January 24, 2024 • 44 mins
Shay Houser, known for doing over $1 billion in M&A deals, talks openly about his life-threating addiction to drugs and alcohol and how his illness impacted his life, family, and business endeavors. This is somewhat of a follow up to his TEDx Talk "Addiction in the C-suite". Powerful and raw, this episode will deliver unbelievable transparency from one of the brightest minds in business. He will talk about his journey through addiction and how he used that dark chapter in his life to help bring about change for so many folks struggling with substances and the real reasons behind the pain. He and I also talk about building companies and the essential requirements of success for every business owner and entrepreneur.
Enjoy the conversation! Please let me know your comments...Chuck@BullStreetMergers.com
Enjoy the conversation! Please let me know your comments...Chuck@BullStreetMergers.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Hello, this is Chuck Crumpton andwelcome to another episode of The Chuck Crumpton
Show. I tell you what,I'm so excited to just be back in
front of the microphone talking to you. It's been amazing the journey we've had
with the podcast. We are nowin our third year, which is just
(00:32):
amazing that things have gown and grownso well over these three years. But
first and foremost, I want tothank you for just being a part of
my audience, being a friend ofthe show, and I think this episode
is probably going to rank up thereas one of the best, if not
the best ever. So I'm reallyexcited to kick off twenty twenty four with
(00:55):
this episode. Three quick favors.If you would please subscribe to the show,
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This episode is going to be lifechanging, I promise you. And
if you would leave a review,we are privileged and honored to get a
(01:15):
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(01:38):
So if you would please subscribe,share, leave me a review,
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(02:00):
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(02:23):
and we'll be right back right afterthis. Thank you for tuning in to
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(02:45):
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More information can be found at theChuckcrumptonshow dot com. Thank you for listening.
Here's Chuck. Thank you, Megan, and welcome again to another episode
(03:06):
of The Chuck Crumpton Show. Ilove business, and I believe that small
businesses with two to two hundred employeesin America is an engine that drives our
world economy. The messages you hearfrom The Chuck Crumpton Show are real world
business perspectives. I've been incredibly blessedto have built and sold two of my
(03:28):
own companies, both that started inthe toolshed of my garage. As a
matter of fact, this podcast startedin the tool shed. My wife tends
to think I have an affinity towardtoolshed living. Maybe that's true. I
am a practitioner of business. Thisis not a conversation about business theory.
(03:50):
There are tons of colleges and universitiesin America that can talk to you about
theory. But this is real lifestuff. At Bull Street Mergers, we
help business owners build and sell remarkablecompanies. If we can help you,
please reach out to us at BullstreetMergers dot com. Okay, enough of
the commercial, let's get after this. This is an incredible opportunity and I'll
(04:14):
unpack that in just a moment.But I want to take a quick moment
to introduce our guest today, ShaeHouser. Welcome to the Chuck Crumpton Show.
Chuck gon to be here, Bud, Oh my gosh. I'm going
to give a moment of vulnerability,my vulnerability in just a moment. But
(04:38):
I want to give I want tolay the foundation. I want to give
a background of your success in yourbackground, and then we're just going to
unpack life in business nineteen ninety one, graduate of the Citadel, which is
right down the road for me.Wonderful, wonderful institution. Interesting enough,
(04:59):
you've done over a billion dollars inmergers and acquisitions, which is an incredible
feat. Not many people can cansay that. And you live in the
beautiful city of Greenville, South Carolina. This is a this is a rare
privilege because not all of my guestson the Chuck Crimpton Show are friends of
(05:23):
mine, but you are my friend. Heck, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
yeah, many years thirty years ofexperience, that's right, that's right,
we go back thirty years and youknow, in full transparency, we
you know, we did some worktogether and built our early friendship years ago,
(05:43):
and then we all went our separateways as life happens, right,
and we recently reconnected in the lastthree years or so. And it's been
a real gift, real privilege forme to say that. And I want
to give a moment of a bitbecause I believe in that. I embrace
vulnerability, and I will tell myaudience when Shae and I connected, When
(06:11):
you and I connected a couple ofyears ago, I was so drawn to
your story. Your success as abusiness person far exceeds the folks that you
know, it's a national reputation ofbusiness success. But I was drawn to
your story and I wanted you tobe a part of my podcast because we
(06:35):
reach thousands and thousands and thousands ofpeople, a lot of CEOs, a
lot of business leaders, and withThe Chuck Crimpton Show, I've always wanted
to combine business and life because ourlives are not generally not compartmentalized, right.
So I listened to your story andI said, I gotta have Shae.
(06:57):
I've just got to have Shaye onmy podcast. So for the first
time ever, I packed up mystuff, my recording equipment, drove to
Greenville, South Carolina, set inone of the beautiful buildings on Main Street.
We just happened to be right nextdoor to the governor, who was
in a room beside of us.And I don't know. I will not
(07:18):
blame him. I'll blame it squarelyon me. But for whatever reason,
it was the worst, if Icould say, shittiest production I've ever had
in my life. Just horrible thecontent and what's so sad? Man?
The content was amazing, yet theproduction quality was so far subpar of what
(07:45):
I want and expect on the showthat I humbly, you know. A
month later, I had to callShay and just say, dude, I
screwed up, man, I justmade the worst mistake with all these buttons
and levels and pots and all thatkind of stuff. So Shay you graciously
said, Chuck, forget about it. Let's redo this, and that's exactly
(08:09):
what we're doing. Yeah, Andso thank you for your graciousness, thank
you for the gift of a redo. And I believe in this. I
would have otherwise probably let it go, but your message is so important for
my audience and for the world.I had to redo. So thank you,
my friend. Hey man, I'mhappy to be here, no doubt.
(08:31):
Yeah, that's awesome. Well,I want to go back to the
reference point that I made. Mywife and I were driving as we reconnected,
you know, a couple few yearsago. I was driving down the
road and you know, I wastrying to sort of get refreshed with my
friend Shay Hauser, and I foundsomething online that was a Ted talk that
(08:58):
you did, you know, maybesix or seven years ago. And the
title of the Ted talk, whichI encourage everybody go and listen. The
title of the Ted talk was Addictionin the c Suite and Shay, honestly,
that completely grabbed my heart, andfrankly, I would like to spend
(09:24):
the next four hours, you know, going through the compelling nature of that
story, but we and time justdoesn't permit that. But I encourage everyone
go find that talk. It's incredible, it will change your life. But
let's just tee up this. Iwant to get in. I have a
(09:45):
ton of I have a ton ofbusiness questions for you, particularly around M
and A. But let's lay thefoundation of who Shae Hauser is was where
you are, and we'll talk aboutwhere you're headed with your business and all
the wonderful things that you're doing,But would you just for a couple of
minutes sort of tell that story becauseit's an incredible study. I appreciate you
(10:09):
saying that. Thanks so much,Chuck. Really well, I mean,
like a lot of hard chargers,like a lot of entrepreneurs, you know,
I've always kind of run fast,run hard, and you know I
did it through the Citadel. That'sprobably one of the reasons I went to
Citadel, frankly, was you know, I needed it. I needed the
structure, and I needed the discipline. I'd gotten a lot of trouble in
(10:31):
high school, more than the averageperson, and uh, you know,
that was a good school for me. But when I got out of school,
I was super fortunate because I wentto work for a telecommunications company back
in Greenville where I've grown up,and pure luck that company, Corporate TeleManagement
Group. The founders believed in employeeownership, and you know, I had
(10:56):
no clue what I was doing.I was, you know, the eleventh
employee there along with my best friend. We were number ten and eleven.
And we went to work for thatcompany and learned a ton and you know,
we're granted some stock. And thatwas back when you could go to
the bank and just like borrow moneyto buy stock, which is what we
did, both of us. Andyou know, that company grew really quickly,
(11:18):
and that company exited in nineteen ninetyfive, and you know, I
got a little windfall, and Iremember thinking that was easy, like I
just needed to go do this myself, right, you know, very naive
and certainly had no clue what Iwas getting into. And that really led
to my first kind of my firststartup, which is a venture fund here
in Greenville with some of you know, some of the original founders of that
(11:39):
company. We invested in telecommunications servicescompanies and you know, again kind of
luck of the draw. We wereinvesting really as the dot com boom was
was accelerating and started putting money towork in you know, ninety six,
ninety seven, ninety eight time frame, and invested in one company in particular,
(12:00):
iBasis. We invested a million dollarsand they went public and then did
a secondary and the secondary was doingat a at one hundred and twenty dollars
a share. Wow, so wetook we turned a million at one hundred
and twenty million. Now of course, ultimately had dropped and we were able
to distribute forty million to our investors. And again I'm thinking, it's really
(12:20):
easy, man. Why didn't anybody, Why didn't everybody else do this right?
And just that naivety and arrogance.But that was also the time I
realized at that point venture capital wasn'treally for me, and I wanted to
start my own gig, like reallystart my own company. And I went
back to some of the folks fromthat previous organization. We started a company
(12:41):
called Trovergent Communications, another telecommunications company, you know, and that was that
was kind of late ninety seven,early ninety eight, you know. Place
mark up until that time is Iwent through high school and college. I
struggled a lot with drugs and alcohol, a lot of drinking, equal opportunity
drug user, you know, throughoutAnd when I when I got out of
(13:03):
Citadel and went to work for thefor the first company, corporatele Management Group,
I really dialed it back and Iwas entirely focused on business. I
didn't drink during the week I did, you know, I put the drugs
up, and I was really frommy perspective, I was straight, I
was level headed. I was focusedon what I thought was important, which
(13:24):
at the time was making money.Later found out that was not important,
but at the time that's what Iwas chasing. So as I as I
got through the venture fund and thenstarted Trovergent Communications, I the company was
gaining success, and we were raisingcapital, you know, ten and twenty
million bucks at a time, andhiring people. And I think by the
(13:48):
time you know, nineteen ninety nineyearlled around, you know, we were
at two hundred people. So reallymy first startup two hundred people growing hyper
fast, and the partying picked upso so the so the alcohol picked up
again, the drugs picked up again, and I was able to, you
know, kind of manage it fora period of time. And and you
(14:09):
know, I think, like alot of folks that struggle with it,
as I did, it slowly gotworse and worse. Now a company in
the meantime was having enormous success.You know, we filed for an I
p O. We raised over aquarter billion inequity at quarter billion in private
debt. You know, we werebuying companies and it was pure craziness.
(14:30):
We ultimately didn't go public, andwe ended up merging the company with a
with a Goldman Sacks back to organization, which which is a whole nother story,
but but a lot of that period, the the the addiction started to
take hold. But like my lifestarted to get out of control. And
without getting into like all the sortof details, you know, the company
(14:50):
ultimately Trivergent got recapitalized by Goldman Sachsand JP Morgan Chase and you know kk
R at the time, all thebig guys. What that meant was I
essentially went from about thirty million dollarsand stock to about one hundred thousand what
seemed like overnight. Then. Youknow, at that point, you know,
I was I was thirty one,thirty two years old, I had
(15:11):
three kids, and really I wasbankrupt, I mean practically because I was
told and believed that I had allthis money on paper and probably did at
one point, but Dad left areally bad taste in my mouth, and
you know, left that company onrelatively good terms and acquired a subsidiary of
that company and continue to grow youknow, businesses from there and had a
(15:37):
variety of exits and whatnot and starteda number of other companies. But I
think what really became the definition ofmy life from sort of two thousand through
two thousand and ten was addiction.It was it was trying to manage my
alcoholism, my drug use, alife that was completely out of control,
(16:00):
just really losing my mind. Andand there was a lot of trauma that
set in to the recapitalization of ofof trivergent New Box. You know,
after that happened, three of theco founders committed suicide. So you know,
one of my best friends, myvery best friend, so you know
a lot of kids with no dads, and and I honestly made it out
(16:23):
by the skin of my teeth.And there was another individual who I won't
name, who is a sea levelexact same thing. I mean, he
barely made it out alive from thatscenario. And it may sound a little
bit corny, but when you shouldsay when I when I when I wrapped
everything about my uh about me andmy my success perception. Uh, you
(16:47):
know, I felt like money status, sea level was it. And when
I when I lost that, Icratered it. It crushed me along with
the other members of members of themanagement team. So you know, certainly
I don't ever recommend going through arecap and I hope you never have to
go through, you know, someof the stuff that we went through,
especially losing good friends. I learneda lot, you know, I learned
(17:10):
a lot through it. But ultimately, you know, that led me down
a road of addiction, and andit led to a period of my life
that was entirely out of control,complete insanity. And you know it it
started ultimately my my recovery and mymy trips through treatment. And you know,
I first went to treatment in twentyten, and uh stayed six weeks
(17:30):
and got sobriety, and you know, stayed sober for quite a bit of
time, almost five years, andrelapsed in Charleston, by the way,
Chuck, uh it halls, ItHalls. That was my relapse at Halls.
They probably don't want that advertised,but that happened, you know.
But but the thing is, chokelike, I ultimately had to go through
treatment five other times. I mean, I've been institutionalized for well over six
(17:52):
months. I've been in a statelicensed mental institution for three months, and
and uh, it's a it's ascary dark place. But through that,
and through the experience of that,I believe I've become enormously like a better
person, A better human, certainlya better friend, father at the time,
(18:14):
husband, and it it there wasa light that began to shine on
what was important to me. Andyou know, through that, I started
a company called U Turn Health,which is now the world's largest platform of
therapist led video content for addiction wherewe really focus on the families and we're
(18:36):
doing great work. I mean,I'm not involved in the company anymore.
I exited that I'm still a shareholder, but left day to day operations.
And I think I've told you thisjob before, like it's the only company
that I've ever done that I'm proudof, you know, It's everything else
has been a run for the roses, chase for money and status, and
I would get it, and whatwas meaningless, I'd lose it. It
didn't matter. Actually felt better tolose it then didn't make it because it
(19:00):
hurt and I enjoyed the pain.But a variety of of of of crazy
times. But building a company whereI was giving back and helping people,
like meaningfully helping you know, veteransin South Carolina or individuals transitioning out of
jail of prison. Dude, that'sthat's cool. I mean, it's really
cool and it's uh. I think, uh, as I look back at
(19:25):
anything I've done, that's the onething that really sticks out is like what
else is? Or in life?Man? What else is? Or when
you can help somebody and uh anddo good work? And and I've learned
since that time, like that's whatI have to have in my career.
That's what I have to do dayand day. I have to I have
to give, I have to helpand if I if I do that,
I am fulfilled. And if Iam fulfilled, then then I feel good
(19:48):
about myself. There's self esteem andI can continue my life in the in
the in the path and the waythat I want to leave my life,
which is you know, in linewith my morals and my ethics. I
sure like I slip, there's nodoubt I make mistakes, but I tend
to live in the way that youknow, I think my family, my
mom who's passed away, would beproud of. And part of that's just
(20:10):
given. Man. Yeah, say, that's an incredible story. One reference
point and my whole purpose in justsort of unpacking that story. And again
we could spend hours right unpacking that. But you made a reference point in
your ted talk about you know,maybe maybe it was at the crucible of
(20:33):
the suffering where you were alone ina hotel room with a load of gut
and enough cocaine to kill you know, ten people or whatever. And I
tell you that gripped me, andit gripped me for multiple reasons. But
you know, having gone through adark chapter in my life, you know,
(20:57):
a long divorce, you know that. You know, I wore the
D word on my forehead and onmy chest and it was incredibly painful because
it sort of destroyed everything that Ithought I would be in life. And
you know, all of us gothrough those deep dark A friend of mine
(21:17):
calls it the dark night of thesoul, right, we go through those
moments. And yeah, I cantell you this, and this show is
not about me. It's about youand your story and the impact that you're
making in life and business. ButI can tell you haven't gone through that
dark chapter. There were days whereI could just not I'd sit and watch
(21:40):
the TV that was not on forhours, you know, you know,
and just couldn't get out of bed. And it was just debilitated because I
was just in such a funk.And fifteen years ago I would have said,
you know, the divorce word wouldnever come out of my mouth because
I'll never be that person. Andthen you know, life just hands you
(22:04):
difficult situations. And so I saidall of that to say this, the
vulnerability, the transparency, the rawnessof what you just shared. And there's
probably you probably have a hundred storiesof that right of that that you could
share, including that hotel room.Absolutely, I'm sure you remember it vividly.
(22:27):
Well. I was. I waspretty drunk. It was kind of
day two or three of a prettyyou know, scary bender or situation.
What's what's what's crazy is I hadbeen sober for almost five years and that
was a tail end of an eighteenmonth relapse. And you know, I
think I think a lot of peoplethat don't really understand addiction, and addiction
(22:48):
is a very wide ranging disease.It doesn't have to be just be drugs
or alcoholism. It's a lot ofdifferent stuff, right, But relapse is
not an event, it's a it'sa process. It is a it is
a slow process of on whine andfor me, it took almost eighteen months
and it did culminate in you know, disappearing completely, going off the grid
and being in a hotel room toyour point, with as much drugs and
(23:10):
alcohol, cocaine as I could stickin my body, and a load of
thirty eight. I still have apicture on my phone of the table in
the in the hotel room with withcocaine and bottles everywhere in the thirty eight
And I've got to have a videoand I haven't looked. I haven't watched
(23:32):
it in years, but I knowwhat I know what it is, and
it's it is frightening. It isabsolutely frightening. If you would see that,
if you watched it, just assomebody that cares about me as a
friend, you would be you wouldbe freaking terrified and destrayed to see it.
And you know, I think thatbusiness owners the amount of stress,
(23:55):
especially in startup life, and andcraziness that we go through without some healthy
outlet to deal with the challenges,you know, I know I will tend
to find things that are not healthy. And it can be anything. It
can be. It could be socialmedia, it could be food, it
could be I mean, for awhile it was working out like I you
know, I'm meal prepped on Sundayslike a lunatic and counted macros throughout the
(24:21):
week. I mean, it's crazythe way my mind would work. And
if it wasn't drugs or alcohol,if it was that, if it wasn't
that, it would it would bewomen. If it wasn't that, it
would you know, it would besomething, it would be gambling. Gambling
for a while. So it's sucha struggle building companies and finding that way
to relieve the need to self soothis it's difficult to find the healthy one,
(24:47):
I think, and a lot ofthe struggle it's not I mean,
I know I'm not alone, andI know there's a lot of people out
there that struggle all the time withthis stuff. And you know, the
thing I've learned more than anything else, And I think the big takeaway is
it's not necessarily the details of thestruggle or where it was. Everybody's situation
is different, and it's really hardto compare despair. I mean, despair
(25:10):
is you have your level of mind. It's it's you know, it is
what it is. But the abilityto to fall down and really, you
know, scrape the knees and getup and start again and go through that
cycle again and again and again.I think it builds resilience. And self
(25:32):
confidence in a way that can onlybe achieved by pain. It can only
come through pain. And it's it'snot pain, you know. I don't
seek out pain for the secret forthe sake of seeking pain, but I
do know that if I'm sitting init, and I've had some situations recently
where I had to sit in itand it sucks. But I didn't run
(25:53):
from it, you know what Imean. I sat in that pain.
I didn't I didn't drink over it. I didn't take drugs over it.
I didn't go crazy over it.And I and I, but I know
now how to sit in it andhow to feel it, and how to
process it and let it go.Those are all tools that if you're if
you're a startup, if you're youknow, a year twenty in the company,
(26:15):
you need to know how to workthose tools to keep yourself, you
know, level set and even keelso you can offer the very best.
And I and that's that's what I'vealways thought, is you know, as
I went through these struggles, Iremember so many times thinking, all I
want to do is give the verybest of my kids. I want to
give the very best shade to myfamily and I can't fucking do it.
(26:40):
But what is wrong? Like italways came back to what is wrong with
me? What is what is theissue? And you know, I it
took a long time to get tothe bottom of the of the of the
well if you will will to uhfigure out that pain and those traumas and
work on them and deal with it. And you know, my relationship with
(27:00):
my kids now is better than ithas ever been. My ex wife and
I we were married twenty six years. It's it's a fantastic, beautiful,
respectful relationship. And my new relationshipis great. I mean, I am
super blessed and I'm thankful and gratefulfor every moment of the meat grinder that
I went through because it's made mewho I am and it's allowed me to
(27:22):
try to give into help. Wow. Well, Shae, I say this
as your friend and I'll say itas a as a host of the Chuck
Crumpton Show. We talk about beingreal and raw on the show, and
you can't fabricate that, right.You either bring it, you have it,
(27:44):
or you don't. And you havebrought it. And I think it's
so important and we're gonna We're gonnapivot to business. But to know Shae
Houser at his core, which wenow do, I think illuminates the path
of listening to you as a youknow, billion dollar success story on the
(28:08):
business front. Right, we knowwho the man is and that that is
That's incredibly important. So I applaudyou man for the vulnerability, uh for
for dredging up some of those painpoints in your life to illustrate the struggles
that you've been through, the joysand the and the you know the old
(28:29):
adage, the victory of winning,and the and the hurt of losing.
Right, thank you for giving usa peek into your heart and into your
soul. I'm going to do somerapid fire questions because again we have so
many CEOs and business leaders that listen. I'm I'm sitting here with chills on
(28:51):
my spine and I'd love to campout where we were where we were just
at for But let me wrap itfire some questions at you. Okay,
when when the entrepreneurs of our audience, when, as I said in the
beginning, you've done over a billiondollars in m and a work probably far
(29:11):
exceeding that now, but when theyhear the B word the billion word,
Uh may seem to be out ofreach, unattainable, right for the guy,
the guy or the or the ladysitting in their tool shed trying to
just figure stuff out. How doyou bring them into this conversation? Right?
(29:34):
I mean, look, it's it'sit's one transaction at a time.
It's it's in the billion dollars includesfundraising. It's not just M and A.
But but I don't know what thenumber is now, it doesn't even
matter. But but it's it reallyis. It's it's kind of like the
old adage, how do you dietan elephant? You know, one one
bite at a time. It's reallythe same thing. It's it's you know,
(29:56):
I want you. One of ourinvestments to CEO yesterday, and part
of what we talked about is hewas painting this huge vision of twenty twenty
four and we're gonna do this,We're gonna do that, and we're gonna
do this, and it's like,that's awesome. I want to see the
plan, like, show me thefinancial plan. I want to see the
forecast. And it doesn't be fancy. I mean revenue costs, the goods,
(30:18):
gross profit, su and a showme what it looks like. And
he was like, okay, canI get it to you in March?
And I'm like no, no,no, And he was having a hard
time tying back, how do Ibuild it if I'm trying to get to
a million in revenue this year?And it's like, if a million is
your goal and here we are onJanuary fifteenth, you back it up and
(30:40):
you literally start planning. It's aweek and then it's four weeks. Then
it's a month, and it's threequarters, and it's a quarter. Now
we're twenty five percent of the waythrough. And it's these logical stare steps
versus thinking what do I need todo to be here in five years?
Five years is a freaking like that'sfor It's a lifetime, right. The
(31:00):
only way to get to five yearsis to do it sort of one deal
at a time, one cell ata time, one hired at a time,
one decision at a time. AndI think, whether it's raising capital
or you know, building the company, selling the company, whatever, it
really is just these little bitty bites, these little bitty steps day in and
day out to create this this outcome, and the outcome just comes with time.
(31:22):
Yeah, Yeah, that's cool.You can. Here's what's amazing,
right, Shae Houser, with yourexperience, in your in your success in
your past, you didn't have todo anything, but you chose to get
off the couch and start a founder'sfund with your your partner and buddy Scott
(31:45):
yep, and you guys are kickingit. You're doing well. I love
your model. Why did you dothat? Why did you? I think?
Yeah, well, I mean theidea of me on the couch I
would likely at some point lead backto addiction. So like that's not an
option. And I'm and I'm simplylike you chuck, like I'm not cut
(32:06):
that way. I mean, theidea of retirement is anathematic to me,
Like that's there's I hope a retirementis never in my future ever, Like
I don't want to ever quit,and I don't know what I'm gonna do.
But if i'm if I'm greeting atWalmart, Hell yeah, I'm not
going to retire, right, That'sjust not a thing for me. Regardless.
In the summer of twenty two orthe spring of twenty two, I
(32:29):
exited my last company, you turnHealth, and at that point I'm like
I'm fifty four. I'm not goingto go do another tech startup. I
just I don't want to. It'sI don't want to spend another ten years
going through that that again, andI want to do something different. And
at the same time, I hadalways been interested in accelerators and in venture
(32:52):
in venture capital. I'd done it, you know, way back when,
and I knew that Greenville packed thestate for that matter, I knew the
Greenville in particular needed a technology accelerator, and I started to approach essentially the
city's nonprofit that creates the entrepreneurial ecosystemhere called Next Upstate. I approached them
(33:13):
and basically said, listen, I'mthinking about doing an accelerator, and like
here's my plan. And it waskind of funny. They were like,
well, that's interesting. You know, we're thinking about doing one too,
and I'm like, well, that'scool. So I just said I'm doing
it, which means it just started, like it just happened, so we
should do it together. I'm nottrying to step on anybody's toes, but
this is how this works. Soyou know, that was kind of the
(33:37):
beginning of it. And then isthat accelerator got a little bit of traction
the idea. Anyway, I startedmeeting with a bunch of you know founders
and you know business leaders in thecommunity, and I was saying, you
know, I'm seeing this deal andthis deal and they need five hundred grand
and I think these two people wouldinvest and kind of looking for it was
(33:58):
almost like this this sort of financem and A type work just out of
like I'm seeing these opportunities. Igotta hand them somewhere. And what it
really turned into is I need togo raise a fund. And my partner,
Scott was exiting his last company andhe was kind of fired up to
do something. And you know,we decided let's go raise a fund.
(34:20):
And our buddy Bo Russell helped dothe documentation the work on that. The
thesis was simple, let's take theformer crop of founders in Greenville and reinvest
in the new crop. Invest inthe new crop of founders and support them.
So in really about ninety days,we went out and raised six point
you know, seven million dollars fromabout fifty individuals, all with the Greenville
address, and close the fund andstarted started running the accelerator had the fund
(34:44):
and we essentially use the accelerators asdue diligence. That's how we get to
know the founders and the teams thatwe're working with, and started investing that.
We sat on the money for aboutsix months, made our first investment
on July twenty eighth of last year, and now have foreign We put one
point four million of equity to workin Greenville. We've got another company that
(35:05):
will fund probably towards the end ofMarch, and then we're working with another
one right now that's kind of onthe radar. So you know, it
was It's what I wanted to do, and it really kind of at that
point I think it was. Ithelped me thread the needle of how do
I create a business where I canget what I need by giving back and
(35:25):
helping, but also have a businesslike where it's not just just a hobby
or a charity if you will,it's creating value, which I love to
do as well. Yeah, that'sawesome, man. Well, I know,
excuse me. Based on your reputationand the success that you guys are
having with the founders, find alot of folks are knocking on the door
(35:47):
and this is probably a twenty fiveminute question that I'll condense into you know,
a thirty second snapshot. But allthese folks are knocking on the door.
They want to be part of whatyou and Scott are building. What
are two or three of the mostimportant things that you look for when that
(36:07):
young regardless of age, but thatyoung entrepreneur right startup, merging technology company
walks in the door before you letthem in the building, or after you
let them in the building and letyou listen to them for thirty minutes.
But what are you looking for?Give us the paradigm. Yeah, I
mean it's really it's really pretty simple. It's humility, it's coachability, and
(36:32):
its aptitude. I mean that's reallyit. In other words, if if
they're not coachable, then then theydon't need us. If they're not humble,
we're not going to work well together. And if they're not intelligent and
scrappy, then they probably won't havewhat it takes to go do a startup.
So for us, it really isthat simple. We don't necessarily care
(36:54):
what the technology is per se becausewe know it's ultimately to change and pivot
like whatever it is today, asyou know, it'll be something totally different
in ten years. So the technologythe service is obviously important, but for
us, it is one hundred percentabout the founders. We do not invest
in solo founders, but founders intheir their their personality styles or coachability to
(37:19):
humility and the aptitude and if they'vegot domain expertise in the space they want
to they're attacking. Let's go,let's go, let's forget this thing out.
Yeah, that's awesome. I'm goingto tell you in the just a
few minutes we have left. Thirtyeight years ago, I said in a
conference room, and there was agentleman who is now thirty eight years older.
(37:45):
The gentleman sitting in that conference roomgave me a piece of advice in
shape. I remember that advice asif it was yesterday. True story.
Wow. Yeah. And the advicefor that gentleman was this, Chuck.
No good deal is a deal whereboth sides doesn't win. Both sides have
(38:13):
to win for it to be.It's got to be a win win,
otherwise it's not a good deal.The young man that told me that thirty
eight years ago was a gentleman namedCharlie Howser. Your dad and I had
not seen Charlie for over thirty fiveyears until six or eight months ago I
(38:37):
ran into your dad and I huggedhim and I said, Charlie, I
want to I want to recount whatyou told me thirty eight years ago that
helped shape and mold my career.And I told him that and we both
started crying. Oh wow, man, that's awesome. And so yeah,
(38:59):
I honor your dad in that storyand that story, that comment, that
phrase, that concept helped shape mybusiness life. That's fantastic. So I
applaud your dad highly. Respect toyour dad, of course. What does
that win win deal mean for you? Yeah, I mean, at all
(39:22):
these deals, right, what doesthat mean? I think about this in
a couple of different ways. Imean, I think part of it.
Part of it is so much aboutthe individual's character, their ethics, their
morals, and how they think aboutworking with other people. Anytime I looked
at a transaction, I fundamentally knewthat I wanted to be treated, you
(39:47):
know, in a fair and practicalmanner. And if I'm on the other
side of the table, I wouldexpect to be treated fair. Now it's
on me to get good representation andwhatnot. But if we're going to work
together, I have got to beable to trust you, you have to
trust me. I have to trustyou. It requires vulnerability. It doesn't
mean we both get what we want, but there has to be transparency and
(40:08):
what the needs are. I thinkthose deals and where there's frustration, and
I've felt this before, it's likeI left something on the table on both
sides buying and selling, those typicallytend to be good deals. I don't
like where they're forced. You know, if it feels forced, it doesn't
(40:29):
make sense for me. A lotof these, a lot of the transactions
are about gut feel because it's abouttrust and I have to know that that
person I'm working with feels that Iwill treat them appropriately and vice versa.
I don't know if that's exactly whatyou're asking, but it's kind of how
I think about it is it can'tjust simply be dollars and cents and the
(40:52):
financial performance. There has to bemore to it than that, because when
we're doing a transactions, there's probablyfamilies involved, there's kids, there's college
educations, there's a lot of thingshappening in the background. And if the
only driver is is you know thatlast nickel, then I can squeeze first
of all, that's not the kindof guy I want to be. That's
not what I want to do.But secondly, it's not the type of
(41:13):
persons. If I'm doing that,the person on the other side of the
table probably shouldn't do a deal withme. Yeah, yeah, well said
man. Well said, okay,thirty seconds or less, because I want
to keep my integrity and commitment toyou. You're a busy man, and
we promise each other a hard stop. Here's a question, and it's a
gut level question. Again, wecan unpack it for hours. But that
(41:37):
person and you're a pro entrepreneur.You and I are cut out out of
the same cloth, right. Webelieve there's some there's a beauty to building
stuff, right, that's fun,right leaving the cave, killing something home,
you know, for that person Andwe do have people, because I
(41:58):
hear from them all the time.For that person stuck and I say that
affectionately, but they're stuck in corporateAmerica. They've never left the cave because
the cave is warm and dark andsafe, comfortable, comfortable. Man,
were then person stuck in corporate America? And they have an they have an
itch, they have an inkling intheir heart and they want to start something,
(42:22):
they want to leave the cave.What advice do you give them?
Do it? I mean, it'sit's a it's do it. It's take
the chance. If you feel it, you're calling. If you feel in
your gut, you got to doit. I'm taught to these same people
all the time, Chuck, Andthe reality is this, until you quit
(42:42):
your job, until you burn thatbridge back to corporate behind you, you're
never going to start it. Yeah, you have to go all in.
And until you go all in,it's not going to happen. And I
believe that firmly, and I've seenit time and time again, and like
you, I've had meetings with peopleand a year later, they're still telling
me their idea when they leave thecompany. It's like, let me know
(43:07):
when you leave. Yeah, that'sright, that's right, that's right.
Let me call me when you leave. So well said man. Okay,
So to keep my integrity, howcan we track you and the success that
you guys are doing with the founders? Fine, yep, we won't stalk,
you'll promise, but how can wetry it all good? How can
we stay founder founderville dot VC?Okay? And then so that's the website
(43:30):
for the fund for founder Bill andthen deal Strategies dot net is the consulting
h side of the business. Youcan find both on LinkedIn and both myself
Shaylor Houser and then Scott Millwood,both on LinkedIn. We're pretty active there.
That's probably where we spend the mostof the time. You'll find me
on Twitter every once in a while, but I try not to do that
too often. Yeah. Yeah,Shae Hauser, my buddy, my friend,
(43:53):
my warrior out there in the field. Thank you for who you are.
Thank you what you're doing. Thankyou for the impact that you've made,
even in this forty five minute conversation. All the best, keep up
the good work. Appreciate it,and I will tell you, man,
you've shared your heart today and Ithank you for it. This conversation will
(44:15):
move the needle for people, soI think you. Yeah, thank you
for the time. I appreciate it. Yeah, good stuff, Thank you
(44:36):
brother. Yeah.
Hello, this is Chuck Crumpton andwelcome to another episode of The Chuck Crumpton
Show. I tell you what,I'm so excited to just be back in
front of the microphone talking to you. It's been amazing the journey we've had
with the podcast. We are nowin our third year, which is just
(00:32):
amazing that things have gown and grownso well over these three years. But
first and foremost, I want tothank you for just being a part of
my audience, being a friend ofthe show, and I think this episode
is probably going to rank up thereas one of the best, if not
the best ever. So I'm reallyexcited to kick off twenty twenty four with
(00:55):
this episode. Three quick favors.If you would please subscribe to the show,
it just makes it easy sort ofcookies at I level share the episode.
This episode is going to be lifechanging, I promise you. And
if you would leave a review,we are privileged and honored to get a
(01:15):
lot of five star reviews and yourreview just helps us with our algorithms to
make the show bigger and better.I do this show as a way to
give back. I do not monetizethe show. I do not make money
with the show, but these aremessages and concepts and ideas and conversations that
the world needs to listen to.So that's why we do the Chuck Crumpintoe.
(01:38):
So if you would please subscribe,share, leave me a review,
hopefully a five star review. Ifit's one star, I'd rather you just
leave and find another podcast. Buthopefully you'll enjoy and get a lot of
benefit from today's conversation. And ifyou have any issues, if you want
to have an idea that to makethe show better, you can reach me.
(02:00):
Chuck at Bullstreetmergers dot com is mydirect email, and you're also welcome
to go on our website Bullstreet mergersdot com. You can find our phone
number there. You can call meand say, Chuck, you're done a
great job with the show, orhere are fourteen areas that you can improve.
I'm very, very very open becausethis show is all about you,
(02:23):
and we'll be right back right afterthis. Thank you for tuning in to
another episode of The Chuck Crumpton Show, a non for profit podcast making a
(02:45):
difference where conversations are real and raw. We are grateful for your support as
we build one of the fastest growingpodcasts in the US, Please subscribe.
More information can be found at theChuckcrumptonshow dot com. Thank you for listening.
Here's Chuck. Thank you, Megan, and welcome again to another episode
(03:06):
of The Chuck Crumpton Show. Ilove business, and I believe that small
businesses with two to two hundred employeesin America is an engine that drives our
world economy. The messages you hearfrom The Chuck Crumpton Show are real world
business perspectives. I've been incredibly blessedto have built and sold two of my
(03:28):
own companies, both that started inthe toolshed of my garage. As a
matter of fact, this podcast startedin the tool shed. My wife tends
to think I have an affinity towardtoolshed living. Maybe that's true. I
am a practitioner of business. Thisis not a conversation about business theory.
(03:50):
There are tons of colleges and universitiesin America that can talk to you about
theory. But this is real lifestuff. At Bull Street Mergers, we
help business owners build and sell remarkablecompanies. If we can help you,
please reach out to us at BullstreetMergers dot com. Okay, enough of
the commercial, let's get after this. This is an incredible opportunity and I'll
(04:14):
unpack that in just a moment.But I want to take a quick moment
to introduce our guest today, ShaeHouser. Welcome to the Chuck Crumpton Show.
Chuck gon to be here, Bud, Oh my gosh. I'm going
to give a moment of vulnerability,my vulnerability in just a moment. But
(04:38):
I want to give I want tolay the foundation. I want to give
a background of your success in yourbackground, and then we're just going to
unpack life in business nineteen ninety one, graduate of the Citadel, which is
right down the road for me.Wonderful, wonderful institution. Interesting enough,
(04:59):
you've done over a billion dollars inmergers and acquisitions, which is an incredible
feat. Not many people can cansay that. And you live in the
beautiful city of Greenville, South Carolina. This is a this is a rare
privilege because not all of my guestson the Chuck Crimpton Show are friends of
(05:23):
mine, but you are my friend. Heck, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
yeah, many years thirty years ofexperience, that's right, that's right,
we go back thirty years and youknow, in full transparency, we
you know, we did some worktogether and built our early friendship years ago,
(05:43):
and then we all went our separateways as life happens, right,
and we recently reconnected in the lastthree years or so. And it's been
a real gift, real privilege forme to say that. And I want
to give a moment of a bitbecause I believe in that. I embrace
vulnerability, and I will tell myaudience when Shae and I connected, When
(06:11):
you and I connected a couple ofyears ago, I was so drawn to
your story. Your success as abusiness person far exceeds the folks that you
know, it's a national reputation ofbusiness success. But I was drawn to
your story and I wanted you tobe a part of my podcast because we
(06:35):
reach thousands and thousands and thousands ofpeople, a lot of CEOs, a
lot of business leaders, and withThe Chuck Crimpton Show, I've always wanted
to combine business and life because ourlives are not generally not compartmentalized, right.
So I listened to your story andI said, I gotta have Shae.
(06:57):
I've just got to have Shaye onmy podcast. So for the first
time ever, I packed up mystuff, my recording equipment, drove to
Greenville, South Carolina, set inone of the beautiful buildings on Main Street.
We just happened to be right nextdoor to the governor, who was
in a room beside of us.And I don't know. I will not
(07:18):
blame him. I'll blame it squarelyon me. But for whatever reason,
it was the worst, if Icould say, shittiest production I've ever had
in my life. Just horrible thecontent and what's so sad? Man?
The content was amazing, yet theproduction quality was so far subpar of what
(07:45):
I want and expect on the showthat I humbly, you know. A
month later, I had to callShay and just say, dude, I
screwed up, man, I justmade the worst mistake with all these buttons
and levels and pots and all thatkind of stuff. So Shay you graciously
said, Chuck, forget about it. Let's redo this, and that's exactly
(08:09):
what we're doing. Yeah, Andso thank you for your graciousness, thank
you for the gift of a redo. And I believe in this. I
would have otherwise probably let it go, but your message is so important for
my audience and for the world.I had to redo. So thank you,
my friend. Hey man, I'mhappy to be here, no doubt.
(08:31):
Yeah, that's awesome. Well,I want to go back to the
reference point that I made. Mywife and I were driving as we reconnected,
you know, a couple few yearsago. I was driving down the
road and you know, I wastrying to sort of get refreshed with my
friend Shay Hauser, and I foundsomething online that was a Ted talk that
(08:58):
you did, you know, maybesix or seven years ago. And the
title of the Ted talk, whichI encourage everybody go and listen. The
title of the Ted talk was Addictionin the c Suite and Shay, honestly,
that completely grabbed my heart, andfrankly, I would like to spend
(09:24):
the next four hours, you know, going through the compelling nature of that
story, but we and time justdoesn't permit that. But I encourage everyone
go find that talk. It's incredible, it will change your life. But
let's just tee up this. Iwant to get in. I have a
(09:45):
ton of I have a ton ofbusiness questions for you, particularly around M
and A. But let's lay thefoundation of who Shae Hauser is was where
you are, and we'll talk aboutwhere you're headed with your business and all
the wonderful things that you're doing,But would you just for a couple of
minutes sort of tell that story becauseit's an incredible study. I appreciate you
(10:09):
saying that. Thanks so much,Chuck. Really well, I mean,
like a lot of hard chargers,like a lot of entrepreneurs, you know,
I've always kind of run fast,run hard, and you know I
did it through the Citadel. That'sprobably one of the reasons I went to
Citadel, frankly, was you know, I needed it. I needed the
structure, and I needed the discipline. I'd gotten a lot of trouble in
(10:31):
high school, more than the averageperson, and uh, you know,
that was a good school for me. But when I got out of school,
I was super fortunate because I wentto work for a telecommunications company back
in Greenville where I've grown up,and pure luck that company, Corporate TeleManagement
Group. The founders believed in employeeownership, and you know, I had
(10:56):
no clue what I was doing.I was, you know, the eleventh
employee there along with my best friend. We were number ten and eleven.
And we went to work for thatcompany and learned a ton and you know,
we're granted some stock. And thatwas back when you could go to
the bank and just like borrow moneyto buy stock, which is what we
did, both of us. Andyou know, that company grew really quickly,
(11:18):
and that company exited in nineteen ninetyfive, and you know, I
got a little windfall, and Iremember thinking that was easy, like I
just needed to go do this myself, right, you know, very naive
and certainly had no clue what Iwas getting into. And that really led
to my first kind of my firststartup, which is a venture fund here
in Greenville with some of you know, some of the original founders of that
(11:39):
company. We invested in telecommunications servicescompanies and you know, again kind of
luck of the draw. We wereinvesting really as the dot com boom was
was accelerating and started putting money towork in you know, ninety six,
ninety seven, ninety eight time frame, and invested in one company in particular,
(12:00):
iBasis. We invested a million dollarsand they went public and then did
a secondary and the secondary was doingat a at one hundred and twenty dollars
a share. Wow, so wetook we turned a million at one hundred
and twenty million. Now of course, ultimately had dropped and we were able
to distribute forty million to our investors. And again I'm thinking, it's really
(12:20):
easy, man. Why didn't anybody, Why didn't everybody else do this right?
And just that naivety and arrogance.But that was also the time I
realized at that point venture capital wasn'treally for me, and I wanted to
start my own gig, like reallystart my own company. And I went
back to some of the folks fromthat previous organization. We started a company
(12:41):
called Trovergent Communications, another telecommunications company, you know, and that was that
was kind of late ninety seven,early ninety eight, you know. Place
mark up until that time is Iwent through high school and college. I
struggled a lot with drugs and alcohol, a lot of drinking, equal opportunity
drug user, you know, throughoutAnd when I when I got out of
(13:03):
Citadel and went to work for thefor the first company, corporatele Management Group,
I really dialed it back and Iwas entirely focused on business. I
didn't drink during the week I did, you know, I put the drugs
up, and I was really frommy perspective, I was straight, I
was level headed. I was focusedon what I thought was important, which
(13:24):
at the time was making money.Later found out that was not important,
but at the time that's what Iwas chasing. So as I as I
got through the venture fund and thenstarted Trovergent Communications, I the company was
gaining success, and we were raisingcapital, you know, ten and twenty
million bucks at a time, andhiring people. And I think by the
(13:48):
time you know, nineteen ninety nineyearlled around, you know, we were
at two hundred people. So reallymy first startup two hundred people growing hyper
fast, and the partying picked upso so the so the alcohol picked up
again, the drugs picked up again, and I was able to, you
know, kind of manage it fora period of time. And and you
(14:09):
know, I think, like alot of folks that struggle with it,
as I did, it slowly gotworse and worse. Now a company in
the meantime was having enormous success.You know, we filed for an I
p O. We raised over aquarter billion inequity at quarter billion in private
debt. You know, we werebuying companies and it was pure craziness.
(14:30):
We ultimately didn't go public, andwe ended up merging the company with a
with a Goldman Sacks back to organization, which which is a whole nother story,
but but a lot of that period, the the the addiction started to
take hold. But like my lifestarted to get out of control. And
without getting into like all the sortof details, you know, the company
(14:50):
ultimately Trivergent got recapitalized by Goldman Sachsand JP Morgan Chase and you know kk
R at the time, all thebig guys. What that meant was I
essentially went from about thirty million dollarsand stock to about one hundred thousand what
seemed like overnight. Then. Youknow, at that point, you know,
I was I was thirty one,thirty two years old, I had
(15:11):
three kids, and really I wasbankrupt, I mean practically because I was
told and believed that I had allthis money on paper and probably did at
one point, but Dad left areally bad taste in my mouth, and
you know, left that company onrelatively good terms and acquired a subsidiary of
that company and continue to grow youknow, businesses from there and had a
(15:37):
variety of exits and whatnot and starteda number of other companies. But I
think what really became the definition ofmy life from sort of two thousand through
two thousand and ten was addiction.It was it was trying to manage my
alcoholism, my drug use, alife that was completely out of control,
(16:00):
just really losing my mind. Andand there was a lot of trauma that
set in to the recapitalization of ofof trivergent New Box. You know,
after that happened, three of theco founders committed suicide. So you know,
one of my best friends, myvery best friend, so you know
a lot of kids with no dads, and and I honestly made it out
(16:23):
by the skin of my teeth.And there was another individual who I won't
name, who is a sea levelexact same thing. I mean, he
barely made it out alive from thatscenario. And it may sound a little
bit corny, but when you shouldsay when I when I when I wrapped
everything about my uh about me andmy my success perception. Uh, you
(16:47):
know, I felt like money status, sea level was it. And when
I when I lost that, Icratered it. It crushed me along with
the other members of members of themanagement team. So you know, certainly
I don't ever recommend going through arecap and I hope you never have to
go through, you know, someof the stuff that we went through,
especially losing good friends. I learneda lot, you know, I learned
(17:10):
a lot through it. But ultimately, you know, that led me down
a road of addiction, and andit led to a period of my life
that was entirely out of control,complete insanity. And you know it it
started ultimately my my recovery and mymy trips through treatment. And you know,
I first went to treatment in twentyten, and uh stayed six weeks
(17:30):
and got sobriety, and you know, stayed sober for quite a bit of
time, almost five years, andrelapsed in Charleston, by the way,
Chuck, uh it halls, ItHalls. That was my relapse at Halls.
They probably don't want that advertised,but that happened, you know.
But but the thing is, chokelike, I ultimately had to go through
treatment five other times. I mean, I've been institutionalized for well over six
(17:52):
months. I've been in a statelicensed mental institution for three months, and
and uh, it's a it's ascary dark place. But through that,
and through the experience of that,I believe I've become enormously like a better
person, A better human, certainlya better friend, father at the time,
(18:14):
husband, and it it there wasa light that began to shine on
what was important to me. Andyou know, through that, I started
a company called U Turn Health,which is now the world's largest platform of
therapist led video content for addiction wherewe really focus on the families and we're
(18:36):
doing great work. I mean,I'm not involved in the company anymore.
I exited that I'm still a shareholder, but left day to day operations.
And I think I've told you thisjob before, like it's the only company
that I've ever done that I'm proudof, you know, It's everything else
has been a run for the roses, chase for money and status, and
I would get it, and whatwas meaningless, I'd lose it. It
didn't matter. Actually felt better tolose it then didn't make it because it
(19:00):
hurt and I enjoyed the pain.But a variety of of of of crazy
times. But building a company whereI was giving back and helping people,
like meaningfully helping you know, veteransin South Carolina or individuals transitioning out of
jail of prison. Dude, that'sthat's cool. I mean, it's really
cool and it's uh. I think, uh, as I look back at
(19:25):
anything I've done, that's the onething that really sticks out is like what
else is? Or in life?Man? What else is? Or when
you can help somebody and uh anddo good work? And and I've learned
since that time, like that's whatI have to have in my career.
That's what I have to do dayand day. I have to I have
to give, I have to helpand if I if I do that,
I am fulfilled. And if Iam fulfilled, then then I feel good
(19:48):
about myself. There's self esteem andI can continue my life in the in
the in the path and the waythat I want to leave my life,
which is you know, in linewith my morals and my ethics. I
sure like I slip, there's nodoubt I make mistakes, but I tend
to live in the way that youknow, I think my family, my
mom who's passed away, would beproud of. And part of that's just
(20:10):
given. Man. Yeah, say, that's an incredible story. One reference
point and my whole purpose in justsort of unpacking that story. And again
we could spend hours right unpacking that. But you made a reference point in
your ted talk about you know,maybe maybe it was at the crucible of
(20:33):
the suffering where you were alone ina hotel room with a load of gut
and enough cocaine to kill you know, ten people or whatever. And I
tell you that gripped me, andit gripped me for multiple reasons. But
you know, having gone through adark chapter in my life, you know,
(20:57):
a long divorce, you know that. You know, I wore the
D word on my forehead and onmy chest and it was incredibly painful because
it sort of destroyed everything that Ithought I would be in life. And
you know, all of us gothrough those deep dark A friend of mine
(21:17):
calls it the dark night of thesoul, right, we go through those
moments. And yeah, I cantell you this, and this show is
not about me. It's about youand your story and the impact that you're
making in life and business. ButI can tell you haven't gone through that
dark chapter. There were days whereI could just not I'd sit and watch
(21:40):
the TV that was not on forhours, you know, you know,
and just couldn't get out of bed. And it was just debilitated because I
was just in such a funk.And fifteen years ago I would have said,
you know, the divorce word wouldnever come out of my mouth because
I'll never be that person. Andthen you know, life just hands you
(22:04):
difficult situations. And so I saidall of that to say this, the
vulnerability, the transparency, the rawnessof what you just shared. And there's
probably you probably have a hundred storiesof that right of that that you could
share, including that hotel room.Absolutely, I'm sure you remember it vividly.
(22:27):
Well. I was. I waspretty drunk. It was kind of
day two or three of a prettyyou know, scary bender or situation.
What's what's what's crazy is I hadbeen sober for almost five years and that
was a tail end of an eighteenmonth relapse. And you know, I
think I think a lot of peoplethat don't really understand addiction, and addiction
(22:48):
is a very wide ranging disease.It doesn't have to be just be drugs
or alcoholism. It's a lot ofdifferent stuff, right, But relapse is
not an event, it's a it'sa process. It is a it is
a slow process of on whine andfor me, it took almost eighteen months
and it did culminate in you know, disappearing completely, going off the grid
and being in a hotel room toyour point, with as much drugs and
(23:10):
alcohol, cocaine as I could stickin my body, and a load of
thirty eight. I still have apicture on my phone of the table in
the in the hotel room with withcocaine and bottles everywhere in the thirty eight
And I've got to have a videoand I haven't looked. I haven't watched
(23:32):
it in years, but I knowwhat I know what it is, and
it's it is frightening. It isabsolutely frightening. If you would see that,
if you watched it, just assomebody that cares about me as a
friend, you would be you wouldbe freaking terrified and destrayed to see it.
And you know, I think thatbusiness owners the amount of stress,
(23:55):
especially in startup life, and andcraziness that we go through without some healthy
outlet to deal with the challenges,you know, I know I will tend
to find things that are not healthy. And it can be anything. It
can be. It could be socialmedia, it could be food, it
could be I mean, for awhile it was working out like I you
know, I'm meal prepped on Sundayslike a lunatic and counted macros throughout the
(24:21):
week. I mean, it's crazythe way my mind would work. And
if it wasn't drugs or alcohol,if it was that, if it wasn't
that, it would it would bewomen. If it wasn't that, it
would you know, it would besomething, it would be gambling. Gambling
for a while. So it's sucha struggle building companies and finding that way
to relieve the need to self soothis it's difficult to find the healthy one,
(24:47):
I think, and a lot ofthe struggle it's not I mean,
I know I'm not alone, andI know there's a lot of people out
there that struggle all the time withthis stuff. And you know, the
thing I've learned more than anything else, And I think the big takeaway is
it's not necessarily the details of thestruggle or where it was. Everybody's situation
is different, and it's really hardto compare despair. I mean, despair
(25:10):
is you have your level of mind. It's it's you know, it is
what it is. But the abilityto to fall down and really, you
know, scrape the knees and getup and start again and go through that
cycle again and again and again.I think it builds resilience. And self
(25:32):
confidence in a way that can onlybe achieved by pain. It can only
come through pain. And it's it'snot pain, you know. I don't
seek out pain for the secret forthe sake of seeking pain, but I
do know that if I'm sitting init, and I've had some situations recently
where I had to sit in itand it sucks. But I didn't run
(25:53):
from it, you know what Imean. I sat in that pain.
I didn't I didn't drink over it. I didn't take drugs over it.
I didn't go crazy over it.And I and I, but I know
now how to sit in it andhow to feel it, and how to
process it and let it go.Those are all tools that if you're if
you're a startup, if you're youknow, a year twenty in the company,
(26:15):
you need to know how to workthose tools to keep yourself, you
know, level set and even keelso you can offer the very best.
And I and that's that's what I'vealways thought, is you know, as
I went through these struggles, Iremember so many times thinking, all I
want to do is give the verybest of my kids. I want to
give the very best shade to myfamily and I can't fucking do it.
(26:40):
But what is wrong? Like italways came back to what is wrong with
me? What is what is theissue? And you know, I it
took a long time to get tothe bottom of the of the of the
well if you will will to uhfigure out that pain and those traumas and
work on them and deal with it. And you know, my relationship with
(27:00):
my kids now is better than ithas ever been. My ex wife and
I we were married twenty six years. It's it's a fantastic, beautiful,
respectful relationship. And my new relationshipis great. I mean, I am
super blessed and I'm thankful and gratefulfor every moment of the meat grinder that
I went through because it's made mewho I am and it's allowed me to
(27:22):
try to give into help. Wow. Well, Shae, I say this
as your friend and I'll say itas a as a host of the Chuck
Crumpton Show. We talk about beingreal and raw on the show, and
you can't fabricate that, right.You either bring it, you have it,
(27:44):
or you don't. And you havebrought it. And I think it's
so important and we're gonna We're gonnapivot to business. But to know Shae
Houser at his core, which wenow do, I think illuminates the path
of listening to you as a youknow, billion dollar success story on the
(28:08):
business front. Right, we knowwho the man is and that that is
That's incredibly important. So I applaudyou man for the vulnerability, uh for
for dredging up some of those painpoints in your life to illustrate the struggles
that you've been through, the joysand the and the you know the old
(28:29):
adage, the victory of winning,and the and the hurt of losing.
Right, thank you for giving usa peek into your heart and into your
soul. I'm going to do somerapid fire questions because again we have so
many CEOs and business leaders that listen. I'm I'm sitting here with chills on
(28:51):
my spine and I'd love to campout where we were where we were just
at for But let me wrap itfire some questions at you. Okay,
when when the entrepreneurs of our audience, when, as I said in the
beginning, you've done over a billiondollars in m and a work probably far
(29:11):
exceeding that now, but when theyhear the B word the billion word,
Uh may seem to be out ofreach, unattainable, right for the guy,
the guy or the or the ladysitting in their tool shed trying to
just figure stuff out. How doyou bring them into this conversation? Right?
(29:34):
I mean, look, it's it'sit's one transaction at a time.
It's it's in the billion dollars includesfundraising. It's not just M and A.
But but I don't know what thenumber is now, it doesn't even
matter. But but it's it reallyis. It's it's kind of like the
old adage, how do you dietan elephant? You know, one one
bite at a time. It's reallythe same thing. It's it's you know,
(29:56):
I want you. One of ourinvestments to CEO yesterday, and part
of what we talked about is hewas painting this huge vision of twenty twenty
four and we're gonna do this,We're gonna do that, and we're gonna
do this, and it's like,that's awesome. I want to see the
plan, like, show me thefinancial plan. I want to see the
forecast. And it doesn't be fancy. I mean revenue costs, the goods,
(30:18):
gross profit, su and a showme what it looks like. And
he was like, okay, canI get it to you in March?
And I'm like no, no,no, And he was having a hard
time tying back, how do Ibuild it if I'm trying to get to
a million in revenue this year?And it's like, if a million is
your goal and here we are onJanuary fifteenth, you back it up and
(30:40):
you literally start planning. It's aweek and then it's four weeks. Then
it's a month, and it's threequarters, and it's a quarter. Now
we're twenty five percent of the waythrough. And it's these logical stare steps
versus thinking what do I need todo to be here in five years?
Five years is a freaking like that'sfor It's a lifetime, right. The
(31:00):
only way to get to five yearsis to do it sort of one deal
at a time, one cell ata time, one hired at a time,
one decision at a time. AndI think, whether it's raising capital
or you know, building the company, selling the company, whatever, it
really is just these little bitty bites, these little bitty steps day in and
day out to create this this outcome, and the outcome just comes with time.
(31:22):
Yeah, Yeah, that's cool.You can. Here's what's amazing,
right, Shae Houser, with yourexperience, in your in your success in
your past, you didn't have todo anything, but you chose to get
off the couch and start a founder'sfund with your your partner and buddy Scott
(31:45):
yep, and you guys are kickingit. You're doing well. I love
your model. Why did you dothat? Why did you? I think?
Yeah, well, I mean theidea of me on the couch I
would likely at some point lead backto addiction. So like that's not an
option. And I'm and I'm simplylike you chuck, like I'm not cut
(32:06):
that way. I mean, theidea of retirement is anathematic to me,
Like that's there's I hope a retirementis never in my future ever, Like
I don't want to ever quit,and I don't know what I'm gonna do.
But if i'm if I'm greeting atWalmart, Hell yeah, I'm not
going to retire, right, That'sjust not a thing for me. Regardless.
In the summer of twenty two orthe spring of twenty two, I
(32:29):
exited my last company, you turnHealth, and at that point I'm like
I'm fifty four. I'm not goingto go do another tech startup. I
just I don't want to. It'sI don't want to spend another ten years
going through that that again, andI want to do something different. And
at the same time, I hadalways been interested in accelerators and in venture
(32:52):
in venture capital. I'd done it, you know, way back when,
and I knew that Greenville packed thestate for that matter, I knew the
Greenville in particular needed a technology accelerator, and I started to approach essentially the
city's nonprofit that creates the entrepreneurial ecosystemhere called Next Upstate. I approached them
(33:13):
and basically said, listen, I'mthinking about doing an accelerator, and like
here's my plan. And it waskind of funny. They were like,
well, that's interesting. You know, we're thinking about doing one too,
and I'm like, well, that'scool. So I just said I'm doing
it, which means it just started, like it just happened, so we
should do it together. I'm nottrying to step on anybody's toes, but
this is how this works. Soyou know, that was kind of the
(33:37):
beginning of it. And then isthat accelerator got a little bit of traction
the idea. Anyway, I startedmeeting with a bunch of you know founders
and you know business leaders in thecommunity, and I was saying, you
know, I'm seeing this deal andthis deal and they need five hundred grand
and I think these two people wouldinvest and kind of looking for it was
(33:58):
almost like this this sort of financem and A type work just out of
like I'm seeing these opportunities. Igotta hand them somewhere. And what it
really turned into is I need togo raise a fund. And my partner,
Scott was exiting his last company andhe was kind of fired up to
do something. And you know,we decided let's go raise a fund.
(34:20):
And our buddy Bo Russell helped dothe documentation the work on that. The
thesis was simple, let's take theformer crop of founders in Greenville and reinvest
in the new crop. Invest inthe new crop of founders and support them.
So in really about ninety days,we went out and raised six point
you know, seven million dollars fromabout fifty individuals, all with the Greenville
address, and close the fund andstarted started running the accelerator had the fund
(34:44):
and we essentially use the accelerators asdue diligence. That's how we get to
know the founders and the teams thatwe're working with, and started investing that.
We sat on the money for aboutsix months, made our first investment
on July twenty eighth of last year, and now have foreign We put one
point four million of equity to workin Greenville. We've got another company that
(35:05):
will fund probably towards the end ofMarch, and then we're working with another
one right now that's kind of onthe radar. So you know, it
was It's what I wanted to do, and it really kind of at that
point I think it was. Ithelped me thread the needle of how do
I create a business where I canget what I need by giving back and
(35:25):
helping, but also have a businesslike where it's not just just a hobby
or a charity if you will,it's creating value, which I love to
do as well. Yeah, that'sawesome, man. Well, I know,
excuse me. Based on your reputationand the success that you guys are
having with the founders, find alot of folks are knocking on the door
(35:47):
and this is probably a twenty fiveminute question that I'll condense into you know,
a thirty second snapshot. But allthese folks are knocking on the door.
They want to be part of whatyou and Scott are building. What
are two or three of the mostimportant things that you look for when that
(36:07):
young regardless of age, but thatyoung entrepreneur right startup, merging technology company
walks in the door before you letthem in the building, or after you
let them in the building and letyou listen to them for thirty minutes.
But what are you looking for?Give us the paradigm. Yeah, I
mean it's really it's really pretty simple. It's humility, it's coachability, and
(36:32):
its aptitude. I mean that's reallyit. In other words, if if
they're not coachable, then then theydon't need us. If they're not humble,
we're not going to work well together. And if they're not intelligent and
scrappy, then they probably won't havewhat it takes to go do a startup.
So for us, it really isthat simple. We don't necessarily care
(36:54):
what the technology is per se becausewe know it's ultimately to change and pivot
like whatever it is today, asyou know, it'll be something totally different
in ten years. So the technologythe service is obviously important, but for
us, it is one hundred percentabout the founders. We do not invest
in solo founders, but founders intheir their their personality styles or coachability to
(37:19):
humility and the aptitude and if they'vegot domain expertise in the space they want
to they're attacking. Let's go,let's go, let's forget this thing out.
Yeah, that's awesome. I'm goingto tell you in the just a
few minutes we have left. Thirtyeight years ago, I said in a
conference room, and there was agentleman who is now thirty eight years older.
(37:45):
The gentleman sitting in that conference roomgave me a piece of advice in
shape. I remember that advice asif it was yesterday. True story.
Wow. Yeah. And the advicefor that gentleman was this, Chuck.
No good deal is a deal whereboth sides doesn't win. Both sides have
(38:13):
to win for it to be.It's got to be a win win,
otherwise it's not a good deal.The young man that told me that thirty
eight years ago was a gentleman namedCharlie Howser. Your dad and I had
not seen Charlie for over thirty fiveyears until six or eight months ago I
(38:37):
ran into your dad and I huggedhim and I said, Charlie, I
want to I want to recount whatyou told me thirty eight years ago that
helped shape and mold my career.And I told him that and we both
started crying. Oh wow, man, that's awesome. And so yeah,
(38:59):
I honor your dad in that storyand that story, that comment, that
phrase, that concept helped shape mybusiness life. That's fantastic. So I
applaud your dad highly. Respect toyour dad, of course. What does
that win win deal mean for you? Yeah, I mean, at all
(39:22):
these deals, right, what doesthat mean? I think about this in
a couple of different ways. Imean, I think part of it.
Part of it is so much aboutthe individual's character, their ethics, their
morals, and how they think aboutworking with other people. Anytime I looked
at a transaction, I fundamentally knewthat I wanted to be treated, you
(39:47):
know, in a fair and practicalmanner. And if I'm on the other
side of the table, I wouldexpect to be treated fair. Now it's
on me to get good representation andwhatnot. But if we're going to work
together, I have got to beable to trust you, you have to
trust me. I have to trustyou. It requires vulnerability. It doesn't
mean we both get what we want, but there has to be transparency and
(40:08):
what the needs are. I thinkthose deals and where there's frustration, and
I've felt this before, it's likeI left something on the table on both
sides buying and selling, those typicallytend to be good deals. I don't
like where they're forced. You know, if it feels forced, it doesn't
(40:29):
make sense for me. A lotof these, a lot of the transactions
are about gut feel because it's abouttrust and I have to know that that
person I'm working with feels that Iwill treat them appropriately and vice versa.
I don't know if that's exactly whatyou're asking, but it's kind of how
I think about it is it can'tjust simply be dollars and cents and the
(40:52):
financial performance. There has to bemore to it than that, because when
we're doing a transactions, there's probablyfamilies involved, there's kids, there's college
educations, there's a lot of thingshappening in the background. And if the
only driver is is you know thatlast nickel, then I can squeeze first
of all, that's not the kindof guy I want to be. That's
not what I want to do.But secondly, it's not the type of
(41:13):
persons. If I'm doing that,the person on the other side of the
table probably shouldn't do a deal withme. Yeah, yeah, well said
man. Well said, okay,thirty seconds or less, because I want
to keep my integrity and commitment toyou. You're a busy man, and
we promise each other a hard stop. Here's a question, and it's a
gut level question. Again, wecan unpack it for hours. But that
(41:37):
person and you're a pro entrepreneur.You and I are cut out out of
the same cloth, right. Webelieve there's some there's a beauty to building
stuff, right, that's fun,right leaving the cave, killing something home,
you know, for that person Andwe do have people, because I
(41:58):
hear from them all the time.For that person stuck and I say that
affectionately, but they're stuck in corporateAmerica. They've never left the cave because
the cave is warm and dark andsafe, comfortable, comfortable. Man,
were then person stuck in corporate America? And they have an they have an
itch, they have an inkling intheir heart and they want to start something,
(42:22):
they want to leave the cave.What advice do you give them?
Do it? I mean, it'sit's a it's do it. It's take
the chance. If you feel it, you're calling. If you feel in
your gut, you got to doit. I'm taught to these same people
all the time, Chuck, Andthe reality is this, until you quit
(42:42):
your job, until you burn thatbridge back to corporate behind you, you're
never going to start it. Yeah, you have to go all in.
And until you go all in,it's not going to happen. And I
believe that firmly, and I've seenit time and time again, and like
you, I've had meetings with peopleand a year later, they're still telling
me their idea when they leave thecompany. It's like, let me know
(43:07):
when you leave. Yeah, that'sright, that's right, that's right.
Let me call me when you leave. So well said man. Okay,
So to keep my integrity, howcan we track you and the success that
you guys are doing with the founders? Fine, yep, we won't stalk,
you'll promise, but how can wetry it all good? How can
we stay founder founderville dot VC?Okay? And then so that's the website
(43:30):
for the fund for founder Bill andthen deal Strategies dot net is the consulting
h side of the business. Youcan find both on LinkedIn and both myself
Shaylor Houser and then Scott Millwood,both on LinkedIn. We're pretty active there.
That's probably where we spend the mostof the time. You'll find me
on Twitter every once in a while, but I try not to do that
too often. Yeah. Yeah,Shae Hauser, my buddy, my friend,
(43:53):
my warrior out there in the field. Thank you for who you are.
Thank you what you're doing. Thankyou for the impact that you've made,
even in this forty five minute conversation. All the best, keep up
the good work. Appreciate it,and I will tell you, man,
you've shared your heart today and Ithank you for it. This conversation will
(44:15):
move the needle for people, soI think you. Yeah, thank you
for the time. I appreciate it. Yeah, good stuff, Thank you
(44:36):
brother. Yeah.
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