[music]
Well, I have uh Austin Armstrong. Did I
get that right? It sounds like a
superhero character.
>> I appreciate it. Good to see you,
brother.
>> Yeah, good to see you as well. And uh
you know, we were just chatting prior to
the show. You're from the Triangle area
and uh you know, I spent some time
there. Um what a beautiful area it is.
Uh how do you like
>> It really is.
>> Yeah, it really is. We just moved back.
We uh to Durham, North Carolina in
particular. We This is our third time
moving back in the last seven years. And
it's just become our home. It's where we
love. It's our community. It's where
we've really planted our seeds. then
this is where we'll be uh for a long
time just helping our community grow and
we we love it here man. It's beautiful.
>> Is that like feeling coming back home
and and you've you've probably traveled
enough to know like this is where I I
belong type of thing. Like I I totally
get you by the way.
>> Yeah, we've lived all over. I mean I I
was born in uh Pennsylvania. I grew up
in New Jersey. I moved across country to
California. lived out there for about 8
years. It's where I met my wife and then
we moved across country to uh Durham and
uh and then we were here for two years
and we moved away to Virginia. So I
lived in the Washington DC area and then
we moved back here and then we lived in
Chattanooga, Tennessee for uh last year
and we moved back here again. And so
I've lived all over the country, man.
I've been to almost every state. have
been around the world and uh it very
much is where we want to be
>> and I I totally get it. I I we've lived
there. We've been to Wilmington, the
beaches, um Outer Banks, and then you
can go to the west a little bit and go
into the mountains. So, you're just kind
of like in the middle there. Uh perfect
for for whatever you choose, right? And
um I I the community is great. like my
partners basically said like it's the
people are so nice over there. So
>> yeah, it's a great startup ecosystem
here. That's a big part of why we're
here as well. I'm a startup founder. My
wife's a startup founder. We just
created this new kind of startup
incubator inerson uh thing here. And uh
it's it's great, man. There's there's a
there's venture capital here. There's
amazing startups doing amazing things.
And uh there there are people and
everything that she that she wants here.
The people are so kind. Everyone wants
to help support each other. The food is
fantastic.
>> The crab situation's great.
>> What's that?
>> Do you like blue crab?
>> Oh, who doesn't? That's the best. If
you're able to eat it,
>> one one thing I remember from over
there.
>> That's so good, man. Yeah, there's a lot
of that up in uh the If you like that,
you go to Washington DC, Maryland area.
You get the Maryland blue crab up there.
>> Jeff's kiss. But it's it's great down
here. Yep.
>> Yeah. And you know, sorry I cut you off,
but you were talking about like airports
and and infrastructure. I like IBM was
based out of there. That's where I was
at the time. So,
>> yeah. I mean, it just all of the modern
luxuries. I RDU airport is fantastic. I
mean, you can go direct to London right
from here. You can go direct to
basically any city in the United States.
We can get threehour Amazon deliveries.
Same day Amazon deliveries. What else
would you want in a place to live?
>> Yeah, it it it it really is a nice area.
Um
I just have so many good memories of
there. So anyways, tell us about the
startup community. Like I I seen what
you've been doing. It's called a Bull
House, right? Uh it is in Durham or is
it in in Raleigh?
>> It is in Durham, North Carolina. Yeah.
Uh it's it's amazing man. Yeah, we um
the transparent answer is why we started
Bullhouse was that both my wife and I
are startup founders. We both have
raised um some money and the startup
ecosystem here was was great, but it was
really difficult to raise a a a
significant round. And when it came time
for my wife to actually raise her round
and get her lead investor, we had to
leave the state. We had to go out to
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we had a
great we had a great time there, and we
were really inspired by where we were.
Shout out to Brickyard, uh, Matt and
Cam, uh, amazing ecosystem that they've
built out in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And
it's just startup founders
um working in this
kind of collaborative space, co-working
environment, but it's just for the
companies that they invest in. It's it's
it's full-time founders that are there
24/7 just building and being around
people. And we wanted to bring some of
that that magic in our own way back here
to Durham. And so it's kind of a
combination of uh of that. Um I'm
writing small checks uh to startup
founders that have an unfair advantage
of being headquartered here in the
triangle. We have a small event space.
So, we're doing educational programming
and hosting dinners uh uh kind of
startup focused dinners to network and
whatnot and giving free co-working space
to the companies that we invest in, free
PO boxes, dedicated podcast room that
I'm recording out of right now, and
mentorship to to help them and just
celebrate startups. So, it's it's an
amazing thing that that we created. We
just launched it uh had our grand
opening last month. It's been amazing.
Over 100 people came. That shows you the
power of the startup community. We
launched it during Raleigh Durham
Startup Week, which is an amazing event
where about 3,000
local startup founders or aspiring
founders and venture capitalists and
investors all come together to just
celebrate the startup ecosystem, talk
about what they're working on, the
changes in the landscape, how to raise,
how to go to market, how to hire the
right people. And it's it's amazing.
We've been so blessed so far with the
opportunities that it's that it's
created. How I I in the last 48 hours
I've met with about five people here in
in person uh that are just interested in
in what we're doing and seeing how we
can collaborate together doing uh joint
events together because all of us here
believe in the startup ecosystem so
heavily. We I honestly believe that uh
the triangle is one of if not the most
underpriced undertapped startup
ecosystems in the entire country. And
the biggest problem that we've been
facing here is that there's so much
talent here that comes in from from
schools from Duke and and UNCC uh and
and uh uh NC State or that they come out
of the pipeline of uh corporate from
companies like IBM or Red Hat or uh
there's large startups now like Pendo
and there's there's amazing people here
and they think that they need to leave.
They don't even recognize that they can
stay here to start their uh startup and
and grow and and have their HQ here in
the triangle. It's not even in the mind.
I've been I was been talking to a couple
people about this and that's what exact
that's exactly what we wanted to change
with this is just show them that you can
headquarters here. We will help you get
those coastal VC investments and go to
market so that you can be here in in
such an amazing ecosystem and community
that has every benefit plus the cost of
living is great here. So I'll I'll end
my rant there, but that's that's what
we're doing. That's what we started and
that's kind of my passion behind Bull
House.
>> Oh, I just love it. It's like Well, what
what made you want to dive into the
local scene like that? because it it it
felt like all this stuff was happening
with AI and I was following your journey
on the timeline. uh you're you're a big
poster and uh you share things I think
on LinkedIn, Twitter uh as as far as I
know and um it felt like other places
other other cities around the world one
that I'm familiar with like the water
Toronto area um they're all going local
and there's that big trend of local and
you were right on it like I you know
right on it like
>> enough so that you're like I'm investing
in this. I'm I'm I'm I'm delivering a
place where people can go and uh here's
a here's a real physical place. What
made you want to do that with such
conviction?
>> Yeah. So that I think you hit the the
nail on the head there. I'm pretty good
historically at noticing emerging trends
and trying to get on them pretty early.
And I I think what's happened in a
couple capacities. So we went all remote
and distanced and and uh and work remote
during co for like four or five years
how six years however long it was right
and it worked while it worked. And then
now in this AI era where there's a lot
of job displacement,
people I think are seeking in-person
experiences, in-person connection again.
Because when you're able to automate
everything online, you end up freeing up
a lot of your time. What do you do with
that time? A lot of us want to do more
things in in person, be around other
people, build connection and
relationships and have memorable uh e
experiences.
And so I've been doing this now the last
two years. So uh I have my own
conference as well. So I have a a
conference in Dallas, Texas called AI
Marketing World. Uh we'll have about uh
750 to a,000 people there uh this year.
Uh this is our second year doing it. Uh,
so I'm growing that side of things for
in-person experience. And then we have
this uh bull house here um in uh Durham,
North Carolina as an in-person
experience because I just think that
that's where the market is going. I also
think that because jobs are freeing up
more time, I think the traditional
40hour work week is kind of BS and
that's not going to be a thing. And I
think what that's going to create is
more people that want to do gig work or
start a part-time startup and then
eventually transition into a full-time
startup. And that's just the direction I
personally see everything in in tech
going. And I think people are going to
like have their their job and then
they're going to want a space to work on
their startup around other startup
founders.
>> Interesting. Yeah. So, what's in it for
you? Like, uh, you're building the
community and I I feel like that's the
main goal really. A lot of stuff can
come out of that. It doesn't always have
to be businessoriented, but it um, it
sort of is too, right?
>> Yeah. Uh, of course. So, part of it is
just that my wife and I are are
full-time startup founders. We want to
be surrounded by other startup founders.
It's just a a motivational thing for us.
We want to build our own community. We
didn't have like there there there's
there's great co-working spaces here,
but they're a little broad. So, they
will let like a tailor in or like, you
know, any any type of business uh can
have their office space there. And and
to be frank, we didn't want that. We
just want to be around startup founders
that are going through the same
experiences that can share the same
struggles and the same wins with one
another. And so that's like we're just
being the change that we want to see. Uh
so we create, you know, why wait for
somebody else to create the idea when
we're like, "No, let's just do it. Let's
just let's just lead the charge here and
create the space that we wish existed
for us." So that's that's a big part of
it. And then yeah, on the business side
of things, uh um we're making
investments. So the the goal like a
venture capital uh oriented business
model is that you know we'll we'll place
a lot of small bets maybe one of them is
the next Uber the next uh billion dollar
company that you know pays us off and
>> um you know that's that's kind of the
goal. We have this podcast room so we're
going to be renting this out but it's
not really about that. Um it's just to
get on the cap table provide some
mentorship uh help with go to market
strategy. Uh that's my unfair advantage.
which I can put them in a conference. I
have millions of followers on social
media. I know how to sell SAS as an
affiliate marketer. Um, we have direct
connections here to Duke University and
and uh venture capitalists around. So,
it's just about elevating and helping
startups and uh we're going to invest in
companies that that I think that uh and
my wife think that we could really help
and and blow them up.
>> I love that. It's like you you're you're
at the point where you're it's it's a
vocation. It's like a it's a career.
It's a a passion. It's giving back. It's
it's all of it. And uh you're doing that
in a place that you love and with uh
with your partner. It's beautiful.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. It's my first business with my
wife. And it's also like a really fun
challenge personally. So it this is the
first brickandmortar business that I've
ever been an owner of and it's fun as a
marketing challenge for me to do it for
myself. So I ran a marketing agency and
I was a part of a marketing agency for
many years. That's my background before
I got into uh into tech and SAS uh
software. Uh and so I did local
marketing for so many businesses uh but
never for myself. And so it's been so
fun to just combine what I know about
digital and uh and and apply some like
boots on the ground type marketing uh
>> flyers and stuff like that.
>> Yeah, just hosting hosting events um
meeting with community advocates, uh
going to other uh networking events and
and spreading the word and just, you
know, we'll probably end up sponsoring
some things locally here. just being an
active part of our community and uh it's
just been fun, man. It it's it's a
blast. We're only three months in, but
like I'm so excited about everything
that we're doing here. It's just like
such a fun challenge for me.
>> And the thing about having your own
space is like you can you can have this
space for special events. You can do
events marketing. You can do all sorts
of stuff now. So,
>> yeah. I'll tell you another like benefit
too which is cool is I've worked remote
from a home office for like eight years.
I went remote pre- pandemic and so this
is a really cool separation of work and
personal that I haven't had in a in a
long time. So, I love now being able to
go home and just like, yeah, I'll still
do some work, whatever, and I can work
on my phone. But, um, most these last
three months at least, like I've left
work here, and it's kind of it's it's
kind of refreshing. It's kind of nice.
>> It's it's funny you said that because I
was coming back from my co-working
environment and and it was great. um
up in water where there's all these tech
students come and they there's a scene
over there where a lot of them just go
down to to San Francisco because and
they start companies out there.
>> Um but um I left there and I was like,
"Oh, I'm going home listening to music
on the way home and uh when I get there
I'll turn off for a little while." But I
get your whole thing about being around
other startup founders because I was
hanging out there and somebody had left
a device or a few of them on a on a on a
central table and it was a device that
you for kids uh that they push a button
and they can say something like text
grandma and it would AI would sort of
like being in built and it would ask
them what message they wanted to send
and then press the button to let it go.
It it was and you they had devices right
there that you can try it out. So only
only with other founders, right?
>> Yeah. Yeah. That's a that's a cool
space, man. That's awesome.
So I want to ask you about and we'll get
to AI marketing world, but I want to ask
you about syllabi. Tell us about
syllabi.
>> Um what your vision is for it. Uh your
traction and um
>> yeah, why why that matters to you.
>> Yeah, absolutely. So that was really my
first startup. Um we've been around for
about three and a half years now uh
going on four which is a which is really
fun. And what I wanted to do with it is
so like I mentioned I came from the
marketing agency background. I ran my
own marketing agency that was organic
social media focused with a heavy
emphasis on video marketing. Video
marketing has changed my life on on
social media. And I looked at all of the
pain points and reasons why a business
owner was struggling online and why they
hired our marketing agency in the first
place as well as what prevented them
from hiring us in the first place. Kind
of the core problems that I came to is
business owners, entrepreneurs know they
need to be on social media. They know
they need to create content, but they
don't know what topics to create. They
don't know what to say on camera. They
need help staying consistent and
accountable.
They don't know how to do video editing
or don't want to. They don't have the
time to create, schedule, publish
everywhere. And they even knowing all of
this, they might not have the budget to
hire an agency to do all of this for
them. And so I got to a point where I
was like, I'm doing very well selling
software as an affiliate marketer, which
was kind of my top offunnel strategy to
help me grow my agency.
And I was looking at software
as a way to automate the vast majority
of what I was doing at my agency. And I
got to this aha moment epiphany of well
why don't we and plus this is when early
AI was starting to go as as well like AI
models were starting to come out and I
kind of saw the the writing on the wall
like I mentioned earlier like I'm pretty
good at noticing trends early on and so
all of this comes together that I said I
can wait and see if AI starts to come
and automate what I'm doing at my
agency.
or I can place a really early bet
and try and get into the software space
early on, help address and solve all of
these problems that are preventing
businesses from creating more content
and be an early adopter in this AI wave
that I really think is happening. And so
we launched January of 2022
and what Syllivi does is pretty much
exactly that. So, it shows you the
topics that your customers are searching
for online, keyword research with data
to back it up. It writes video scripts
for you. It will create the entire
videos for you using AI video. We also
have a video editor in there so you can
upload your own content and edit it if
you want to. And then we're directly
integrated with every social media
platform. And so you can create,
schedule, and publish videos on any
topic in any industry,
an entire month of them in just a couple
of minutes if you want with call to
actions, optimized descriptions,
everything that you need to generate
leads for your business and attention.
We've had over 270,000
people sign up for syllabi. We have
about a team of 21 people right now and
we're just continuing to grow and and
double down. We just launched our mobile
app uh two weeks ago. We have an API
coming out in a couple months which will
also be an MCP cuz that's also where I
think the next evolution is going is uh
I that's a rabbit hole I won't go down
just yet. But
>> you you are just making me kick myself
for not taking your $800 lifetime deal
that uh [laughter] you remember that.
>> Yeah, of course a lot of people did it.
>> But um yeah. Yeah. So that's what
syllabi does. My whole mission with it
to just summarize. I don't care how you
create videos. I just want to help you
create more videos that actually make an
impact in your life and your business.
That's why I created syllabi. And it's
been an honor to help many many
thousands of people create videos.
>> It It's just refreshing seeing somebody
with um who should be creating a tool
creating a tool, right? Like I see a lot
of people, oh, I've got AI now. I'm I'm
going to just make um some software for
a domain I had no idea about, which is
um
>> which is what you're seeing sometimes.
So,
>> yeah.
>> Tell me about like the business part of
of syllabi. um how is it doing? Is it
making money? Um what what is uh the AR
or anything like that to help some of
the other entrepreneurs and web builders
and app builders out there?
>> Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, we have
about 4,000 active customers right now.
We're about 2 million ARR uh and and
growing. Yeah. Um and that's all been
web web-based app. Uh the mobile app
should help scale that quite a lot. And
uh when the a uh API MCP comes out,
that's another uh market that we're
going to get into. Uh and that's going
to allow us to go up market into
enterprise sales as well. But we're very
>> uh consumer and and small business
focused and our prices reflect that. You
know, we're a very affordable tool
starting at $29 a month because again,
I'm I'm not doing this to get uh super
rich. I'm just doing this to help peak
videos change my life and I just want to
eliminate every excuse to not have it
change your life too.
>> And and what's your like the next number
that's going to matter to you? Is it
like uh um are you going to just try and
double 3x your ARR maybe 10x or or are
you just like happy with selling this
off and maybe getting a super amazing
exit valuation?
If an exit comes and the number's good,
that'd be great. Uh, I'm not super
focused on the ARR perhaps. I I'm more
looking at how many people that we can
help. So, the big milestone that I'd
love to see us at is 10,000 active users
per month.
>> Okay.
Okay. That's uh in this economy with the
type of need I I don't see that as a as
something that you couldn't reach,
especially knowing you. Um, let's get
personal for a little bit. Tell us like
what what do you like to do for hobbies
and uh how do you ground yourself? uh
things like that.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, my favorite hobby that
I'm obsessed with is skiing. Uh I
started skiing with my wife about five
years ago. I wish I started younger, but
I am obsessed with it. And every season,
uh I I just can't wait until the next
season. And so, like I I wish it was a
sport that I could do year round. If we,
you know, really chased uh traveled
around the world, we we probably could.
But yeah, these these the last three
years we have gone really heavy into it.
So we've been tra we we do like three or
four trips per year. Uh I try to get
about 20 or so days on the mountain uh
per year. We've done Epic and Icon
passes. We've skied all around the
world. This year we did uh um
Switzerland and uh Austria. And then uh
we did a couple uh places in um uh the
United States as well. So we did Mammoth
Mountain out in California. We did uh
Snowbird and couple mountains in Utah.
And uh that's it's just great, man. But
uh that's my that's my favorite hobby.
I've also trained Muay Thai for about 16
years. So uh I I do a little bit of Muay
Thai still. And uh outside of that to
wind down, I'm a big anime fan. So, I
just watch anime uh at night to to wind
down and and that's my little nerd out.
>> Yeah, my daughter loves uh anime stuff.
Um I think one of her favorites was
Hunter X Hunter. Uh
>> Oh, yeah. That's great. Hunter Hunter is
a great show.
>> Yeah. And uh I I I know One Piece is
doing well. Is that an anime?
>> Yep. Yep. Yep. They're like Oh my gosh.
That's one that I procrastinated for a
long time. I just actually started
watching One Piece uh like two months
ago. So, I'm I'm only like 40 episodes
in, but there's like 2,000 episodes or
something like that. It's just going
forever. It's been around like since I
was born, basically.
>> Oh my gosh. Um, have you been to Canada
skiing?
>> I have. In fact, the first place that I
ever skied was in B,
>> right,
>> which is which is beautiful and not a
beginner friendly mountain. So, that was
very difficult. But it was fun.
>> Yeah. Um, a lot of those things you got
to stay active, especially with the tech
these days. Get out there. Uh, you might
get hurt, but uh, you know, it uh, it's
real.
>> Life's too short, man. I'm I I love
adrenaline and uh, it's just a blast
when I'm in the mountain. It's it's so
much fun, man. It's so free. What about
you? Do you What are what are some of
your favorite hobbies?
>> Well, I used to mountain bike a lot. Um,
but now I'm weirdly into gardening and
walking. I feel like [laughter] Yeah.
So, just that
>> Oh, I love plants and flowers. Just I my
garden. I like soil. Making sure my
soils uh not clay. Uh, it's got all the
vitamins. Got everything it needs to to
just like create like amazing plants
that grow out of it.
>> Yeah.
>> Um, and yeah, just plants and flowers.
>> That's awesome.
>> Love it. Um, I wanted to talk about AI
Marketing World a little bit.
>> Uh, tell us about that now that's in its
second year where it's hosted and what's
been happening there. I I looked at a
video and
>> it's it looks really cool, man. It uh it
does look like a nice small community
that's growing. Like you said, what 750
attendees? It could easily double,
right? And uh take off from there. But
tell tell us about that.
Yeah, it's it's been super fun. So, I'll
give you kind of the the backstory. So,
it's a rebrand of a conference called
Video Marketing World, and I have just
the coolest come-up story with this this
conference. It's in Dallas, Texas, by
the way. It's uh October 21st through
24th uh this year. And uh so in 2019
when I I just was uh starting my agency
and pivoting from being an employee to
being a full-time entrepreneur. I had I
had gone to this conference and learned
a lot,
applied a lot and started to grow my
personal brand particularly on Tik Tok
in early 2020
and uh the conference uh went virtual. I
didn't attend it in 2020 co
um and then they brought it back 2021
and I cold DM'd cold messaged the
founder of the conference and said hey
I love this conference I attended in
2019 I learned a lot I applied
everything I noticed that you don't have
a Tik Tok for business speaker on the
conference it's a dream of mine trying
to become a professional speaker.
If you are interested,
uh I would love to have my shot. Long
story short, he invited me to uh lead a
a Tik Tok for business panel that year
of 2021.
I took it very seriously and then I was
invited back to be a keynote speaker on
Tik Tok for business in 2022.
It was amazing.
I got awards and just just continued to
grow. My personal brand continued to
grow across the board. 2023, another
conference that's a competitor moved in
same weekend and crushed it and shut it
down. And so 2023 and 2024, the
conference uh video marketing world
didn't happen.
>> Mhm. It was just on hiatus.
My personal brand continues to grow.
Over the years, I had pivoted to AI,
grew massive following. I now have about
5 million followers across social media
largely in the AI space. And in 2025,
actually kind of the end of 2024,
December into January 2025, I said, um,
Scott,
what do you think if we become business
partners and we turn this thing into AI
marketing world? And he said, I love it.
Let's do it. And so I went from being
the person in the back of the room to
the person that spoke at that conference
to business owner and owner of the
conference in a matter of years.
And last year we had we sold about 450
tickets.
This year we're on track to do about 750
to a,000 tickets.
And we're just scaling this thing. So my
vision for it, it's a combination of the
it's kind of a blend of the traditional
marketing kind of conference that's
existed and the tech startup trade show
side of things. Heavy emphasis on pitch
competitions and
uh physical products and so we actually
own five robots that are part of the
conference as well. So, we own three
humanoid robots and two robot dogs. And
uh so last year we had a an amazing
startup pitch competition. We're doing
that again. And it's just this hybrid of
an amazing marketing conference with
sessions that are deep. So you go to
like a tech trade show conference,
they're like sometimes 20 minute talks
that are just surface level. You really
don't get much value out of them to be
honest. marketing conferences, you get a
lot of tangible, actionable value. But
then in the vice versa, that's really
all marketing conferences I've ever had.
And I have being uh been in the startup
space for a long time now. I love the
the startups that have booths and are
demoing their products and, you know,
showcasing what they're actually working
on and being able to like, you know,
walk around a trade show floor and test
the latest technology and and physical
wear a a VR headset, you know, play with
the uh cutting edge robots. And so
that's what that's ultimately what we're
doing. So um it's uh aimarketingworld.co
is the website. amarketingworld.co. It's
in Dallas, Texas October 21st through
24th. Uh tickets are on sale now.
They're discounted right now and uh it's
it's going to be a blast. So, we
continue to just grow and scale this
thing. I want it to be the uh web summit
uh for the United States. That's my my
big ambition is golf.
>> And and if it's if it does get that big,
would you consider moving it out of the
city or is Dallas like your anchor?
Yeah, I mean Dallas is a is a great
center place for
the United States because, you know,
center country. It's a great travel hub.
Uh I'm not opposed to it. I'd love to
bring either the entire thing or a
satellite
uh version of it to North Carolina
>> in particular.
>> So, uh we we'll see. Um, it'll be in
Dallas for at least the next two years
because we're locked in with the hotel
uh and and venue to get the best deal
there. So, uh, but we're just going to
continue to to grow it. I mean, next
year I I'd love to hit, you know, 1500
2,000 people, just continue to to
snowball it and continue to grow and um,
yeah, we'll we'll see. Well, you've got
syllabi, you've got AI Marketing World,
and you've got your own personal sort of
stuff going on. What partnerships? Like
if somebody walked in the door and it
was your dream partner, what would that
what would that kind of look like? And
and who would that be?
Man, I've got so much going on right
now. I don't I don't even know. I I it's
there's honestly a capacity issue. I I I
wouldn't I probably wouldn't say yes.
there probably wouldn't until I, you
know, exit out of syllabi perhaps or,
you know, maybe somebody that comes in a
big investor and they're like, I believe
in the bull house mission. Here's, you
know, a lot of money to either make
bigger check sizes and investments or
something that's been mentioned a couple
times is a franchise model. I'm just
like thinking and permeating that
thought a little bit cuz I've as I've
been building Bull House in public, a
lot of people have said, "Oh my gosh, I
wish this existed in my city."
>> Right.
>> And so that's interesting. It's still so
it's way too early to be thinking about
anything like that. But um that would be
the only type of uh partner that I would
probably explore at this point.
>> Interesting. that is uh I I I've seen
more and more people doing that sort of
model where they're I believe dinner is
one of them where they they they kind of
set up a dinner. So, um it's a it's a
it's a problem that needs solving. And I
think like um on that note, like is
there a is there a problem that you're
not actively trying to solve for, but
you're you know, you wish somebody else
would.
You know, what comes to mind is uh again
back to local and in-person experiences.
So, a couple of the places that my wife
and I have lived, so we have a dog uh
we're dog parents. Uh there are
uh basically private membership
dog parks that are like a third space
with bar and sometimes food enclosed
area enclosed uh like fenced in area
membership fee.
Uh we've been members of multiple and
they're fantastic. It's a fantastic way
to meet people. It's a fantastic way,
you know, after work, just take your
dog, grab a beer, hang out with people
for an hour or two, let your dog get the
energy out, maybe get a snack or a bite
to eat. But nothing exists here in
Durham. And so that's another like down
the road business idea that I don't
like, it's a very dog friendly community
here. And there's either a reason why it
doesn't exist, maybe the city's blocking
it, or maybe just nobody has
come up with the idea here yet. Like, we
see them spreading, but maybe that's a a
a novel idea that just hasn't opened up
here yet. And
that's a real problem that I I wish
existed, just going back into the
physical world a little bit.
>> So, when Houndhouse?
Yeah, Houndhouse. That's a great That's
a great name.
>> Yeah. So, if somebody wants to come in
and and uh and uh uh help us fund and
operate uh Houndhouse, uh I would be all
over that, too.
>> Yeah. I I owned a dog for probably about
15 years or 14. He died during CO and I
was like,
>> I'm sorry.
>> No, it's okay. It's it we've had him for
a while. uh once you've had a dog till
the end and you see him go and it's like
you're at peace with it because you know
he had a long life, right? So
>> yeah.
>> Um at 15 and 14 that's what it is.
>> But I I I'm kind of like
not really wanting to have another dog.
It's like I'm enjoying my freedom, you
know, type of thing.
>> Well, that's how it is. One last thing
before we go. Um, I I I was really
interested about the the pivot between
your agency and to the SAS. Like what
what sort of like looking back talk talk
about that and and what kind of what did
you glean from that?
>> Yeah. Um, so I I'll I'll get into it.
It's a it's a really good question. The
the other reality is I was burned out in
agency life. Agency is so hard
>> because it's sometimes a hard sales
cycle. It's not as hard as like
enterprise SAS,
but it's an emotional roller coaster and
it's very mentally taxing as well when
you have a lot of clients that
um
are in different industries. So like I
did addiction treatment marketing and
then we had some law firms and med spas
and medical doctors and then we also had
some like e-commerce clients and we also
had uh some like backyard pond people.
I'm sick. This and
it's very mentally hard to shift to the
KPIs and the needs and
what the
target person target uh ICP of the brand
and business is is interested in. And
sometimes the deliverables are a little
bit different. And so it's just like
mental shifting when you have 10, 15, 20
clients
to do that on a daily basis. And then
financially,
you'll have really good months, six
figure months, multiple six-figure
months, tons of profit, everything's
fantastic, and then
contracts end and they don't renew.
they're unhappy for whatever reason and
they find an opt out clause,
whatever. A key employee quits that's
responsible for um uh scheduling and
posting all of the content. We've had
that happen just and then so like the
next month is like oh my gosh, am I
going to be able to afford uh payroll
this month,
>> you know, and so just an emotional
roller coaster. Plus, I did it for I was
in agency space for like 11 12 years or
something like that. And so I I just got
to a point where like I was burning
burned out. I was looking for something
else to do. I'm still very passionate
about helping people uh especially
online. And um and that's where like I I
mentioned like the this the the idea and
uh inception of of syllabi really came
from a combination of
automating everything that I was already
doing at my agency.
This AI wave coming
and wanting to get out and just pivoting
a lot of what I was doing into one AI
software tool.
It was a really interesting pivot, but I
mean, I built it in public. I'm I'm very
passionate about build in public and uh
f stealth stealth mode. Um I could go
off a whole rant on uh why you should
not build in stealth mode, but
>> um
it was a very easy transition for me for
a lot of reasons. Um and I started to
step away. I tried to find uh operators
for my agency. I ultimately like learned
a lot of lessons. I ran the agency into
the ground uh because a lot of the
clients that we had were clients because
they wanted to work with me. They didn't
want to work with somebody else.
>> And um when I started to step away, we
started to lose clients. And I we were
never able like I tried multiple
salespeople
and uh just have operators and all all
of that stuff. And it never really
worked until it just came to the
conclusion, we need to shut this down.
Um, but it was yeah, it was a it was a
fun ride, but it wasn't it was an easy
uh transition and I I've never been
happier. It's been it's been just
emotionally so much better for me and so
much more fun because now I have a lot
of different businesses, but they're all
my businesses uh that I can task shift
and and uh and and market. I I'm not
responsible for everybody.
>> You you you that last point you made
about
clients wanting to work with you. Uh and
you were probably the one that closed
the sale to begin with with them. what
I'm seeing and what I'm hearing like I
I've I've been in sort of a closer role
for some of my clients working with
startups and what I've noticed is like
although I would have closed the role or
sorry the deal um
the CEO really needs to sort of be
involved on the nitty-gritty part of
things especially if the the company is
just trying to still looking at product
market fit. It's just getting started
things like that. So I I I believe
that's called founderled sales. Um what
are your thoughts on that?
>> Oh yeah, especially in startup. Um, now
I did take the the lesson of
from my agency to syllabi to not be the
main lead generation source,
>> right?
>> And so my personal brand drives a lot of
uh signups and traffic and and whatnot.
I'm very in involved in the marketing,
but it I'm like third down the totem
pole for how we get users. And I think
every you know founder sales is
extremely important especially as you're
starting uh and founder market fit as
well like if you want to raise money
like why are you the best person to
start this company you know I yeah I'm I
have very good founder market fit for
syllabi you very 20 years of experience
use cases personally you know um but our
affiliate uh um uh program is our is by
far our number one um user adoption
Uh so we have like 11,000 syllabi
affiliates. Of course, not all of them
are active, but that's driven over a
third of our revenue have just been from
affiliates uh promoting our our service
for us. And then after that is ads. So
paid ads, uh we have uh profitable,
scalable ads. Um and then I'm probably
right, you know, right down there. But
then aside from that, we have uh we do
uh email marketing and SEO and uh we do
brand deals with other influencers and
all all kinds of other things along the
lines of that. But I think the founder
should have a place and a presence. And
I love doing podcast interviews like
this and doing public speaking and
traveling around and making big deals
and partnerships and joint ventures. And
that's kind of my role. Lead the
direction of the company, make the
partnerships happen, be a face. Uh but I
don't think that the founders should be
the exclusive and number one source of
where you get users because
postacquisition, what are you going to
do,
>> right?
>> We couldn't get, you know, they no one
nobody would want to acquire us if the
only reason that anybody signs up is me.
That wouldn't make any sense.
>> Yes. Um, that absolutely makes sense if
you're out of I I would say way past
postrevenue, right? Like so you're 20
deals in in or something like that. Um,
one thing I wanted to get your take on,
um, is AI UGC
and
maybe are we going towards like a
disclosure
norm or do you think we ride this out
and we just have this arms race of uh,
trying to see who looks more real?
I don't know where you stand. I have
pretty harsh takes on this. I am very
anti- AI UGC. I think it's unethical. I
think it's basically illegal. The FTC
has exclusively said that um AI uh fake
product reviews and AI reviews uh are an
FTC direct violation that came out in
2024. I was just reviewing it the other
day. I love when anyone asks me this
question. Uh it is unethical of a
company to offer AI UGC. It is unethical
for a brand to create fake product
reviews using AI UGC. It is
shortsighted. It is a gold rush right
now. But I think there were going to be
huge fines happening for the startups
that push AIUGC. And I think companies
that are using AI UGC to create fake
product reviews are going to get fined
as well. and they're going to lose all
trust that they have in the marketplace.
Don't do it. It's shortsighted. Johan, I
don't know if you own or a part of
AIUGC. Sorry if the you are on the
opposite side of things. That's just my
honest uh blunt opinion.
>> Okay, I take that. I like it from the
storytelling point of view. Um not
necessarily just giving a review.
Uh so that's where I stand. I think it's
cool. I think it's a creative medium.
Um, however, I agree with you on
deliberately trying to to to
uh mislead somebody is is wrong. So,
>> yeah. Yeah. Cuz we see a lot of like,
you know, upload your image, choose a
fake actor, create a Tik Tok video,
drive sales, and it's an AI avatar
saying, "Oh my gosh, I just got this new
product and it's amazing. Look at it on
me. You should buy this, too. It's
fantastic." Literally illegal. Don't do
that.
>> Okay. Well, good to know.
I love that you have such a strong
opinion on that. [clears throat]
>> Well, um that's it from me. Um I had a
really good time getting to know Austin
Armstrong, the superhero, and also uh
getting to know you um as well. So,
thank you so much for joining us on this
episode and I'm going to share and clip
this um and share it on LinkedIn and Tik
Tok where I uh I've to are getting more
and more views on there for some reason.
Um it seems like
>> I love it, man.
>> Yeah. Well, thanks Austin for coming on.
I appreciate it.
>> Thank you, brother. I appreciate you.