#272: Paper Wealth & Lottery Tickets with Andres Moran

On today’s show, we’re going to dive into Andres Moran’s entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he learned from three exits, particularly as they relate to the various roles an owner can play.

Currently he is the head of a division at WunderKind which is a SaaS company that helps ecommerce companies decrease their bounce rates and shopping cart abandonments. Prior to WunderKind Andres was the co-founder and Head of Business Development of Fundera - which was sold to NerdWallet. Fundera is a SaaS platform that compares multiple small business loan options at once (think Kayak for business loans). Andres had two businesses prior - his first company was a medical spa in Miami that he started with his sister, which was acquired several years later. His second venture was an online exercise rewards company called Earndit, which was acquired in 2013 by Higi, a company that measures and attaches a score to your personal health.

We’re going to be diving into Andres’ entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he’s learned. One theme that continued to resurface was how important it was to understand the different roles we all play as business owners and entrepreneurs - and that is the difference between the job we have (our management role) which we get income for performing compared to our ownership role (our equity as an investor) and how these two roles need to be separate and dealt with differently. Both of these roles need to be designed based on the stage of the company and the personal needs of the founder. They need to be aligned with the future potential for value creation in the company (what Andres refers to as a lottery ticket or paper wealth) and the need to have our desired level of personal income.

There is no universal prescription for this challenge but one thing is for sure - you need to understand the differences between these two roles and all the decisions that come with them. There is no better way to learn than to hear someone else’s story OR by taking the Intentional Growth™ online training

What You Will Learn

Why investors in a startup can act as gatekeepers during an exit
How to think about your management role (job) versus your ownership role (investor)
The pros and cons when getting into business with family
What Andres means by paper wealth and lottery tickets
Why it can be difficult to compensate people who have both jobs and equity in the company
How to build an “orbit” with competitors and potential buyers, and what that means
The extra step to take when a private company is acquiring your company
Why you shouldn’t mentally (or in reality) spend the money until the deal is done and the wire transfers are complete
What Andres learned from his out-of-the-blue offer
Finding the middle ground between your entrepreneurship bug and being “employed”
The benefits to entering a well-funded company after a couple of exits and the growth potential there
Why it’s important not to regret your decisions for less equity or higher salary based on your current living situation

Bio:

Andres Moran is a serial entrepreneur with three exits under his belt. Currently, he is the head of a division at WunderKind, a SaaS company that helps ecommerce businesses decrease their bounce rates and shopping cart abandonments. Prior to WunderKind, Andres was the co-founder and Head of Business Development of Fundera, which was sold to NerdWallet. Fundera is a SaaS platform that compares multiple small business loan options at once (think Kayak for business loans). Andres’ first company was a medical spa in Miami that he started and sold with his sister. His second venture was an online exercise rewards company called Earndit, which was acquired in 2013 by Higi, a company that measures and attaches a score to your personal health.

Quotes:

12:33 - “We never reduced our pricing. I’m very averse to discounting. I’m much more in favor of premium pricing, premium product, premium experience.” - Andres Moran

17:05 - “Yeah, it gets tricky when you start talking about both the cash compensation and the equity compensation.” - Andres Moran

19:54 - “We, unfortunately, found ourselves in a commodity business, when, in the beginning, we did not believe it was going to be a commodity business but it became one, unfortunately.” - Andres Moran

20:05 - “I like businesses that operate in a, sort of, gray area of regulation.” - Andres Moran

20:56 - “If you’re in a commodity business, you better have a strong brand.” - Andres Moran

31:46 - “When it’s private company equity, there’s that extra step of, ‘Well, now we need a line on your equity.’ That’s the conversation we need to do under the hood, right?” - Andres Moran

32:22 - “You’ve traded one lottery ticket for another lottery ticket, but don’t be fooled. You’re still just hanging onto a lottery ticket.” - Andres Moran

47:55 - “The maturity date on these lottery tickets, when you’re dealing with private company stock, tends to be several, several years.” - Andres Moran

49:34 - “Typically, if I’m working at a company I didn’t start myself, my mind starts to wander and go into more entrepreneurial endeavors. And so I get distracted. Wunderkind is not a company I started myself. However, I have a real strong sense of home here. A sense of belonging. A sense that I am making an impact in the company.” - Andres Moran