How We Got Here — Pt 1: Arbit Origins
July 2015 — “I have an idea”, said everyone ever. You’ve said it. I’ve said it. Your friends have said it. Yet those fledgling moments of inspiration so often find their way to the forgotten realms of time, the empty crevices of the mind, stored away, never to be acted upon, never to be fulfilled. 99.9% of ideas never come to fruition because they are simply at the mercy of those who conceive them. And those who conceive them will fail to take action and remain clinging to the hope of that idea. “Just wait, I have this really good idea”.
So in the Summer of 2015, as I lay watching highlights of NBA finals games, I wondered “How cool would it be to have a platform where I could vote up on what shoes someone like Steph Curry wore before a game?”
Pause. That was it. The most basic idea. It would be two images, a comment section, and you could follow whoever. I mean that. was. it.
action (noun): “the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim.”
Resume. I will be the first to tell you: I am no super genius. I am not Bill Gates; Zuck and I do not have the same IQ. But what did I do? I took action.
Incensed by the countless ideas that would always end up squandered by inaction, I felt I had to make this work. It consumed me. I cannot explain it other than: those who know me well enough know that when I want something I will go to the ends of the earth to make it happen. And say what you will, try as you might, you will not stop me.
In 2015 I was a CPA by day, a soccer coach by night, and I worked a lot of hours. I lived in Fells Point and lived a pretty cool lifestyle.
I worked at RSM and can’t speak highly enough of the colleagues I met and the smart, smart people with whom I worked. But I had to leave it behind when I got my idea. I left to start coaching full time at Pipeline, and Greg moved to Austin. This started the exploration phase of Arbit. Yes, I quit my job, moved back home with my parents, took my hefty $2,000 of savings with me, liquidated my 401(k), and paid the 10% early distribution penalty, just so I could start this endeavor — and all I had was an idea…
Telling my family was one of the hardest things I had to do. “You’re quitting your job and you want to start what?” It was ugly. And then I had to tell my friends, and my mentors, and my friends’ parents, and so on… and everyone I told gave me the same reaction: “are you crazy?” or my personal favorite: “oh you’re young, you have time to take risks” which is both true and also the most ridiculous statement as if to imply that failure is imminent but hey go try it anyway, you’re young.
October 2015 — So here we go. I did a lot of research, started an LLC with Greg, and then did more research. Starting an app is so, so expensive, especially if you don’t have a technical co-founder. So I took my savings and went to UpWork. I created a job post titled: “Who can build me a mobile app for $1,000”. This is laughable for those who know mobile apps or have a startup in general. We were in the trenches. I just needed to get a start and I was convinced I could then pitch my way to higher ground.
I received 30 applicants from all over the world and then interviewed 3 finalists: one from China, one from Sweden, and one from Uruguay. The man from China wanted all of the money up front. Pass. The one from Sweden was nothing like his picture when I Skyped him and I didn’t trust that. Pass. The man from Uruguay spoke perfect English but told me it would definitely cost more than $1,000, which I knew. I appreciated his honesty, signed an agreement via UpWork and off we went.
There were headaches, more headaches, and then some more headaches. There’s a classic case in systems design where a company asks for an elaborate swing set but the designer thinks you want a tire swing and that’s what you get. And so you go back to revise the design. You argue and repeat. What we have on Arbit today is what I dreamed of having back then but on Thanksgiving of 2015, here is what our first ever beta version looked like:
Luckily we persevered, came to common ground on a new design, and by January of 2016 we had an MVP (minimal viable product) with which we were ready to Beta Test:
The first live Beta Test went well but this is where I first realized that we needed to raise serious cash, find big time names to get behind the app who would see value in it, and also start networking with other entrepreneurs.
Collin Wallace was the first person I spoke to about getting started. I met him through a connection and he is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He started a company called FanGo that was sold to GrubHub in 2011 and he currently sits on our Board. He guided me a lot through the early days.
Aaron Velky and Sean Rush really got me into being an entrepreneur and I fed off their energy for making things happen. Chris Sachse and Joe Ireland at Horsetail Tech introduced me to the Baltimore startup scene where I quickly met the Startup Soiree and Pixilated legends in that of Nic China and Pat Rife. At this time I was introduced to Phil DiMuro and Dave Phelan at Loople, who, to this day, I regard as two of the purest, smartest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. I surrounded myself with people of vast experience and it paid dividends. I learned to think outside of the box and understand running a startup on a deeper level.
Being an entrepreneur is both a lonely and invigorating experience. There are thousands of ups and downs, but no matter what, you just need to maintain equanimity. Something good happens, you remain staid. Something bad happens, you don’t flinch. All that matters is that you find a way to progress. And from January 2016 to March 2016, it was a whole lot of “what the hell are we doing/where are we going?” but we kept moving forward. Thank God for Greg because he’s been an incredible co-founder to have on this ride.
But we needed help… We were out of the money needed to make a better product, and we were far from launching. We also needed those influencers behind the app. Yikes, that light at the end of the tunnel could not be seen. So it was time to start contacting every angel possible.
…….
“You have a negative ten percent chance of succeeding… you don’t know any athletes” — this was on a phone call in March 2016. I won’t say his name but he’s a managing partner at a VC firm. And I was naive to even call him because we were just a fledgling startup (VCs are for later-stage companies) but I wanted his feedback and apparently that’s all he wanted to say. So I thanked him for his time. If you, Mr. Anonymous, happen to be reading this, thank you for your time.
“You have shitty experience” — this was in an email from a local angel investor.
Cool. Thanks.
*No Response* — from multiple emails I sent to angels.
*No Call Back* — from multiple voicemails I left.
It’s extremely difficult to get people to see what you see, especially when their money is on the line. When you hear no. no. no. no. no. no. it’s draining. But I knew someone would get it. Perhaps being clairvoyant, I felt like the people I was trying to contact were stuck with previous concepts of apps or businesses and this was beyond what they felt comfortable with. If you’ve ever read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, look at all of the products he discusses that became so popular but received poor reactions initially because they were simply different.
As I coursed through my contacts of potential angel investors, I had a one-on-one meeting with a man in Baltimore one day in late March (a year ago from the time I am currently writing this blog). I went to his office, sat across from him, pitched the app, and then showed him Arbit on my phone. I was stone cold. His 8 year-old son was in the next room and he called him in: “Would you use this app?” I looked at the son taking the phone and flying through the app, and then looked back to the man, and then back to the son, who nodded his head in approval. The man goes: “Look, I don’t know much about mobile apps but I can see the look in your eye and you want this badly. I want to introduce you to someone I know: Steve Blake. Send me an email with information and I’ll send it to Steve.”
Done.
That night I created a mockup comparing Steve Blake and Melo Trimble, asking “Best Terps PG of all time?” and gave Blake a nice bump in votes:
Steve replied two days later: “App looks very cool, can we chat?”
……..
We had a call at night in early April. Steve was still playing for the Detroit Pistons. He asked some questions and then asked to join a small Beta. I added him to Beta and we noticed he was using it quite often, on bus trips after games, or in the airport. It was the greatest thing ever. I remember thinking: “If Steve sees this much value in it, and he’s a well respected guy in the league, think about how many other guys who will love it.”
At this point in time I had been off salary for 6 months. I was barely scraping by, my parents couldn’t help me out and I didn’t want them to. It was hard enough to get a friend to donate $25 to my personal GoFundMe. I had put every penny into getting this far, I had been rejected plenty of times, I had to enter forbearance on 3 different loans, and was getting calls from my credit card company to pay back debt. My friends were in different cities living it up. I was at home with $400 a month from coaching soccer.
I sent a deal to Steve in April. Arbit was basically on a standstill and I owed the developer some money. These were dark days. I remember working out one day at the gym and I received a call from Steve: “I’m in. Send the wire information.”
……
All I remember is that I just started running; really, really fast.
I called Greg as I was darting back and forth inside the gym, sprinting so hard and not feeling one bit tired. I prayed and gave thanks to God. He doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle. But man, was I close to that point.
If there’s one thing to take away from this, it’s just pure perseverance.
You only guarantee yourself a loss if you decide to quit.
This was only the beginning of this insane journey…
