396: How to Build a Successful Company

[00:00:00] If the goal today with AI is to become more efficient, I want to grow my revenue, I want to have a more profitable company, and I want to do whatever I can to become efficient, well, the pipes of the business are incredibly inefficient. There are businesses who say, until I get fined or until they bring it to my attention, I'm not going to deal with it.

[00:00:18] Business travel, it's incredibly overrated, overrated, and the word balagan means it's not only that I have a balagan of vendors and where do I go, who's my guy, what do I see in them that is going to, one, complement my talents, and can we be able to honor each other that the one plus one is exponentially better?

[00:00:42] And also, are we able to go through a difficult conversation and come out better on the other side? Welcome to another edition of Mind Your Business. On this episode, I am honored to catch up with Shai Stern, the founder of GoTavi.

[00:01:01] Now, Rep Shai Stern has been in the business world for 30 years, approximately, he doesn't look it, but yes, he's been out there for around three decades, has built a number of successful businesses, and then exited from that. We're going to discuss that as well. Rep Shai, welcome to Mind Your Business. Thank you, Yitzchok. It is wonderful to be here. Thank you. Thank you for taking out of your precious time. You're not easy to get a hold of, although you're very gracious about your time.

[00:01:29] You're gracious about your time, but you're a busy guy. I try to say I'm the easiest guy to get a hold of. You are. You know, it's like, you're not, you know, it's amazing. The times we get a hold of you, we get a hold. But it's like, I don't know how I got time on your schedule. That's what I meant to say. Always available. Thank you. Let's start from your journey going back. You know, memory. You're a kid, you're playing ball, you're learning Gamora.

[00:01:57] And you're in TNIC, TABC, Karen Bajavna, why you talk about your backstory. So, the backstory always begins with my grandparents. You know, my Bobby and Zayidi and my Saba and Safda, they're the heroes of my life. And wonderful, incredible, incredible people, incredible Jews. My mother's parents, my Saba and Safda, they come from Ungvar, from that area.

[00:02:26] And they ended up on a Moshav after the war, on a Moshav and Eretz Yisrael between Netanya and Hedera. And they were farmers. It was Moshav of all survivors, Hungarian Czech survivors, all Shomrit Torah mitzvahs, from Moshav. And my Saba was just, they're just incredible people. The schedule every morning was one that went straight into my DNA. It was a shear before davening.

[00:02:51] It was davening. It was coming home. And he, as Allah has said, he fed the chickens. That was his responsibility. And then he had breakfast. Then he went back out to the field. Just an incredible year. My Bobby and Zayidi were in Flatbush. And both my Saba and Safda were incredibly present in my lives. Even though that I lived in TNIC, I was spoiled as a kid. I went there to Israel twice a year to visit them, to the Moshav. Worked on a farm as a kid from TNIC. Had my chores and responsibilities. It was incredible.

[00:03:22] And my Bobby and Zayidi, they lived in Flatbush, 8th, 8th, OMP. Domened by the Muzire, Rio, Viznitz, Haimisha family. Come from Marmaros, from Romania. And then I saw having that background of the Haimishkaite, the survivors, and yet being able to grow up in TNIC, New Jersey. What I always, I appreciate so much the breath and the expansiveness of my background and upbringing. By the way, Rav Shai, again, I'm speaking with Shai Stern of Gotavi.

[00:03:52] Something that's very special is many times you speak with successful people and they're like, you know, we had it recently, right? And here you're basically, you know, you're crediting your background, your parents, your grandparents. It's very special. You know, it's not just, you know, it's true. Every person has their own Satish Maya and they have to make it and do it. It's great. But, you know, let's give some credit, you know, to our upbringing, to our parents, our grandparents.

[00:04:21] What did they put in for us to make us successful? Absolutely. And, you know, my parents, I've been incredibly blessed. My father, Oliver Shalem, passed away 12 years ago. So he loved to learn. He was a teacher and then he went into my grandfather's jewelry business. Then he went back into founding an organization in Teaneck in Bergen County called Project Ezra that is still there today and helping people who have fallen on difficult times.

[00:04:44] But when I was in high school, which was really unheard of, and my father would take me out of high school to go with him on business trips and to have these incredible experiences. Before there was Godalvin.com or any other app, my father, wherever we went, he knew where there was a minion and he wake me up before shakhos every morning. We learn a block of murder together.

[00:05:04] And what he taught me during those formative years in high school was how to be a bentore on the road and how there's a structure that wherever you go, there's learning before davening. He would tell us, You have to learn. That's the fuel every day before you go to work. And he would say, and you have to learn before you go to daven because as the day progresses, you're going to become more tired, more distracted. At night, you're not going to be able to touch a clear head. And so those were incredible, incredible experiences. And my mother,

[00:05:37] is just an incredible woman who is without a question the most selfless human being I've ever encountered. Never wants anything for herself. My father wasn't in the jewelry business. She never wanted a piece of jewelry. This wasn't her thing. So I am incredibly blessed by the upbringing and the family that I was born into. Now, let's go back around 25 years ago, early 2000. You started Vintage Filings.

[00:06:04] You founded four companies since then, but let's focus on Vintage Filings. Talk about that particular experience. What did you notice at that time? Because we know every business exists to solve a pain point in the marketplace. What pain point did you see? What problem were you solving by starting Vintage Filings? So the truth is, I didn't have... It's Siyat HaShemaya, Siyat HaShemaya, Siyat HaShemaya.

[00:06:34] So Seth Farman, who many know today, was my co-founder. He's my brother for life. Baruch Hashem. I'm even blessed with an incredible relationship. So we... The story... We shared the story that we met in Teaneck. His wife is from Teaneck. We grew up together. And at that time, we were both zeichet to be outside during Yizker. So what are you doing? What are you doing? They go, pause. Let's meet tomorrow after Yantam. We met the next day. And then he told me about what he was doing and his side hustle. We turned that side hustle into Vintage Filings.

[00:07:04] But yesterday, I actually met up with an old client of Vintage Filing yesterday. Steve Kadavi, who is now a Troutman, a lawyer, an amazing person. And he goes, you know, you guys didn't even realize, which is the truth, which is funny. You guys didn't even realize how revolutionary your approach was to that business. And what we did realize very quickly on is that the SEC filing industry has been the same for years.

[00:07:30] When they were using one of the three major multibillion-dollar companies, their service was more or less the same. The perks in using one or the other were more or less the same. And they were brutally expensive because they had infrastructure and leased locations that had them charging a lot of money. We said, well, today there are laptops. Today there's the internet. Today it's much easier. You could be. We can go to law firms to use their facilities. It doesn't make sense to leave space. So we went out and we said we're better, faster, and cheaper.

[00:07:59] The other thing that we did then and we still continue to really do generously as part of the DNA is I love opening up doors for others. I love being a dock connector. I love being able to say, how can I help your business be more successful? Who can I try? Successful. But if there are three people that I might know or five people that I might know that could be helpful for your business, who would they be?

[00:08:24] So we'd sit with attorneys and bankers and public company executives and go, okay, you know, I'm running around all day. I'm meeting people. Tell me the kinds of people that could be of benefit to you. And we just did that as much as we could to create that kind of goodwill. We're going to fast forward now, although we're going to come back to some of the other companies, to Gotavi. Now, you had a clip that went up recently about you had a trip to Eretz Israel and there's a great word that you loved, Balagon. All right. I love that clip.

[00:08:54] So we're going to talk about that. Let's talk about today's day and age. Balagon. A business, insurance, regulation, payroll. Payroll. You go down the list. There's dozens of items that a company has to ace and be good at. And they take time and they take focus. And meanwhile, a company has to focus on its clients, its customers in order to grow.

[00:09:18] Talk about the founding of Gotavi and what Gotavi actually provides in a day-to-day. Okay. So the thesis of Gotavi goes like this. With the advent of AI, basically the conversation all over the place. In every conversation today, it is how do I build a new business with AI or how do I refresh my existing company with AI? That's the whole conversation.

[00:09:44] With that being the conversation, I looked at it and I go, well, over the years, we've been blessed to find a service, a corner, one little pipe of a business and say, let's do this well. And let's service that area. And we did it repeatedly. Now I looked at it and I go, but wait one second. The success of Amazon is you could buy whatever you want on Amazon. The success of an e-commerce, let's call it Nike, for example.

[00:10:07] Nike, if you go onto Nike and you're athletic or you want to be inspired to be athletic and you go on their site and you would say, okay, I'm a man. That means they want to sell me whatever they can for me to have athletic gear and athletic wear for the man. And they'll sequence you accordingly. You could buy whatever you need there. Now when it comes to the pipes of a business, if the goal today with AI is to become more efficient, I want to grow my revenue.

[00:10:32] I want to have a more profitable company and I want to do whatever I can to become efficient. Well, the pipes of the business are incredibly inefficient. That means I'm using a different guy or a different vendor for everything. I'm using one vendor for my formations and the governments and the compliance. I'm using a different one for payments, a different one for insurance, a different one for background checks, a different one now for AEO, answer engine optimization, a different one, a different one.

[00:10:58] And we looked at it and we go, well, if the whole goal is to become efficient, then let's start with the foundation of the home. Let's start with how do we make the life of the business owner and the office manager way easier. Just it should flow way better. And then we looked at it and we go, OK, what are the things that are the little nuances that make it difficult? So today, Gotavi, so this was the idea and went out there and I started to talk to folks about who I need. Now, I could have an idea, but I'm not technical.

[00:11:27] So I need the best technical partner that I could be gifted. And Hashem sent this an amazing gift with my partner, Alicia Herman, who's an amazing, amazing person, brilliant technologist, great person. He worked at HSBC for a dozen years. So we met up and we started to, I guess, ideate around it. And then we really stayed focused on formations, payments, insurance.

[00:11:49] By the way, we'll talk about AI insurance and why that's going to be a whole new category of answer engine optimization, background checks, business licensed solutions, which some guys knew about in the past. Most people are not really familiar with it. So we looked at it and we said, let's create the platform that we can. And every day people come to us and say, can you add more? Can you do more? Can you take this off our plane? We're staying pretty focused on these six, seven solutions today and really want to nail them and add the value there. And that's how Gotabi came about.

[00:12:19] And that's where we are today. Now, what is the actual website for people to find out more information? It's gotabi, G-O-T-A-V-I dot C-O, not com dot C-O. Now, you had mentioned that you focus on the core, not principles, but core areas that almost every business out there needs to ace, right? Because they're a funder, you know, whether it's making sure that, you know, everything regarding insurance or payroll, et cetera, is okay.

[00:12:48] Now, you also just mentioned a moment ago that people are coming to you with new ideas. Now, you're someone that also is constantly thinking, you know, how can I leverage AI? Why? Kind of what – I don't know if there's a way of like – is there a barometer for like – because it's amazing. You're moving at the speed of light, but at the same time, you want to make sure that you're focused on your core areas that you want to bring to the table for a business. Kind of how does – if I may just crawl into your mind for a moment.

[00:13:18] You're like, how do you like kind of, you know, decipher like, okay, you know, this is a good idea. I think we'll include this. This is a good idea, but you know what? It's not part of the rubric of what Gotavi exists, why it exists. It's a big question. So, one, it has to be, I guess, simply understood enough by me and technologically understood by Alicia how we could be – how we could hope that we can be successful in it.

[00:13:49] One. Two, we have to like the people that are bringing it to us that they're good people. You have to do business with good people. That's a whole conversation. Yeah, we're going to talk about that. And three, we have to be able to not feel we have to reinvent the wheel or go somewhere that we don't have comfort in. So, there are people that go, well, you can now go and sell medical supplies. I haven't done that in the past.

[00:14:18] It's not my comfort zone. It doesn't mean that I'm stubborn that I don't want to go out there and learn a new trait or a new industry. It means that I feel comfortable in an industry that I can rinse and repeat and call up and create success and also understand the dynamics of how that works. And, of course, even though we have like seven, eight today, there is a concept of tafastha rubulai, tafastha. At a certain point, it is too much and you have to first see where you can create success.

[00:14:46] So, a lot of it also is gut. You have to know what's comfortable and what's not. Now, gotavi, gotavi.co. So, you're sitting like right in the middle between the business owner and the attorney, advisors, and the different areas. A concierge. I just want to like hold on to that. You explained that maybe like coming in from another angle. Think of it. I'm not asking for anything confidential.

[00:15:14] Think of a particular company because now you're dealing with if not dozens of clients. You're only a few months in. What is like, you know, frame it. Frame it for someone watching the show to like, wow, now I really like, I heard what he said. I didn't really get it yet. But by giving this example like, all right, now, wow, this is like too good to be true. So, it's very kind of you to say it's too good to be true. I think that, you know, I've always enjoyed being a concierge to my clients.

[00:15:43] So, today there's an online world. There's an offline world. A lot of my clients have enjoyed over the years just giving me a call, sending me a text, an email, a WhatsApp saying, hey, Sha, I got this order. Can you just take care of it? Set me up. I know that they feel comfortable that way. I enjoy that concierge concept. But that's not, it's scalable, but it's limited in scale. And platforms today should be unlimited. So, that concept of how can we offer to a client what it is that they need.

[00:16:12] A friend of mine this week said to me, and I posted on my LinkedIn, he goes, my job as a provider is to be the 411 and the 911. And what he meant to say is that the 911 is that in an emergency, they know they can call me. And 411 means if you have something they need or information they're looking for or where do I go, they know they can call me as well. I liked it a lot. So, I took it, ran with it, asked for permission. And it was great. Aaron Spool, and I put it on my LinkedIn.

[00:16:39] However, when it comes to Gotavi, what we're trying to do is, you know, in the world of venture, they go, what's your ICP? Which stands for what's your ideal customer profile? But the answer is we are really the anti-ICP. Because our audience is very, very broad. We service those who are as big as publicly traded companies and we service startups as well. Now, if you're an existing, mature, already running company, where do you use Gotavi?

[00:17:09] And the answer is, well, no matter who you are today, you're building with AI. That means you need AI insurance. And they go, well, what is that? Well, years ago, I'm sure you remember, there was no such thing as cyber insurance. Right. There was a new category that was created when the internet came up to make sure that you're protected if there's a hack or something on your site goes down and it impacts your clients.

[00:17:29] Because today, with the build of AI, even the Wall Street Journal reported it, that Anthropic went a little wonky and OpenAI had some challenges and it gets escaped from its programming. And therefore, there needs to be the protection for you as a business and your clients and the operation, which is called AI insurance. So we are offering AI insurance. We're bringing that awareness. Everybody needs that.

[00:17:53] Two, everybody is trying to say, how do I consolidate vendors over time? Meaning, I'm not going to necessarily do a big bang and move all my business to Gotavi today. But can I use Gotavi as a repository for my corporate governance documents? The answer is yes, because a lot of companies either have it by their attorney. Their attorney might switch firms, whatnot. That attorney, who knows? Or it might be by an office manager that is stuck on somebody's computer.

[00:18:22] But the platform now enables that to be the repository. Or they're looking for additional values in payments or additional values in how do I learn how to get my company more seen on the AI platform. It's called answer and engine optimization. So the different solutions that we have are applicable to all types of companies at different stages. And as people are becoming more aware with Gotavi, you know, and B'Ruch Hashem, we have, you know, today we're at hundreds of clients.

[00:18:52] Hundreds of clients. Amazing. And we hope that it grows very, very quickly. It's a gift. It's all a gift. It's about how do we keep on being able to articulate value to companies of all sizes. You know, a lot of times I can go to a wedding and someone says, what does Gotavi do? I already formed my company. I don't need you. And that's true. You don't need me in that area forming your company. That's done. But there's a life cycle of governance at your company. Now, where are those, even by the way, where are those formation documents, where are they sitting?

[00:19:22] Well, I don't know. It's not an issue. It is an issue. You know why? Because when you need them for a financing or bank loan, or you need it later on for whatever you might need it for, searching for that stuff is the Balagan. And as you alluded to, how do we avoid Balagan? Right. The word Balagan means it's not only that I have a Balagan of vendors and where do I go? Who's my guy? What if your guy leaves the firm? What if he goes? It's a Balagan of management.

[00:19:51] Every vendor that a company has to manage. There are statistics on this. The statistics say that for every vendor that a company manages, it takes dozens upon dozens of hours. Number one, the selection process. Then it is the engagement process. Then it is all the processes in managing each vendor. That's a Balagan.

[00:20:11] Now, and especially, I remember years ago, years ago, you know, there was a big name, a big, big name. And someone told me this story, that they went to this big time CEO in the middle of the day saying, hey, boss, you're going to have a problem on a tiny detail. And I'm bringing it to you right now. And the boss shouted him out of the office saying, why would I care with this? It's such a small detail.

[00:20:41] Now, he walked out of there literally mortified because he got screamed at when the day that those things were more common. God forbid it should happen today. And then fast forward, it became such a big deal because the client later on, it became exposed what the issue was. And then CEO called the CEO and he goes, how do you not know that? And then he called up my friend and goes, why didn't you tell it to me? And he goes, no, I did. I did. But it didn't resonate with you at that moment.

[00:21:10] You said it was a small thing and you brushed it away. Now it came back as a monster. These things are things that they need to be tended to. People are looking for the best solution, the best price, the best responsiveness, and as well to see how things are constantly being updated and upgraded. And that's really a lot of the value that we're putting together over here at Gotavi. You know, something else that kind of popped into my head here is regarding licenses. No one thinks of them.

[00:21:39] And there are many businesses, again, there are many industries that do have licensing, whether it's on different levels of government licenses. And then it's like perhaps you could even like talk about, I'm not even sure if that example that you just had a moment ago had to do with a license. But like is it really a thing? And if it is, like how does Gotavi fit in to make sure that it doesn't become a monster?

[00:22:07] So, yes, business licenses are a real thing. If you're in construction, opening up a medispa, of course, the health care industry, of course, medical industries, of course, restaurants, of course, coffee shops. There's endless licenses that are required depending on the industry that you're in and the jurisdiction in which you operate. And there could be licenses on the state level, on the county level. There are just endless licenses.

[00:22:35] And that also is a monitoring issue. Now, there are businesses who say until I get fined or until they bring it to my attention, I'm not going to deal with it. And then it becomes a ball of ground. If and when, if and when. And our job is to say, look, the same way you get insurance on your business to protect yourself and the same way you want to have your pipes of your business being run well. That's called being responsible. It's just called being responsible. You want the shop to run well.

[00:23:05] So our job is to make sure you're running your shop well. That's the goal. So that's what we like to go out there and do. We go ahead and we have a portal that you can type in the name of your company, you can type in where you're operating, you can type in the industry that you're in. It'll tell you what licenses that you need. It'll just give it back to you. And that's it's like a no brainer value. It's not expensive, but it's something that if you don't care for it, it's like, you know, it's like driving down Ocean Parkway at 34 miles an hour. 34 miles an hour is no big deal.

[00:23:32] But those speed cameras are going to get you once you're a mile over 25. That's just what they're going to go ahead and do. So what's the big deal? Well, you're going to get a ticket in the mail. And I haven't yet met a person that drives down Ocean Parkway that either one didn't get a ticket in the mail or two and they got a ticket in the mail saying it was worth it going 40 miles an hour to get to the restaurant because it's a simcha faster. And I'm happy paying 100 bucks. Never. So let's just go ahead and just slow down a tiny drop, take care of it, and then we'll be in compliance.

[00:24:02] Now, this show, Mind Your Business, primarily is a show for B2B, B2C, small to medium sized businesses. But there are some, we've gotten feedback over the years, so many executives at nonprofits. Is there an area for a nonprofit to actually benefit from the Gotavi platform? I think so, for sure. Meaning they have to keep their 501c3s in compliance.

[00:24:30] So we do the formation of 501c3s. We make sure that they're in compliance. They all receive payments. That's for sure. They all are running campaigns. You all need pages for payments. They all need insurance one way or another. I'm not exactly sure what insurance the different organizations need, but for sure schools need insurance. For sure yeshivas need insurance. Right. For sure, for sure. Schools need insurance. For sure, a lot of organizations need insurance. And they for sure need background checks. You know, I remember years ago, a funny story. You know, you mentioned that I went to Yeshiva Universities.

[00:25:00] I went to YU. I dropped out of YU. And my mother, she should live with me well, still wants to remind me of times that I dropped out. And wishes I went back and got an honorary degree. Maybe one day in her honor. Who knows? You heard it here first. Yeah, you heard it here first. Yeah. But Lamai said years ago, when we had the background check business, V-Check Global, YU called us up and they engaged us to do background checks on a bunch of their teachers, donors, professors. They did that and they engaged us.

[00:25:29] The funny thing was I dropped out. And then I called my father and I go, Abba, I got to show you something. I said, I want to show you how the boss upstairs works. I dropped out of YU. Now they're paying me. That's not because I'm even an alumni. Alumni, that's of course how Kodesh Baruch Hu runs the whole world. And he was laughing. He goes, well, actually, I paid your tuition. I deducted from what I gave you. But it was funny. But organizations, charitable organizations, they need background checks. And there's definitely what and how they can benefit from the platform.

[00:25:59] Now, here's an interesting question. We know that one of the most delicate areas of a business is HR. Employees, background checks. You're touching on that. How does Gotavi solve or deal with or offer services that deal with personnel? Or does it? Well, we do background checks. That's the beginning and end of it. As you run background checks on pre-employment, pre-screening, all that stuff. We offer that.

[00:26:27] So it's definitely a dream for an HR manager. Hopefully, it's a value to them, yes. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. Now, a few moments ago, you touched on AI, AI technology. But still, let's face it. Hi. Hello, Reb Shai. We're humans. We're talking to each other. These are not AI bots talking to each other. And in fact, I have to give just this on a personal level.

[00:26:52] Reb Shai, you were actually the first person to reach out when I, a few months ago, came out with my art school book. And I remember, I'm actually very close with Rev. Mati Kamenetsky. I said, Rev. Mordechai, you know, I got this beautiful note from someone that I didn't know before. And he said, wow, he's such a wonderful guy. It makes sense. It makes sense he would send you a note. So, you know, talk about human relationships.

[00:27:20] You know, like, this AI, got to leverage it. Great. But, like, could we just get so caught up with our phones and computers that we could ignore human relationships? So, first of all, yes. Your book and the structure of it in the micro chapters is phenomenally brilliant and a must read for everybody. So I'll plug that right here. Thank you. And I did call up Gadalia Zlodowicz and I told them that he should ask you to do more of these. Thank you. Very special. Not only that, they should put them more in the weekly art school newsletters.

[00:27:50] They should absolutely guard their courage and they should have a business section. But I want to take a step back and go off business for a moment to go about relationships. Yeah. You know, I think I might have mentioned this to you the last time is that when I was in Israel the last trip, you know, across the hall from Zichar Moch in Yerushalayim, there's a farm store called Gersa, which is a great farm store. What about the Cholent? Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's also great. Cholent is good all over.

[00:28:16] But in that farm store, I picked up a sefer called Chaye Simcha. It's 900 plus pages that Sadiq who put it together by Herbst. He put an amazing gathering of Mamori Chazal all about how to lead a happier life at home. And he really drills into the mitzvah of Machabda, how to honor your wife. It's literally the whole sefer is honoring your wife.

[00:28:43] And I believe truthfully, and I said this to a good friend of mine who runs a Kolo or a Modish Kull, I think it should be mandatory learning by every husband. And especially, meaning I'm 52, married 30 years, and it's transformed my life. Now, what that does is it teaches us about how to honor our spouse, how to honor our wives and how to be more patient. You know, they tell a little stories. I know that myself. You know, the line that I've always said is that six days a week I do whatever I want.

[00:29:12] But if I have to go to a Kiddush with my wife, I'm now in her time. That's just the way that it goes. And there are Tzaddikian who literally would go to Kiddush Shem and Simchas. As he said about Yakub Kamenensky, he would literally say to his wife, as long as you want to stay, I'm ready to go. And she would say, but you're, and I have to honor the Torah. And he would say, I'm honoring the Torah by honoring you. Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. So special. Magnificent. Magnificent.

[00:29:37] Now, when it comes to relationships, relationships always have to begin. And again, we're all humans. We're all humans, so it's complicated. And we all come with our own stuff, our own baggage. But relationships in the context of business, because this is a business show. Context of business are, why am I partnering up with this person? What do I see in them that is going to, one, complement my talents?

[00:30:08] Where it's going to fill the gaps and where I'm lacking? And can we be able to honor each other that the one plus one is exponentially better? And also, are we able to go through difficult conversations and come out better on the other side? Now, we have, that is, I think, the most important thing about business partnerships. When it comes to hiring, hiring is an incredibly complicated, complicated chapter.

[00:30:35] And one that, as we all know, it is a lifelong study. Because someone who you hire today, just to put it on a simple level, we change, they change, circumstances change. So the ability to have, let's call it the eye and toe, have the right outlook to give the benefit, to go ahead and explain, to understand, to ask questions. And I'll just divert into one thing, like in my world.

[00:31:02] I was asked this question earlier this week, and they go, so someone comes to work with you, Shai Stern. Do you have teaching manuals? Do you have educational manuals? Do you have training manuals? And a lot of big companies, they have an amazing training department. And I said, I never had that luxury to go out there and create training manuals. And so in my world, it's a lot of, you got to figure stuff out as you go.

[00:31:28] Now, what I've learned also is that over the years, I was either traveling out of the office, busy on a call, busy on a meeting. And someone who was fresh in the organization needed me to guide them in how they, to respond, how to sell, how to go ahead and how I expect them to go do things. And I could have been short with that. I could have been too busy. I could have not been helpful to them. And then now, as we mature, we hope, we go in and we reflect and we go, you know, that's not wise.

[00:31:57] If you want to bring somebody on, you want them to be brought on to be successful for you, for the company. And if you're not giving them the right time to educate, to train, to set expectations, you're, number one, you're 100% wrong in hiring this person because you're hurting them. They could have potentially had a better opportunity elsewhere. And silly, you're actually hurting your own company because you're investing them up. You're not getting anywhere. Right, right. You're not going to be able to delegate to that person if you don't train them.

[00:32:28] Yeah. So. It's a whole, it's a whole, it's a great conversation. Now, you built a number of successful companies, Baruch Hashem, and you exited. So if it's okay, we'd want to talk about that experience a bit. First of all, is there any pattern, just curious, to what you actually built, like from your first one to your second one to the third one?

[00:32:53] Was there anything that you saw that then, you know, made you smarter when you got into, when you started building your second one, you started building your third one, your fourth? Um, I don't know if the answer is, you know, we get smarter. You know, smarts are, you know, the boss upstairs runs everything. Yeah. So there are times where you look at yourself and you go, wow, that was a gift. My mind opened to that one. It wasn't because I became smarter.

[00:33:23] Or it's because, or you miss something and you go, that was right in front of me. How did I miss it? So we have to keep on reminding ourselves that his shtavos and the outcomes really have no connection. Um, and every step of the way is a gift. It just always, always, always is. Um, now when it came time to, to building these companies, you know, again, there's, there's wonderful people that I've experienced, encountered, have been in my corner that have been gifts in my life.

[00:33:52] Um, there's a whole village of these amazing gifts, um, that Hashem sends to all of us. We all have these gifts. So when we, when we had, when it came time to, to vintage findings, we never expected to sell the company. We were approached, um, by the competition. They threatened us, they approached us, and then we had got a phone call. And then Seth and I had just an honest conversation. What should we do? And we said, okay, well, we'll, we'll go with it.

[00:34:16] Um, and then when it came time to V Corp and, and, and, and that, and that opportunity, again, you know, we were, we weren't so active in the business. Um, our partner who was operating the business, wonderful, wonderful person, was doing a great, great job. It was really, um, his decision. Was this a good outcome for him? Cause he was the founder. We came in a little bit later. Um, and we really let him drive that. Um, do you want to pull the trigger or not?

[00:34:44] Once we had the offer, when it came to V check, um, we, we were literally, um, when COVID came, we were very focused on commercial real estate. And, um, I, I remember vividly lying in bed sick as a dog in LA and the business just fell off the cliff. We were down 90% right away. We didn't know what to go out and do. You know, Hashem sent this amazing gift of PPP money. If that wouldn't have happened at that time, it would have been a disaster.

[00:35:12] Um, and then with a couple of crazy, say after Shemire, we got some really nice accounts. And then I was speaking to a banker friend and I go, I think the momentum here is way stronger than reality. So let's see if now's the time to sell it. Um, and that was also just a conversation amongst partners and, um, and not something, you know, in all these scenarios, you know, Yitzchak, it's, it's never, um, let's go build something to sell it. Never. Never.

[00:35:39] Um, it has always been, let's go build it to become, you know, to see where it goes. We want to have, want to grow the fastest, see how we can get the most profits out of it and then see where, where Hashem guides it. Um, and, and, and that I think is really the, the attitude that we've always had. Go build a business, go out there and hustle and hustle and hustle and hustle. But Victor Miller in this week's Tarantino and Victor, it's very, very clear. He goes, you have to hustle. It literally, he says those words.

[00:36:07] You got to get up in the morning and you got to go out there and work. You got to hustle. Now, as long as you can remember that the success is not coming out of you, but you got to go hustle. So we, we love hustling. We love getting up in the morning. We love going to work. We love doing what we're supposed to go do. We love this game. The, the outcomes are just where Hashem has, has guided them. Wow. First of all, just to remind everyone, my guest on this particular episode is Rav Shai Stern from Gotavi, gotavi.co.

[00:36:36] It's a, uh, incredible platform really for any type of business and nonprofit out there. Go to the site and then you'll see for yourselves how it can fill a, uh, a tremendous role for your company. Now, this particular section of the show, we're talking about the fact that Rav Shai had built a number of businesses and exited. So if I may, I'm going to hold on to that because that's also very helpful for the people listening.

[00:37:03] Are there any tips that you could, uh, share? And I'm, in fact, I'm even going to repeat one amazing tip that you just shared. And that is when someone is in a business, don't have in mind necessarily the exit every day. You're building it to service your clients and your customers. Now, good. That said, when it comes time or the person has a mind, he wants to move on to another chapter in his life, whatever it is.

[00:37:29] What are some of the tips, suggestions that you, Rav Shai, can give that a person should start to put into place when he's starting to think of an exit? That's a great question. Again, it depends on, um, a whole variety of circumstances. Mm-hmm.

[00:37:48] Um, circumstances of the ownership group, um, circumstances of where the business is at, um, growth trajectory, profits, um, making money, losing money, who has money in that wants money out, um, where the industry is. Are you now in an industry that is no longer attractive or it's super attractive? Um, so there's all these different factors that have to go into it. And then also, do you hire a banker, not hire a banker? Is it one that sells naturally to a strategic buyer?

[00:38:18] Or is there a private equity firm? Um, there are all these different factors that one who is the business owner should know about their industry already for years. Meaning a lot of the things that, um, I, I think are important is when you go to industry conferences and you know who your competition is, um, then you can understand what the market looks like for you.

[00:38:39] And now, by the way, there are those who say, maybe I should go first and buy a competing company, roll that up first once or twice, and then be able to get bigger and then go out there and sell. Or, you know what? I'm comfortable with whatever the outcome is. There are so many, so many variables, um, to what goes into selling a company.

[00:39:02] Um, and you have to then also be very aware of, okay, if I do sell the company, um, and I sell it, what does my life look like the next day? Wow. Um, what does that look like? Um, now remember, there are people who sell companies and they get, let's call it a pile of money. That pile of money is not life changing. That pile of money, let's say for example, you're making X amount of dollars a year.

[00:39:28] That's your distribution, your salary plots from the company that you own. Now you go out there and you have an offer to sell your company. Now you suddenly get five times your annual, um, in one wire. Now on paper, that's a lot of money because you just got it now in one wire. Right. But now, what's going to happen now? So first of all, you suddenly have to say, after five years, I need that money to live. Now my expenses are probably going to go higher. I'm going to say, family's going to grow bigger. And then what happens?

[00:39:57] So how do I, is that really a wise move to sell the company today? Take away my cash flow because of a celebration. Oh, I sold it. I now can image driven wise. Hey, you sold this company. That's not a financially sound decision. So there's a lot of take a step back, recognize what you have today. It might be just let that run because in our community, cash, um, and monthly income and

[00:40:26] annual income to pay bills as our families, you know, are growing, growing, growing. Don't cut off your cash income. Do not do that. So you have to be able to some sort of calculate and compute out with good wisdom and guidance as to if this actually is a good decision or I'm going to end up in a really bad place a couple of years down the road. Shai, you're sharing such great advice and you make it sound so, so you have a way of

[00:40:54] just communicating it that like, it's so simple, but even the tip, you know, a person sells, you know, think about what you're doing right afterwards. Don't just like, okay, you know, right. You know, what's the expression go? I'm going to Disney, you know, whatever. You have to really be mindful of that side from the finances to make sure that, and also what are you doing with your life? So you're just going to lay in bed all day? Like it's a real, real issue. It's a real issue.

[00:41:22] And that goes into, you know, who are the guiding lights in each one of our lives that we're having this conversation with? And remember, there's always time to have a conversation. A lot of times we feel pressured, pressured, pressured. There's always time to take out hours of a day or days to think. I'm not always so good at that. I'm naturally a very impulsive person.

[00:41:46] So it takes, you know, I miss a lot of these kinds of conversations or I am too impulsive or at times too not thoughtful enough about it. And then afterwards I'm like, I should have slowed down a little bit in order to have different types of conversations. And you hope, I guess that also answers your question, you hope with time that you're able to open yourself up to get feedback and be able to say, okay, if I do this again, or if I get blessed again, it's a blessing. It's all brachas.

[00:42:15] If I get blessed again, how would I improve? Not to regret past, it's not, you can't do that. You have to learn and you have to take the experience and say, okay, if I was able to get such a gift again and this opportunity, what would my checklist look like this time around? Now, before we get, we're going to get back to Gotavi. One last question that has to do with building and selling a company.

[00:42:40] What's a, and you've shared a lot of tips, perhaps just before we move on, another tip, maybe it has to do with even who the buyer is. Like I'm thinking like, does that make a difference? Or it's like, okay, whoever, you know, the highest bidder, great, I'm going to go with him. Or maybe, no, it really makes a difference. And I don't want to see something that I build as my baby and this guy drives it into the ground.

[00:43:05] Something like that, maybe another tip that people should be mindful of when they are looking to exit. So it's, the only thing that should really matter to a seller of a business are the employees and the clients. The key a lot of times is to make sure that our ego is pulled out. Um, it's what, how are the employees going to be cared for? How are the clients going to be cared for?

[00:43:31] Um, and then to, to try to calculate that or put that into, you know, what is the ingredient box of that decision? It does make a difference who the buyer is. It always, always does. It's not just the money. It's not the highest bidder per se. It's definitely a factor. Definitely a factor. It's an ingredient. They're ingredients. But remember, most of us, um, are, there are very few, let's call it, who are going to

[00:44:00] sell a company for so much money that their reputation no longer matters. Um, and even if you sell it for endless amounts of money, you know, my father would always say, we all know that a shame tov is better than shem and tov. And therefore the worst thing would be is that you sell your company, you and your family are cared for, and the employees are all terminated a month later. Um, so a lot of negotiations in that room have to be about how the buyer is going to retain employees.

[00:44:29] How are they going to care for them? What are they getting upon you selling? And maybe a year or two down the road, but at the same time, awareness that when a bigger company buys you that there are going to be synergies and layoffs, there is reality. But to have that as part of a, as part of an ingredient. So, and I also think that, um, as important as the outcome financially is, most of us are going to want to start another company.

[00:44:58] DNA of entrepreneurs is to, you might take six months off, a year off until they call it that entrepreneurial DNA bog says, let's go again. When you go again, you want to be able to number one, you might have employees that worked through in the past that you want to bring back to work for you. If you hurt them, they're not coming back. If you were selfish and didn't even articulate that, they're not coming back. And not only that, your reputation is not going to be good. No one's going to want to come back, um, to work for you.

[00:45:27] Um, and at the same time, the vendors, I think this is also a very important thing. The people who were your vendors and helped you along the way, you have to be able to be grateful to them to say, it takes a whole village to build a business. Thank you. Those who were your clients, um, you can't sell your company and go and send an email and goodbye. You sell the company, you got to look through the client list and you got to send them messages. Take the time. You're going to say, no, but I'm on the way now to vacation.

[00:45:54] I'm on the way to go, uh, celebrate what I said was this gift to me. Time out. Hakura Satov. Send individual messages. Even if it's in the bottle of wine, who cares? Send individual messages and say, you know, we believe that we negotiated a fair transaction that you're going to be in good hands. And we, it mattered to us that you're going to be cared for. And we thank you for your support. We thank you for your patronage.

[00:46:21] Articulate gratitude for all those who have helped you along the journey. Then number one, it's the right thing for you. Two, it's an amazing modeling for your family that it's not like, okay, I did it. Anyone who was on my journey, I forgot about and I'm going on. No, no, no, no, no, no. Pause. Go back. Go back years and say, let's reflect. How did I get here? What were the bounces?

[00:46:46] Who are the people along the way that contributed to me being able to come to this moment? And then you go back and it's such a, no more, it's a lot of fun. It's a fun exercise. And the people that you reach out to, they feel so good when they are recognized and you go, you know what? I remember that time I saw you at a conference and we met and you were using another vendor and you call me up one day and you go, you know, my salesperson there decided to go pursue a different career path. And you were there, you answered my phone call.

[00:47:17] It means a lot to people. It warms their heart. So I think that, you know, when you look at selling your company, take it, create it, create the different things that you want to reflect. And money and outcome should not trump basic behaviors, character traits, midos, gratitude, hakara satov. It just, it feels good for everybody around the table.

[00:47:46] This is so, so special. By the way, for those, I mean, there are many platforms that the show will be on. And of course, some business class clips. If you're watching on YouTube, please feel free to share your comments or even just a compliment to Rav Shai for being so gracious and sharing so much. We still have around five, 10 minutes, but just, you know, we appreciate the feedback. And also on LinkedIn, feel free to post. And if you tag Shai Stern, Go Tavi, he will respond. He's very proactive on LinkedIn.

[00:48:15] And you'll engage with someone who's so, so special. Let's go back to Go Tavi. Something that comes to mind, too good to be true, 411911. You know, when did you have this inflection point where you're taking your life experience from doing, from building four successful companies and exiting?

[00:48:38] And then seeing the, you know, how fast this train was coming down the track of AI and just, you know, coming on fast and saying, voila, whoa. Yeah. I'm like, yeah, it's clear what needs to be built. So, again, it takes all the ingredients around the table. So, first of all, my wife gets all the credit. She was the one who told me about ChatGBT. I heard about it. I saw it. Wow.

[00:49:08] She said, you got to play with it. And your mind will just be blown away. So, I give my wife all the credit on introducing me to ChatGBT. That is number one. Number two is that Alicia, you know, who was my partner today. I was introduced to Alicia through a wonderful friend of mine named Jeremy Balkan. Now, Jeremy used to run Fintec at JP Morgan. Prior to that, he was at HSBC where he worked with Alicia. Today, he runs a company called TodayPay, which is refunds as a service.

[00:49:37] Jeremy's an amazing, amazing Jew. Lives down in South Jersey. He's from Bondi Beach, Australia. Wow. So, that happened in Bondi Beach. That was all his friends and his family were all there. And so, this shows how it bounces in life. So, when I told him, you know, I was leaving ChatGBT and I wanted to start my next thing, and he goes, what are the ideas that are sitting inside of you? And I said, I want to create one platform. I love being the concierge.

[00:50:05] There was also another thing that I really liked in the businesses that we built in the concierge corporate services area is that if I call Yitzchak today and Yitzchak says, okay, I get it, Yitzchak can call me up tomorrow and say, hey, I want to place an order. And I was able to service you today, tomorrow, anytime. It was take care of this. In the world of payments, as a lot of those listeners who understand the payments business is there are certain things that you can do today. And there are certain things in treasury solutions or when you're selling into a bank

[00:50:35] or those industries where they're slow moving or you have an RFP. Those sales cycles are very, very challenging. You can be put into an RFP against competing companies, large companies, where they don't buy from people. They buy from an RFP. And those are miserable experiences in general. And they're miserable experiences for an entrepreneur because always in a buy, you're never going to fire for, you know, for choosing IBM.

[00:51:01] And they're miserable experiences for someone like me with sales on personality and sales on connection, on relationship development. So I was very frustrated over all these years. And I would say, I'm not responding to this RFP. But the funny thing is, is that when we won the New York City Department of Finance, the parking ticket business back at Chekhold, the funny thing was I was competing against JP Morgan and Wells Fargo and Bank of America. And we had some of the business when I acquired that company.

[00:51:32] And Wells Fargo introduced me to the woman at the city. And Wells Fargo said to me, when you come into the meeting, you're not allowed to talk. You have to talk to the bank. The bank will talk to her. And if she talks to you, you have to look at me. You can't. Even though we're sitting in the same room, they have this like rules about this meeting. So obviously, I'm not so good in following rules when it comes to conversation.

[00:51:59] But the funny thing is, I walked into the meeting and the woman in the meeting, I'm not sure to call her not to say her name here, but let's say her name was Karen Goldstein. Obviously, an identifiable Jewish name. And I walked in with my yarmulke. And there are great stories. Another time this will talk about yarmulkes, no yarmulkes, meetings, not meetings, all that stuff. But I went to my yarmulke and she looked at me and she goes to me, you should know I dislike the company you bought and I'm leaving. Those are the first words in that meeting.

[00:52:29] And I looked at her and I said, okay, please know the reason why you like them was because you and I have yet to meet. Now that you and I meet, hopefully, there'll be a change of opinion. We started to speak and I realized, and I got done asking very specific questions about where the breakdown in communication was. Wow. And I realized that there was a game of broken telephone. And I said, how about that if there's anything that you guys need,

[00:52:58] we'll just have three signatures on it to make sure there's clarity. Fast forward, ended up becoming a beautiful relationship. Wow. You know, so when it comes to building businesses, when it comes to cultivating relationships, you have to be able to just ask questions, calm down temperature, and then see how you can connect.

[00:53:25] So when it came, I know I went a whole roundabout about how he came to Gotabi. When it came to Jeremy Balkin, I sat with him, I told him, here's my idea. And I said, this will only go as if I have the best technical partner. Now, Jeremy knows my personality. He knows the way I like to do business. He knows that I am not technical. And literally, we're sitting in a coffee shop in Long Branch, New Jersey. I think it's called, I forgot what it's called now. Something Cheese down there was having a coffee.

[00:53:54] And he said to me, he goes to me, I'm going to close my eyes. I'm going to say a prayer and Hashem will go out and give me the name. Wow. And it's exactly what happened. He says whatever he's saying, probably saying, Kapital Tehillim. Opens his eyes and he goes, Alicia Herman. That's what happened. And then I called Alicia on my way back up to Muncie. And then we spoke about it. And we were able to understand each other's strengths. And he's able to tolerate my weaknesses.

[00:54:23] So that's how we're able to hopefully go. Wow. And so far so there. We'll see where we're guided. Wow. Wow. Now, by the way, when we're having such a conversation, the time flies. We're almost at an hour. But still, I can't let go. So we still have a couple of minutes? Okay. Sure. Thank you. You had shared an incredible story. Wells Fargo, the New York City. Okay. Perhaps you could also share.

[00:54:49] I actually have an expression here that in a business sense is that there's no such thing as, you know, that's kind of, you know, the bridge has been burnt and that's it. It's over. No. This, you know. So here was a situation. In fact, I'm going to ask if you could share even like another scenario where like for a regular person would say, okay, you came to the meeting. The person stormed out. It's over. Okay, fine. I'll move on to the next opportunity. No. No.

[00:55:19] A situation that maybe was with an employee, with a vendor, with a client where like it was going south. It was going south. Kind of the, you know, the average person would say, all right, so fine, you know, like let that be and I'm going to move on to the next one. No. There's, you know, we're alive. There's always an opportunity. We could repair. Even if a situation happened, it was a bad, whatever. We could repair it. Let's move on. Perhaps you could share something like that. But aside from that incredible story with Wells Fargo. Sure. So first, you know, Milo Biedemann has a great vart.

[00:55:49] He says, mechayem naisen b'ma'maro. He says, every single person has an opportunity with a good, kind word to infuse life into another person. Amazing. That's beautiful. So beautiful. So always encouraging words and optimistic words and have a lot of power. You know, there's a lot of stories that are coming to me very, very quickly. You know, when I started my career, there was a fellow who I worked alongside named Harry Shulman. It was a great, great person. The Manalop and great sales guy.

[00:56:20] And Harry Shulman would say to me all the time, he goes, when you get a no, it doesn't mean the door is closed. It means you have to know how to stay outside the door. Now, what does that mean? Wow. That means they choose a different vendor and they go, sorry, Harry. Sorry, Shai. We've decided to go in a different direction. Now, first, all of us know that the second that happens, and we've worked very hard on this opportunity, the heart sinks. Shhh. It's the air is let out of the balloon.

[00:56:48] A lot of us already calculated the money that we needed for hiring, for family, for a simcha. So the air is out of the balloon. And, of course, we could try to apply all the lessons of Emunah and B'Tochon. We get it all. Thank you, Rabbi Michael Safdie, for his daily inspiring daily B'Tochon. It's incredible. All the work that we know, the muscles that we need to go in and to create. However, there are endless times, endless, where there's an elegant way to say, we appreciate your decision.

[00:57:16] We understand you had to go there elegantly and say, but if something goes awry, say the implementation doesn't go to your liking, say the person you bought from goes to a different company, can I please ask of you that on the next phone call, elegantly, I understand, I appreciate the interest that you showed in our business, the time that you gave. And then please keep my number handy that on the next phone call, if.

[00:57:45] Or, if you go to a different company and there's another opportunity. So the key is, one, to always elegantly. Right? Remember, in sports, we teach our kids not to be sore losers. Right. Right? Adults have to know, if you lose ping pong on a Shabbos afternoon, also not to be a sore loser. Right? You know, or in the bungalow colonies, softball games, Fridays and Sundays. It's okay. You know, my, someone said to me recently, they chose up a team, you know, a game on a Friday after a bungalow colony. And the team got up to bat.

[00:58:14] And they were up 5-0 in the first inning before they even got one out. A bunch of guys in the alpha go, timeout, timeout, teams are unfair, let's go switch it. How do you know that? What if you would have gotten three outs then? You would have scored six runs yourself. So there's an elegant way always to go ahead and be rejected. Rejection is life. Rejection is life. You're going to get rejected and rejected and rejected. Okay.

[00:58:41] That's, but how to handle it and how to be resilient. And most importantly, how to be elegant. There are so many times I wish that after losing an RFP, I would have sent a note or a bottle of wine saying, you know what? Second place ain't that bad after all. You know, I would have, I wish I could have done some of these things earlier on. You know, I remember, you know, there's like two years ago, a big bank called me up and they go, you know, Shai, this time around, we're going to give you the business.

[00:59:11] Now, I already lost three times. Three times they called me up, RFP. I said, I don't want to reply. This time, the woman called me up and she goes, I'm guaranteeing you this time it's your business. They came down to the office with nine, 10, 11 people. I ordered the whole, you know, the whole lunch, the wraps, the whole thing. She walks out, amazing presentation, your business. And then she went to the, uh, the legal and compliance team, blah, blah, blah.

[00:59:40] Comes back and she goes, I got vetoed. Now, I was like, now in my mind, I'm like, when you use those words, it's your business. I would have thought you already cleared that with who you needed to internally. Right. But that's not what she said. It was very disheartening. Very, very, very disheartening. But we did our style list. We have to elegantly, and there are times I wish I could have been more elegant.

[01:00:05] We have to always work on the elegant muscle of when things don't go our way to say, okay, how do I manage through this? Elegance, elegance, always. And elegance is another level of professionalism. It's just another level of trying to create that all the time. Reva Shai, before we let you go, perhaps you could share one last tip.

[01:00:27] And, of course, just to frame, like you call the ideal client profile, the ideal client profile who can benefit. Because GoTavi is a platform. It's your business. Great. But it's clear that you built it to solve a pain point. So perhaps you could build that out and then also share just a final parting tip for anyone out there in the business world. So if I may, I'm going to do the parting tip first. The parting tip first.

[01:00:55] Because that's, we always got to do that side. Look, the parting tip is that business is a gift. Remember that we're going to work every single day because that's our responsibility to support our family. It's our responsibility to help our community. It's our responsibility to be productive. It's our responsibility to bring nachas to the boss upstairs and how we conduct ourselves. That's why we go to work.

[01:01:24] And it's all incredibly important. And to know that we will make mistakes. We absolutely will make mistakes. We're going to make mistakes in how we react to people. We're going to make mistakes about why we, when we take the trip that we probably didn't need to take and we left our family to be home without us. We're going to make mistakes. We're going to make mistakes where the chakras is too fast. And my chakras had told me, you know, yesterday there was double L of her. It says an amazing school of her partner.

[01:01:52] It's keeping it filling on until after Alainu. There's all these things that we're going to always, we're going to make mistakes. We're going to make mistakes. But life is about taking them and working on them. And the more we work on them and the more we're able to just say, I'm human. Cut ourselves some slack.

[01:02:09] And also to know that apologizing to those that we did, that we might have, even though not with the, not with any bad intention, but we could have potentially hurt them or not treated them well. Apologize. Apologizing is actually a great, a great activity and a great exercise. So I think that being able to just work and work and work on ourselves to try to be better all the time and cut ourselves some slack. The one last thing I just want to say as a tip.

[01:02:38] You know, 30 years of doing this, I traveled way too much. Here is a one that I want to admit. I traveled way too much in the times when I loved to go. I love meeting people. I'm going to conferences. I love networking. But now reflecting back and now being, you know, back on the East Coast now for five years and starting Gotavi, my commitment to my family was I'm not traveling anymore. I'm not going to travel for a business. I'll meet anybody in New York.

[01:03:03] Of course, I love to go to South Florida during the winter and I'll go to the Holy Land as much as I possibly can. But to run around, now there are those and I did it. So it's, I'm saying it's in a place of 30 years of doing it.

[01:03:16] To double think and triple think and again and again think, can I do that one opportunity on a Zoom call or on a conference call without having to get on a plane and go somewhere and leave my family and leave my carousas and leave my community and leave my environment? And what does it actually do? And again, it's not to regret past because I loved a lot of it. I really, really did. When I lived in L.A., I love coming to New York.

[01:03:44] But my encouragement today is there's so much that you can do today. Even this podcast, you and I discuss, come into the studio, do it in person or can we do it this way? It's incredible. Incredible. Hopefully it worked out. But business travel is a tip. It's incredibly overrated, over, over, overrated. And we could try to try to minimize that.

[01:04:08] And of course, to ask whoever your advisors or your rabbis are or your own business, do I really need to and how much and all that stuff? That's a calculation. Just to go back now and to end off about- The ICP, right. About Gotavi. Look, the ICP of Gotavi is all business owners who are seeking efficient, price-effective ways of running the necessary vendors of their business.

[01:04:37] That is what Gotavi is about. And of course, today, today, today, today, to please look to see if we need AI insurance, to see if we need answer engine optimization, to see that your governance is in the right place. We are here to help you. If you have questions, you're curious, yes, of course, you can text, WhatsApp, email, LinkedIn, whatever works, to get a hold of me. I really, even though I'll be at the beginning of the set, oh my goodness, I really am an easy guy to get a hold of.

[01:05:04] I try to pride myself on that and try to be incredibly, incredibly responsive. So hopefully this is helpful. And thank you, I'll be at the beginning of the day. What an incredible episode of Mind Your Business. Of course, please share your comments in the comment section. Feel free to, and by the way, Rav Shai, as I did correct myself after the beginning, not a difficult person to get a hold of. Rather, so sensitive with his time, but very gracious in terms of reaching out.

[01:05:34] If you reach out, certainly on LinkedIn, you will get a response. That is Rav Shai. Rav Shai, we can't thank you enough. And continue on everything that you're building. I'll make you too. Thank you, thank you, thank you. What an amazing episode. Shai shared so much. Wow. I'd love to get your feedback in the comments section. And looking forward for an upcoming edition of Mind Your Business.