you know, between the boxes.
Do you have any pictures of this? I'd love to see. We do have some pictures.
I don't know if I could find them. I know we took pictures.
And so there was a point when we were like, you know what? We can't fit this in the basement.
(17:46):
I'd really like to have access to my ping pong table again. Yes.
So let's get a warehouse.
So we did. We moved into a warehouse just not too far from where we're at right
now over here on 90th South.
Utah, for those that are outside of the city. Right here in Utah, in Sandy City, Utah.
And we actually moved into some office space we just shared right there in the same building.
(18:07):
And we fulfilled out of that building for about a year before we got a 3PL that
took over all of our shipping once it got just too much for us to handle. Yeah.
So as we build a business, I mean, there's a few different areas of adversity that you'll face.
Can you share with me, you know, maybe one that can resonate with you and then
(18:27):
also how you kind of overcome that for those out there that are listening?
And then I'm sure everybody goes through different challenges, right?
Whether it be employees, you know, manufacturing, supply, you know,
supply chain, payroll, embezzlement, not to say that that happened,
but, you know, what did you guys experience?
(18:48):
So, one of the hardest things for me, so we hired our first employee in 2015
just to handle the shipping.
Just come in, pack your orders, ship them out.
That employee's responsibilities grew. She was just 16 years old,
but they grew and she got better and better at doing other things.
(19:10):
And one of the hardest things for me was to hire other people and start delegating.
Like I had done everything for the company, you know, for four years before
I really started hiring people.
And as I started hiring people out, there's a couple of things I noticed.
I started like feeling a little helpless.
Right. And there was definitely some just feelings of being lost.
(19:35):
Like, okay, if they're doing that task now, what else do I do?
Right and so that was really hard for me to
to kind of let go but ultimately i realized you
know these people i'm hiring they're better at that specific task
than me and that was a fantastic realization that you know i can hire people
who are smarter than me who are better than me at these different tasks you
(19:57):
know people who have had experience doing this stuff like i was doing you know
like my own seo research and own you know marketing material and once i started
hiring hiring people who really knew that stuff, it was great to see what they could do.
And I'm very pleased to say that, you know, all of my employees were better at me.
Their specific tasks than I was before. I would still guide and direct and,
(20:18):
you know, make my suggestions, but ultimately they knew what they were doing
and trusting in them was really beneficial.
And luckily I didn't hire really good people. We have always had a great team.
So as far as the systematic approach to the development of systems within the
company, company, what did you do to create those systems? Because I know it's so important.
(20:44):
Was it, you know, task out the specifics that you want for that individual?
You know, because a lot of people, you know, your employees are only as good
as the instructions that you give them, right?
And then whatever, whenever I'm consulting with companies, I always see an infraction
in essence with the documentation process.
(21:05):
So how did you guys start to document in
and share that with others so we
just hired you know for specific pieces we would
get you know how people start you know part-time they would
come in and we would hire a sales rep and just
show them here's the script that i've been using you know take that modify it
(21:25):
to fit yourself you know here's the the way i've been calling people the times
i've been calling people how i've been tracking it and just kind of you pass
that information on but but ultimately you know They would have their own ideas.
They had experience in sales, more so than I had had even in different arenas.
They could apply their own information,
(21:45):
their own twists on what was being done, and their own talents.
And just doing that, we were able to expand, diversify, and really grow.
And luckily, like I said, we found really great people who could do more than one thing.
Like in a startup people have people have to wear a
(22:06):
lot of hats right and you people
can't necessarily just wear one hat because there's just
too much to do and not enough people and so you know
we overcame that by just really having good communication and making sure we
were all knew what needed to be done and and getting those tasks i like what
you said earlier today on this is it was really about letting go and but also
(22:30):
being there you know kind of having a little bit bit of oversight,
but not to the point where the individuals as a part of your company are feeling,
micromanaged, you know, and that's really leader, you know, transformational
leadership truly cares about, you know, the five core key components on Maslow's
hierarchy of needs, right?
As opposed to only the three that transactional leadership looks at.
(22:52):
And you're empowering the employees,
you know, as partners in essence to build this with you together.
And I believe that's so so important.
So, yeah. Yeah, like I said, one of the things I hated about corporate America
was being told exactly how I had to do everything.
Like there was a very defined set process of.
(23:12):
Things that needed to be done. And to me, they didn't make sense.
And I did not want to impose that on my employees. I wanted to make them have
ownership, have skin in the game, have their own ideas in the game.
And that way, it's got better ideas by combining multiple people's skills and talents and ideas.
That's very wise of you to start maturing in that way.
(23:35):
Share with us, now you are starting, I mean, you've really grown now.
You've got warehouse people people that have worked for you.
You've got your whole manufacturers on speed dial in essence.
So, and you said you had to take on a little debt, but that was probably just
growth capital at that time to just really expedite the entire process.
(23:57):
Yes. The first debt we took on was to help with inventory.
Because like I said, we were doubling or more every single year.
So our biggest challenge in the beginning was keeping up
with demand and keeping our product in stock
right so we the first
time we ever got a loan was the you know 50 000 sba loan to help get a little
(24:21):
extra inventory so we could get ahead of that curve yeah you know plus it probably
helps with your little margins too you know if you order in in bulk yes we would
order in bulk but you know we were ordering from china our.
Our run times were incredibly long. And so we really needed to get ahead of
that, get all, all the products here that we could so we could really grow.
(24:44):
Cause we were running out of products all the time. We could not keep them in stock.
So that was what our first loans were for getting ahead of that inventory.
That's good. Yeah. So bring us to the point where you're, where you are now with the company.
I know just recently that you have, and you'll, you can explain this too,
too, but step down, but yet you're still part of the board and the company is in great hands.
(25:10):
So share with us a little bit about the process to really getting to where it
is today, because it's a global leader, correct?
Yeah. So we have sales in over a hundred countries.
We keep track of our website. I don't know where the number's at exactly,
but we can keep track of how many customers we've had.
And it's around 7 million customers or tattoos healed at this point based on
(25:32):
our estimations of the products we've sold.
So going back, we started hiring.
We ended up getting more and more employees taking over more and more tasks.
Five years ago, I ended up hiring a CEO to replace myself.
I assumed the role of president of the company and just was overseeing.
And I was managing new products.
Our bread and opportunity in all the tattoo industry to have other products
(26:02):
to go along with the bandages to improve healing.
So we added lotions, we added balms, we've added soaps, and they're fantastic
products. We grew that way.
And with our new CEO at the helm for the last five years, things have continued to grow.
We've had our struggles, you know, COVID was a struggle, you know,
the tattoo industry was closed for months.
(26:23):
We were able to withstand that. We've had our share of manufacturing and shipping issues.
We've gotten through those, but yeah.
This year, in the past just like five weeks, I stepped down and officially,
you know, in quotes, retired.
I'm still an owner of the company, still involved at the board level,
(26:44):
but no longer at an operational level.
Are you at liberty to explain a
little bit of the, was it a stock purchase buyout from the company to you?
Or whatever you're comfortable with explaining here as to how that was structured?
Because some, you know, some entrepreneurs out there are seasoned and they're
listening to this, you know, wanting to either exit their company or currently
(27:08):
replace or do something like that.
So can you explain? Yeah. So my retirement was simply me just stepping down
from my operational role.
I didn't take a buyout. I didn't take anything.
I still have my same ownership in the company, still have my same member board
position in the company.
But I did step down because the company's in good hands.
(27:31):
I had managed it from a president level for the last five years.
I'm seeing things going in a really good direction starting this year.
So I was able to step out of that
operational role and last year I had started another company
and that company is doing really well and
decided you know what Saniderm's in good hands
(27:51):
this other company's got some great potential I'm
going to go focus on this well I still have my eyes on
Saniderm you know involved in knowing what's
going on I'm going to really go focus on this other opportunity now that's
good well let's talk a little bit about you know
the future now and what you're excited about building and what this next opportunity
(28:12):
is and how did it present itself to you so share with me a little bit about
the next opportunity you're excited about so then my new opportunity is called
rush venture partners and i did start that company.
Last February, so just over a year ago. And the whole idea came from,
as I had a little extra time, as president of the company,
(28:36):
I still had an operational role, but I did have some free time where I could
start studying and other things. Same thing I did when I had my corporate job.
I'm like, you know what? I'm going to find something else to do.
And I read all these books. So the same thing in this situation,
I had some extra time, started watching videos, started studying.
My idea was to really learn how to invest.
I had never learned how to invest, how to manage my money.
(29:00):
And so I had been spending a lot of time learning about trading,
different investment opportunities, and decided I'm going to give this a shot.
So I had started trading foreign currencies and programming and using algorithms
to do do that, those trades.
And it was going really well. So that's when I decided I'm going to start another
(29:22):
company now around this foreign currency trading.
And that was the genesis of Rush Venture Partners.
Do you have any education that you are planning to either create for that company
to be able to help people understand what you now know?
Yeah. So there's a lot of of opportunities roadmap home yeah there's a
(29:44):
lot of opportunities around the foreign currency right now
what we're doing is that we're
doing the trading and for people who qualify
they can you know
create their own accounts and we offer a copy trading
type service where their accounts will copy the trades that are happening in
(30:05):
my account or in the the company's account can you Can you explain a little
bit more in detail on foreign exchange and how the company makes its money or
those that are part of the opportunity can make money themselves?
Yeah. So foreign currency, the Forex as it's called market is,
it is a ginormous market.
(30:25):
It's 30 times larger than the US stock market.
There's so much money that has changed between banks, between people,
between countries every single day.
And the value of
each different country's currency is
changing all day long by thousands or
hundreds of a cent is all it really takes and so using leverage we're able to
(30:48):
spot those changes and well me or our algorithm will spot you know opportunities
to see when where those price changes are going to happen and buy those different
currencies and take advantage of those, those fluctuating prices.
Will the software automatically sell for you? Yes. The software automatically buys and sells.
(31:08):
That's incredible. So the software is incredibly effective.
We've had fantastic returns and it's, it's been very exciting.
Yeah, it's really interesting. I mean, I would, as an entrepreneur,
you're always looking for diversification of a portfolio,
you know, and the purpose of having Scott here on the podcast is in essence
(31:31):
to get to learn about him a little bit better and then also have him educate you on,
you know, what he is seeing as an entrepreneur within the opportunities that
they're starting to really look at right now.
Can you explain a little bit about the, you know, current forecast forecast
of the business that you guys have now started,
(31:51):
and then also maybe the future as well, because we have some interesting things
happening within just currencies in general.
So can you maybe share a little insight as to the future of currency?
It's hard to say exactly where currency will go. I mean, it's changing every single day.
And we're just trying to take advantage of just little micro changes up and
(32:13):
down. We only trade the most stable currencies in the world.
We're We're not trying to take these massive swings by these more volatile currencies.
For the most part, currencies will stay almost horizontal. They'll go up a little
bit, they'll go down a little bit, but it's always kind of a pretty steady thing
(32:33):
in the grand scheme of things.
So we just take advantage of those little micro changes and we try to avoid
if there's going to be big news about the Japanese yen, then that's when we'll
be like, okay, we're going to turn the algorithm off.
(33:15):
Just not play. for an actual company or is it just something that
you guys are currently it sounds like it's it's got
something you're currently doing of course increasing your
overall knowledge and then just sharing it with others because you're
you're having so much success so our our real goal so
it's rush venture partners but we call the trading account elios elios is the
goddess of human kindness of philanthropy of brotherly love right so our goal
(33:42):
is to increase increase our customers or investors ability to give back.
So, you know, with Sanoderm, the goal was to, you know, to build a company and,
and have people heal their tattoos better, be more comfortable expressing themselves, um.
You know, through that, the healing process of the tattoos or any of those other body modifications.
(34:04):
And now I really feel like I want to just give back and increase other people's ability to give back.
So we have this opportunity where people can grow their money at a rate that's
really exciting and give back.
So we have, you know, our pool of investors or customers
(34:24):
that we communicate with on a regular basis we
have calls with them you know monthly and
the idea is to bring in and introduce different charities
to our investors and help them find you
know good opportunities to really give back and improve the
world i love that so yeah so
creating your own micro economy of success but also being
(34:47):
able to do the tom's model right yeah exactly
helping out the the the community huh so we
encourage our customers our investors our account
holders i would go whatever you want to call them to give back
and not just anybody can can join or become an
investor we you know we try to vet everybody and make sure they're
people that are those kind of people yeah and kind
(35:09):
of good for culture too because if you're having these team meetings it's really
important for everyone to really buy into the
you know the future of of elios like
you're saying and being being able to give back and that's a
it's a noble cause and i'm looking forward to
seeing some of the ways that you guys you and your
partner philip are are able to really help you know different communities worldwide
(35:32):
yeah so i see it well i just wanted to thank you so much for joining us today
in the founders odyssey podcast and just you know sharing with us your past
your present and the future and what you're excited about i personally once
again i'm excited for for you.
So how do people get a hold of you or how can they follow you?
(35:52):
You can definitely reach out to me on LinkedIn, on Instagram.
I would love to connect and give back in any way I can, give any advice or suggestions to people.
You know, I got a lot of help and advice when I started, like we're here in
the, the, the Larry Miller campus on the community college here in Salt Lake.
And I was just telling you before we started, like I spent a lot of time here
working with the small business development center.
(36:14):
I remember my first counselor here, if they're, I don't know if they're called
counselors or coaches, but yeah, this was 12 years ago.
Mark Smolenski was his name. He's the guy who taught taught me how to import
products from China, right? And that was huge.
Basically started your entire business. So he gave me that idea because at first
we were looking at, you know, using, you know, a U.S.
Manufacturer, a manufacturer or a company that was already making those bandages
(36:37):
for the hospitals, but ended up being way too expensive.
The tattoo industry was not going to be able to afford hospital-like prices for these bandages.
And that's when I'm like, well, what if I go to China? They can manufacture
the same thing. The patents on these bandages expired because they've been used
in hospitals for over 20 years. Patents are only good for 20 years.
So that's when I was able to go and find a new manufacturer that would make
(37:00):
the same product in China for a fraction of the cost and then import.
Port so yeah you know you started a whole chinese market over
there too shoot so yeah we started we started
that and you know 12 years ago and now there are dozens of
chinese knockoffs yeah amazon all over
the world so we did we
really changed the way tattoos are healed created a
(37:23):
whole new you know industry of tattoo aftercare really
yeah um and it's both exciting and
frustrating to see the the competition we created yeah you know
but well you know first the top you know that's pretty much what it is well
yeah we're still we're the we're the verb people gotta stand under their tattoos
perfect well thank you once again and guys if you like today's episode feel
(37:45):
free to share with your friends and also subscribe to the show we'll talk to you again soon.
Welcome to the Founders Odyssey podcast, where we interview people of built
companies, sold companies, taking companies public, raise funds,
and are making a significant impact in the world today.
My name is Nathan Bird, and I will be your host for today.
Our next outstanding entrepreneur, Scott Hughes, is an incredibly smart and
talented founder of a company called Saniderm Medical.
(00:23):
It's a global leader in wound care healing and premium tattoo aftercare products,
which allows for customers faster wound healing, vibrant colors, and reduced scabbing.
Scott has recently founded a foreign currency trading opportunity using algorithms
and manual trades called RushVP.
(00:44):
We're happy to have you on the Founders Odyssey today, and I'm looking forward
to getting to know you a little bit better as an entrepreneur.
Yeah, it's fantastic to be here. Appreciate the opportunity. Yeah.
So share with me a little bit about what your perspective is on the actual term of entrepreneurship.
What does that mean to you? So entrepreneurship is all about being,
(01:04):
creating opportunities, creating your own destiny.
It's controlling, you know, where you're at, what you do, how you spend your time.
And that is really the goal for me.
You know, growing up, I was always wanting to be a dentist.
I was studying, you know, in college, I was pre-dental taking all those classes.
(01:29):
And thinking that's what I wanted to do. Luckily, I didn't get into dental school.
I tried working, you know, a regular nine to five job and found out that there's
really no control there.
You know, you have your, your time set, you have what your time is worth set
and there's, there's a limit.
And, you know, for a lot of people, that's fine and nothing wrong with that.
(01:52):
For me, that, that didn't work. work.
You know, I didn't feel like I had the freedom to do what I wanted to do,
how I wanted to do it. I saw better opportunities in the processes that I was
doing for the company that I worked for.
And so that's when I really got the idea, you know, I want to be an entrepreneur.
I want to have this control. I want to control my destiny, control my time,
(02:15):
control, you know, how I contribute to the world.
So that's when I really started just being like, you know what, i need to learn how
to be an entrepreneur so first thing right off
the bat i'm like you know i just need to start reading so i started
getting books on amazon and just reading
you know how to form an llc you know things about business taxes things just
(02:37):
your classic books think and grow rich you know napoleon hill making friends
and influencing people just these books and started getting really excited about
it and really just wanted to push forward on an entrepreneurial path path from
there. What age did this start?
So this was, you know, I wasn't super young.
I mean, relatively speaking, I was about 29 years old. Okay.
(02:58):
You know, I, I graduated college. I worked, you know, in corporate,
the corporate world for about seven years before I was like,
you know what? I just can't keep doing this.
Yeah. Once you get the entrepreneurial bug, you really can't go go back when
you i know when i first made you know a sale by myself and then had money you know.
(03:22):
With a check, right? Somebody paid me for what I did.
And it was nobody else that was telling me what I couldn't or could do.
It's an amazing experience. Can you remember that first time where you had your
first customer? And what led to that?
Yeah, so that's true. Getting that first arm's length deal when it's someone
(03:43):
besides your mom or your friend buying your products, that's really exciting.
So for me, it all started. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, wanted to start down
that path, had no idea what I was going to do.
But I had read Napoleon Seale's book and the concept of a mastermind.
So I started meeting with my friends once a week, some of my coworkers and some high school friends.
(04:08):
We would discuss new business ideas every single week, like,
all right, which one of these makes sense? What can you do with these different ideas?
And out of that came the idea of selling bandages into the tattoo industry to heal new tattoos.
Now, you know, at the time I had no tattoos.
I'd never even been in a tattoo shop before, honestly. I thought this is a really cool idea.
(04:32):
I got my Excel spreadsheets and started mapping out like how many people are
getting tattoos, how much I could sell the products for and got super excited.
Like this is a real opportunity.
I want to try this. Right.
And right at that same time.
A mentor of mine or at the time he was something I just looked up to.
(04:52):
Very successful entrepreneur, very successful venture capitalist.
I grew up just as a backyard neighbor of him.
And I reached out to him and I said, Hey, like I'm really wanting to do the entrepreneur thing.
Do you have any tips or ideas or suggestions for me?
He's like, well, actually I'm doing a entrepreneur training starting in like next week.
(05:14):
I do this every year for entrepreneurs. Why don't you just come to to that. So like, sweet.
So I went to this, this training with him and it was, it went on for several weeks.
It was once a week and partway into it, he decided to make it a competition,
like apprentice style, you know, where we had different tasks and different
things we had to do, but we were, there was also learning and different speakers that came in.
(05:35):
And one of the key things that I learned, you know, in that whole process about
selling had to do with, you know, know, sell first, you know,
so many people get caught up in, Oh, I need to design something amazing.
I need to build something amazing. I need to have an awesome website and then I can start selling.
Right. So this idea of sell first really hit me and like, that's what I need to do.
(06:00):
Like, I don't want to waste any time building a website, doing any of these
other things until I know that this idea of selling these bandages is a good one.
So I found a manufacturer that could manufacture the bandages the way I wanted,
had them just make me one box of samples.
I had no packaging. I had no logo. I had no website.
(06:21):
I hadn't spent any money on anything else except for this one box of samples, right?
And I put those samples in a Walmart bag,
you know, just regular grocery bag and walked into a tattoo shop for my first
time ever and convinced them that that this guy with no tattoos had a really
great way of healing their tattoos.
(06:42):
Now I didn't tell them I didn't have any tattoos. I made sure to wear a long
pants and long sleeves and they couldn't see it.
I had this background from, you know, all the pre-dental classes where I could
talk intelligently about physiology, about the skin, about wound healing and
convince them just to try the product.
Right. And they tried it, came back a week later, they loved it and they bought the product.
(07:08):
And I was like, this is fantastic. I've got a real, real opportunity here.
So I went through all those samples and started selling them.
Once I'd gone through all those, that first first batch of samples that I got,
I'm like, okay, it's time to design a logo.
It's time to build a website. So I had literally been selling my product from
about July of 2011 up until April of 2011 before I even built a website.
(07:33):
Right. I did finally get a name. I did design a logo in that process,
but it wasn't until March or April when I had a website and I had kind of exhausted
the Utah territory and decide, okay, it's time to expand out.
But built the website, started making phone calls.
And I remember the very first sale I got, it was like April 11th of 2012.
(07:54):
Somebody came to my website, bought my product. And that is a fantastic thing.
Like you said, when someone that I didn't even know came to my website,
paid full price for my product, didn't have to give them any discounts,
you know, and it was, it's really an exciting feeling.
Yeah, let's walk through that process of, well, first, I like what you said
(08:15):
about just getting started.
I think too many people, they stop themselves from actually being successful
based on just getting started and thinking that they have to have everything
already lined up, right?
Exactly. And I think that you are a perfect testament of just getting started,
(08:36):
solving a problem, but also knowing your product in and out.
And I think for all those founders out there, you must be solving a problem.
You must know your product very, very well.
And then you must have the courage to just go out and step out and create what
(08:57):
you'd like for your future.
Right so share with us a little bit about creating your future and stepping
out being courageous so honestly walking into that first tattoo shop took a
ton of courage no I'm I've never been a super social outgoing guy.
You know, and for me to walk into a tattoo shop where I've never even been in
(09:20):
a tattoo shop took a, it was, it was really scary for me.
You know, I had no idea how they were going to receive the product.
I had no idea how they're going to receive me.
And it's kind of a tricky situation. These guys are tattoo artists.
They've been in the industry, you know, for years and years,
I've been healing their tattoos a certain way for years and years.
And here's some guy walking in saying you, here's a better way to heal your tattoos.
(09:42):
I've got something new that's going to, that better than what you've been doing
your entire lives, your entire careers, right?
That was kind of scary, honestly, but I'm like, you know what?
I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to walk in.
I know this product is superior. I know that these bandages are used in hospitals,
you know, in clinical settings and to, for to heal surgeries,
abrasions, wounds. And I know they're going to work on tattoos.
(10:05):
They're going to heal these tattoos so much better, so much cleaner.
And it's so much, you know, in, in a safer way than what they were using back then.
You know, back then they were using saran wrap and masking tape.
Yeah. Right. And a lot of people still do, unfortunately.
But when I walked in and had that courage just to, to try and be like,
(10:25):
here's a product, it is superior.
Your tattoos are going to heal better. Your clients are going to thank you, you know, and it worked.
Luckily that was just a good timing, a good product and people bought in.
Yeah, so share with us that kind of the maturation of the company, right?
So you went from yourself to, did you have some other people that you started
(10:51):
to recruit as a part of a team to help?
Or share with us the maturation of the company and then how you personally matured
through that process as a business owner and leader.
Okay, absolutely. So like I said, I started the company in 2011.
2011, I was actually still working nine to five in my, my corporate job.
(11:12):
And so I could only really go door
to door and deliver the products in the evenings, which is what I did.
Once we started selling online, I was married at the time and my wife,
she would ship out the product.
As soon as the orders came in, we would hurry or she'd hurry and pack those up and ship those out.
So I actually had this as a side hustle for the first three years where I was,
(11:36):
you know, making my phone calls at night, you know, doing my deliveries,
you know, here locally at night.
But the cool thing was in my industry, the tattoo industry, I could get home
from work at 6 PM and I could call tattoo shops until 10 PM.
Right? They didn't care. They're still open.
Right. And, and a lot of times when I would call I'd call them and I'd, I'd talk to them.
(11:57):
They'd be like, Hey, thanks for calling. You're actually like the first solicitor
to ever call us, you know, cause the tattoo industry was so overlooked.
The tattoo industry is really, really new when you, you don't,
people don't realize that it wasn't even legal to tattoo in the United States
and all 50 States until 2006.
Right. And I started my company here in 2011.
(12:18):
So it was right on that initial wave of the tattoo industry,
really kind kind of growing and they were hungry for new ideas, new innovations.
And these banded is that I brought were perfect for that.
So I built the company as a side hustle for three years, just working in the evenings.
Eventually it took more than just evenings, which unfortunately or fortunately
(12:41):
led to me getting fired from my corporate job because I ended up having to work
my Sanitum job on company time.
My boss found out and that was it.
But when that happened, and I wasn't even fully ready to be all in, right?
I wasn't making enough money to support me and my family and my business.
I thought, you know what?
(13:02):
If I put a full-time effort in this, it's going to work. And I did.
And when I started working full-time, the business tripled that year.
And I worked at just myself for that first year.
After that, the number of orders were growing and I couldn't handle running
the company and the orders.
(13:23):
So our first hire was just a neighborhood kid to come into our basement where
we had all of our inventory and to package orders.
Share with us a little bit about the all-in and how you started to structure
with organization your schedule because now, you know, you could be on or you could be off, right?
(13:44):
So share with us a little bit of how you structured your day to be successful.
And yeah. Okay. So the tattoo industry is unique.
Tattoo shops, you know, are often closed on Mondays. they
don't open until noon or one and then
they work late so i can reuse the morning hours to
prepare you know marketing material to
(14:05):
study seo because i did everything myself you know
and with my wife at the time and we you
know would prepare marketing material emails you
know create our ads and it was a
lot of work a lot of fun but the the timing was
perfect mornings could be spent and doing that and in the afternoons i
could get on the on the phone start making phone calls you know
(14:28):
just cold calls and i'd just get a list
and go through google you know google tattoo shops in
albuquerque and just go down the list start calling
and then just keeping track of them in excel spreadsheets and
that's how we grew the company you know
i think i i think a lot of entrepreneurs could really do the same thing
i mean we have so much information out there right now as far as contacts and
(14:51):
yeah segmentation and really when i look back at it you know and looking at
other people who start businesses you know i never raise money like some people
like oh i gotta go raise money i gotta build a website i gotta do this i gotta do that.
I didn't take that path i just sold go out and sell then design then build you
(15:11):
know you need to To validate your idea,
you need to get money coming in, and then you can build, then you can expand.
And using that model, I never had to raise money. We didn't take on any debt
for the first, like, five years, right?
Everything was grassroots, everything was cash, everything was self-funded,
because we were able to grow and grow.
(15:34):
This grassroots method. I think more
entrepreneurs need to hear that the grassroots, the grassroots method.
And I think it's almost a cop-out to have to raise funds, you know,
you know, before you really find a product market fit.
Yeah. So many people are like, Oh, I don't have the money to start my own business.
Oh, I don't have the time to start my own business.
I was working nine to five, right? I had a full-time job and I started this as a side hustle.
(15:58):
Yeah. And I didn't necessarily So I put in 40 hours a week at first,
you know, I was putting in, you know, six until 10 PM in those evenings.
And that's it. It took a little time to really get going.
But at the same time, we were also changing the behavior of an entire industry, right?
We had to educate like, this is how these bandages work. This is how tattoos need to heal.
(16:20):
This is the physiology of your skin. This is why it works.
And so we had to really craft a message to educate people. people
and you know even doing that
we still were doubling in growth every single year at
least doubling so you went from the
basement it was just you then your
wife helped you and now we're stepping into
(16:41):
doubling every year right so so
let's walk through that once again maturation of
the company did you end up getting a warehouse a 3pl
yes so once you know
once the basement wasn't big enough all my
neighbors were so fed up with the semi-truck blocking the road
for half the day while we unloaded the semi-truck by hand because we didn't
(17:04):
have forklifts or anything like that and we would literally just call up all
the neighbor kids like hey come here we'll pay you 15 bucks an hour to come
help unload this truck and we would just take the boxes out i had to I had a
hole cut in my garage into my basement,
and then we put a ramp, just like a giant board.
We'd put the boxes on there, and it would slide down into the basement,
(17:25):
and then somebody in the basement would go and organize the boxes in there.
And we'd fill the entire basement. We just had paths, you know, between the boxes.
Do you have any pictures of this? I'd love to see. We do have some pictures.
I don't know if I could find them. I know we took pictures.
And so there was a point when we were like, you know what? We can't fit this in the basement.
(17:46):
I'd really like to have access to my ping pong table again. Yes.
So let's get a warehouse.
So we did. We moved into a warehouse just not too far from where we're at right
now over here on 90th South.
Utah, for those that are outside of the city. Right here in Utah, in Sandy City, Utah.
And we actually moved into some office space we just shared right there in the same building.
(18:07):
And we fulfilled out of that building for about a year before we got a 3PL that
took over all of our shipping once it got just too much for us to handle. Yeah.
So as we build a business, I mean, there's a few different areas of adversity that you'll face.
Can you share with me, you know, maybe one that can resonate with you and then
(18:27):
also how you kind of overcome that for those out there that are listening?
And then I'm sure everybody goes through different challenges, right?
Whether it be employees, you know, manufacturing, supply, you know,
supply chain, payroll, embezzlement, not to say that that happened,
but, you know, what did you guys experience?
(18:48):
So, one of the hardest things for me, so we hired our first employee in 2015
just to handle the shipping.
Just come in, pack your orders, ship them out.
That employee's responsibilities grew. She was just 16 years old,
but they grew and she got better and better at doing other things.
(19:10):
And one of the hardest things for me was to hire other people and start delegating.
Like I had done everything for the company, you know, for four years before
I really started hiring people.
And as I started hiring people out, there's a couple of things I noticed.
I started like feeling a little helpless.
Right. And there was definitely some just feelings of being lost.
(19:35):
Like, okay, if they're doing that task now, what else do I do?
Right and so that was really hard for me to
to kind of let go but ultimately i realized you
know these people i'm hiring they're better at that specific task
than me and that was a fantastic realization that you know i can hire people
who are smarter than me who are better than me at these different tasks you
(19:57):
know people who have had experience doing this stuff like i was doing you know
like my own seo research and own you know marketing material and once i started
hiring hiring people who really knew that stuff, it was great to see what they could do.
And I'm very pleased to say that, you know, all of my employees were better at me.
Their specific tasks than I was before. I would still guide and direct and,
(20:18):
you know, make my suggestions, but ultimately they knew what they were doing
and trusting in them was really beneficial.
And luckily I didn't hire really good people. We have always had a great team.
So as far as the systematic approach to the development of systems within the
company, company, what did you do to create those systems? Because I know it's so important.
(20:44):
Was it, you know, task out the specifics that you want for that individual?
You know, because a lot of people, you know, your employees are only as good
as the instructions that you give them, right?
And then whatever, whenever I'm consulting with companies, I always see an infraction
in essence with the documentation process.
(21:05):
So how did you guys start to document in
and share that with others so we
just hired you know for specific pieces we would
get you know how people start you know part-time they would
come in and we would hire a sales rep and just
show them here's the script that i've been using you know take that modify it
(21:25):
to fit yourself you know here's the the way i've been calling people the times
i've been calling people how i've been tracking it and just kind of you pass
that information on but but ultimately you know They would have their own ideas.
They had experience in sales, more so than I had had even in different arenas.
They could apply their own information,
(21:45):
their own twists on what was being done, and their own talents.
And just doing that, we were able to expand, diversify, and really grow.
And luckily, like I said, we found really great people who could do more than one thing.
Like in a startup people have people have to wear a
(22:06):
lot of hats right and you people
can't necessarily just wear one hat because there's just
too much to do and not enough people and so you know
we overcame that by just really having good communication and making sure we
were all knew what needed to be done and and getting those tasks i like what
you said earlier today on this is it was really about letting go and but also
(22:30):
being there you know kind of having a little bit bit of oversight,
but not to the point where the individuals as a part of your company are feeling,
micromanaged, you know, and that's really leader, you know, transformational
leadership truly cares about, you know, the five core key components on Maslow's
hierarchy of needs, right?
As opposed to only the three that transactional leadership looks at.
(22:52):
And you're empowering the employees,
you know, as partners in essence to build this with you together.
And I believe that's so so important.
So, yeah. Yeah, like I said, one of the things I hated about corporate America
was being told exactly how I had to do everything.
Like there was a very defined set process of.
(23:12):
Things that needed to be done. And to me, they didn't make sense.
And I did not want to impose that on my employees. I wanted to make them have
ownership, have skin in the game, have their own ideas in the game.
And that way, it's got better ideas by combining multiple people's skills and talents and ideas.
That's very wise of you to start maturing in that way.
(23:35):
Share with us, now you are starting, I mean, you've really grown now.
You've got warehouse people people that have worked for you.
You've got your whole manufacturers on speed dial in essence.
So, and you said you had to take on a little debt, but that was probably just
growth capital at that time to just really expedite the entire process.
(23:57):
Yes. The first debt we took on was to help with inventory.
Because like I said, we were doubling or more every single year.
So our biggest challenge in the beginning was keeping up
with demand and keeping our product in stock
right so we the first
time we ever got a loan was the you know 50 000 sba loan to help get a little
(24:21):
extra inventory so we could get ahead of that curve yeah you know plus it probably
helps with your little margins too you know if you order in in bulk yes we would
order in bulk but you know we were ordering from china our.
Our run times were incredibly long. And so we really needed to get ahead of
that, get all, all the products here that we could so we could really grow.
(24:44):
Cause we were running out of products all the time. We could not keep them in stock.
So that was what our first loans were for getting ahead of that inventory.
That's good. Yeah. So bring us to the point where you're, where you are now with the company.
I know just recently that you have, and you'll, you can explain this too,
too, but step down, but yet you're still part of the board and the company is in great hands.
(25:10):
So share with us a little bit about the process to really getting to where it
is today, because it's a global leader, correct?
Yeah. So we have sales in over a hundred countries.
We keep track of our website. I don't know where the number's at exactly,
but we can keep track of how many customers we've had.
And it's around 7 million customers or tattoos healed at this point based on
(25:32):
our estimations of the products we've sold.
So going back, we started hiring.
We ended up getting more and more employees taking over more and more tasks.
Five years ago, I ended up hiring a CEO to replace myself.
I assumed the role of president of the company and just was overseeing.
And I was managing new products.
Our bread and opportunity in all the tattoo industry to have other products
(26:02):
to go along with the bandages to improve healing.
So we added lotions, we added balms, we've added soaps, and they're fantastic
products. We grew that way.
And with our new CEO at the helm for the last five years, things have continued to grow.
We've had our struggles, you know, COVID was a struggle, you know,
the tattoo industry was closed for months.
(26:23):
We were able to withstand that. We've had our share of manufacturing and shipping issues.
We've gotten through those, but yeah.
This year, in the past just like five weeks, I stepped down and officially,
you know, in quotes, retired.
I'm still an owner of the company, still involved at the board level,
(26:44):
but no longer at an operational level.
Are you at liberty to explain a
little bit of the, was it a stock purchase buyout from the company to you?
Or whatever you're comfortable with explaining here as to how that was structured?
Because some, you know, some entrepreneurs out there are seasoned and they're
listening to this, you know, wanting to either exit their company or currently
(27:08):
replace or do something like that.
So can you explain? Yeah. So my retirement was simply me just stepping down
from my operational role.
I didn't take a buyout. I didn't take anything.
I still have my same ownership in the company, still have my same member board
position in the company.
But I did step down because the company's in good hands.
(27:31):
I had managed it from a president level for the last five years.
I'm seeing things going in a really good direction starting this year.
So I was able to step out of that
operational role and last year I had started another company
and that company is doing really well and
decided you know what Saniderm's in good hands
(27:51):
this other company's got some great potential I'm
going to go focus on this well I still have my eyes on
Saniderm you know involved in knowing what's
going on I'm going to really go focus on this other opportunity now that's
good well let's talk a little bit about you know
the future now and what you're excited about building and what this next opportunity
(28:12):
is and how did it present itself to you so share with me a little bit about
the next opportunity you're excited about so then my new opportunity is called
rush venture partners and i did start that company.
Last February, so just over a year ago. And the whole idea came from,
as I had a little extra time, as president of the company,
(28:36):
I still had an operational role, but I did have some free time where I could
start studying and other things. Same thing I did when I had my corporate job.
I'm like, you know what? I'm going to find something else to do.
And I read all these books. So the same thing in this situation,
I had some extra time, started watching videos, started studying.
My idea was to really learn how to invest.
I had never learned how to invest, how to manage my money.
(29:00):
And so I had been spending a lot of time learning about trading,
different investment opportunities, and decided I'm going to give this a shot.
So I had started trading foreign currencies and programming and using algorithms
to do do that, those trades.
And it was going really well. So that's when I decided I'm going to start another
(29:22):
company now around this foreign currency trading.
And that was the genesis of Rush Venture Partners.
Do you have any education that you are planning to either create for that company
to be able to help people understand what you now know?
Yeah. So there's a lot of of opportunities roadmap home yeah there's a
(29:44):
lot of opportunities around the foreign currency right now
what we're doing is that we're
doing the trading and for people who qualify
they can you know
create their own accounts and we offer a copy trading
type service where their accounts will copy the trades that are happening in
(30:05):
my account or in the the company's account can you Can you explain a little
bit more in detail on foreign exchange and how the company makes its money or
those that are part of the opportunity can make money themselves?
Yeah. So foreign currency, the Forex as it's called market is,
it is a ginormous market.
(30:25):
It's 30 times larger than the US stock market.
There's so much money that has changed between banks, between people,
between countries every single day.
And the value of
each different country's currency is
changing all day long by thousands or
hundreds of a cent is all it really takes and so using leverage we're able to
(30:48):
spot those changes and well me or our algorithm will spot you know opportunities
to see when where those price changes are going to happen and buy those different
currencies and take advantage of those, those fluctuating prices.
Will the software automatically sell for you? Yes. The software automatically buys and sells.
(31:08):
That's incredible. So the software is incredibly effective.
We've had fantastic returns and it's, it's been very exciting.
Yeah, it's really interesting. I mean, I would, as an entrepreneur,
you're always looking for diversification of a portfolio,
you know, and the purpose of having Scott here on the podcast is in essence
(31:31):
to get to learn about him a little bit better and then also have him educate you on,
you know, what he is seeing as an entrepreneur within the opportunities that
they're starting to really look at right now.
Can you explain a little bit about the, you know, current forecast forecast
of the business that you guys have now started,
(31:51):
and then also maybe the future as well, because we have some interesting things
happening within just currencies in general.
So can you maybe share a little insight as to the future of currency?
It's hard to say exactly where currency will go. I mean, it's changing every single day.
And we're just trying to take advantage of just little micro changes up and
(32:13):
down. We only trade the most stable currencies in the world.
We're We're not trying to take these massive swings by these more volatile currencies.
For the most part, currencies will stay almost horizontal. They'll go up a little
bit, they'll go down a little bit, but it's always kind of a pretty steady thing
(32:33):
in the grand scheme of things.
So we just take advantage of those little micro changes and we try to avoid
if there's going to be big news about the Japanese yen, then that's when we'll
be like, okay, we're going to turn the algorithm off.
(33:15):
Just not play. for an actual company or is it just something that
you guys are currently it sounds like it's it's got
something you're currently doing of course increasing your
overall knowledge and then just sharing it with others because you're
you're having so much success so our our real goal so
it's rush venture partners but we call the trading account elios elios is the
goddess of human kindness of philanthropy of brotherly love right so our goal
(33:42):
is to increase increase our customers or investors ability to give back.
So, you know, with Sanoderm, the goal was to, you know, to build a company and,
and have people heal their tattoos better, be more comfortable expressing themselves, um.
You know, through that, the healing process of the tattoos or any of those other body modifications.
(34:04):
And now I really feel like I want to just give back and increase other people's ability to give back.
So we have this opportunity where people can grow their money at a rate that's
really exciting and give back.
So we have, you know, our pool of investors or customers
(34:24):
that we communicate with on a regular basis we
have calls with them you know monthly and
the idea is to bring in and introduce different charities
to our investors and help them find you
know good opportunities to really give back and improve the
world i love that so yeah so
creating your own micro economy of success but also being
(34:47):
able to do the tom's model right yeah exactly
helping out the the the community huh so we
encourage our customers our investors our account
holders i would go whatever you want to call them to give back
and not just anybody can can join or become an
investor we you know we try to vet everybody and make sure they're
people that are those kind of people yeah and kind
(35:09):
of good for culture too because if you're having these team meetings it's really
important for everyone to really buy into the
you know the future of of elios like
you're saying and being being able to give back and that's a
it's a noble cause and i'm looking forward to
seeing some of the ways that you guys you and your
partner philip are are able to really help you know different communities worldwide
(35:32):
yeah so i see it well i just wanted to thank you so much for joining us today
in the founders odyssey podcast and just you know sharing with us your past
your present and the future and what you're excited about i personally once
again i'm excited for for you.
So how do people get a hold of you or how can they follow you?
(35:52):
You can definitely reach out to me on LinkedIn, on Instagram.
I would love to connect and give back in any way I can, give any advice or suggestions to people.
You know, I got a lot of help and advice when I started, like we're here in
the, the, the Larry Miller campus on the community college here in Salt Lake.
And I was just telling you before we started, like I spent a lot of time here
working with the small business development center.
(36:14):
I remember my first counselor here, if they're, I don't know if they're called
counselors or coaches, but yeah, this was 12 years ago.
Mark Smolenski was his name. He's the guy who taught taught me how to import
products from China, right? And that was huge.
Basically started your entire business. So he gave me that idea because at first
we were looking at, you know, using, you know, a U.S.
Manufacturer, a manufacturer or a company that was already making those bandages
(36:37):
for the hospitals, but ended up being way too expensive.
The tattoo industry was not going to be able to afford hospital-like prices for these bandages.
And that's when I'm like, well, what if I go to China? They can manufacture
the same thing. The patents on these bandages expired because they've been used
in hospitals for over 20 years. Patents are only good for 20 years.
So that's when I was able to go and find a new manufacturer that would make
(37:00):
the same product in China for a fraction of the cost and then import.
Port so yeah you know you started a whole chinese market over
there too shoot so yeah we started we started
that and you know 12 years ago and now there are dozens of
chinese knockoffs yeah amazon all over
the world so we did we
really changed the way tattoos are healed created a
(37:23):
whole new you know industry of tattoo aftercare really
yeah um and it's both exciting and
frustrating to see the the competition we created yeah you know
but well you know first the top you know that's pretty much what it is well
yeah we're still we're the we're the verb people gotta stand under their tattoos
perfect well thank you once again and guys if you like today's episode feel
(37:45):
free to share with your friends and also subscribe to the show we'll talk to you again soon.
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