Can't Lose

Ask yourself something: What would you do if you couldn’t lose?

That question changed my life.

A few years ago I quit my job to build Uptrends.ai, a B2C news monitoring platform for retail investors. I had no clue if it would succeed, but building a startup sounded like a good way to learn the most about the world in a short amount of time. And more importantly I knew I’d regret not starting a business more than starting one. (More on that here)

Then about 6 months ago we realized Uptrends was NGMI as a VC-backed business, we’d taken it as far as we could. For a moment it really felt like the end of the world. It felt like we’d spent our reputations and years of our lives for nothing.

Then I read a blog post by Tim Ferriss that made me rethink my perspective. It asked that question and a few others — what if you couldn’t lose? What is the worst that could happen? What if you did the exact opposite?

I’m not quite sure how, but that flipped a switch for me. I learned how to think like I can’t lose, and that opened up so much.

A few months later, after tinkering around with a few other ideas, my cofounder and I landed on a new business: video intelligence for hedge funds and large corporations.

We realized that YouTube (the largest content media platform in the history of the universe) was completely untapped in terms of large-scale monitoring and analytics. We realized we could take what we’d learned monitoring news at Uptrends and readily apply it to long-form video with a few modifications.

We decided to go all in on it and launched Babbl Labs. It felt like the biggest possible idea, an idea to bet on if we ‘couldnt lose’

Now looking back over the past 3 months since, we’ve quickly landed half a dozen trial agreements with the biggest hedge funds and corporate intelligence companies on the planet. We built a team and advisors who bought in to the idea. And as of this week we’ve closed an entire funding round on a singular investor, while still technically ‘pre-product’ and ‘pre-revenue’. Night and day difference from Uptrends 6 months ago to now.

What changed? We decided we couldn’t lose. I know,, it may sound a little outrageous, but what I mean is:

1. We completely de-risked. We cut our budget and found independent income sources, giving ourselves near-infinite runway. We brought in advisors that knew the product and industry front and back to help, they are our safety net.

2. We went big. From Uptrends to Babbl Labs, we decided to stop hunting field mice and start hunting antelope, like a Lion. Instead of expending our time/effort trying to sell to individuals, we decided to go to the top of the value chain and sell to hedge funds, the biggest ‘customers’ in the finance world. Lions dont lose.

3. We got confident. With the first two in tow, we unlocked the third, most important piece: confidence. We stopped worrying about perfectly wording every email or virtue signaling to clients, we learned to be candid and confident, because we had de-risked and decided to go big. When you can’t lose, your confidence is thru the roof.

Looking back, I am so grateful we failed at Uptrends, and that it led me to that Tim Ferriss blog post. Without either maybe we would’ve given up. Instead 6 months later we’re in the best position I’ve ever been in.

Keep the faith, and as they say in FNL: Clear minds, full hearts, cant lose

Peace,
Ramsey