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- [00:00]
Preston
You can't be angry without the need to be right, needing to be right without the need to feel righteous. And you can't need to be right or feel righteous if you're removing. What about me?
- [00:10]
Tulin Tran
If you are afraid of judgment, if you're afraid of fear, it does impact the way you see the world, how you look at investments. And I'm sure, you know, scared money don't make money. I feel like I have this incredible skill of, like, knowing how to pick them. But then there's also, like, knowing when to sell and managing your own cash position so that you're not being forced to sell.
- [00:37]
Preston
You're not starting with the story of a great relationship to a company. If this was dating, I started dating a dumbass, but I turned to this dumbass who was cheating on me. Who was this? Who was that, who was everything else into a fucking gold mine? And, you know, now he's the perfect husband. Business and life are not that dissimilar. They can just operate fast. Welcome back to Problems to Profit. Guys. I have another exciting guest today, and already she's made me blush today. Like, I. I guess I should start this show by saying, do I look good in blush? Like, she. She just kind of looked at herself. She was like, all right, gotta make sure I'm, like, positioned well. Like, how's my ass? And I was like, like, you know, I'm the guy that triggers people. And she triggered me. It was fucking awesome. I mean, talk about fun. And we're sitting, talking just a little bit before the show, another guest I did not have the privilege of knowing first. So I really get to, like, explore you through this show. And she has a mission that I just love. She wants to help women students and healers become financially successful. And those are 3 of the population groups that don't always focus on money. In fact, I think they know they need it. But it's got more of a scarcity energy to it than a, hey, this is something I can go and energetically leverage to my own success. So I love the mission you're going with, and we're going to be talking a little bit about investing, a little bit about, I'm sure, energy, a little bit about, like, fun and playfulness and a whole bunch of other things that I think you're going to bring to the show. So without further ado, welcome Tulin Tran. I'm so glad to have you all.
- [02:17]
Tulin Tran
Hi, Preston. It's a pleasure to be here.
- [02:20]
Preston
It's my pleasure. And like, our mutual friends spoke so highly I literally had to stop her and be like, don't tell me anything. I don't want to know. Like, I like going into these episodes and, you know, it's, it's, it's fun to interview people you know as well. So sorry for any friends that are watching that I knew you before that you were on the show. But it's, I, I really have just like this, this fun getting to know somebody, where it's going to be live, like where, where you're, you're, you're seeing the real them. Like the camera. Yeah, yeah. It's a blast. So, problems to profit. I always like to start with kind of the story. What were the problems that were your gift? What were the problems that were your guide? What, what took you from maybe that pain story to where you are now? But before we get there, let's talk the ending. You just told me I'm, you know, selling real estate. I'm doing this, I'm raising capital, I'm, you know, give us a little bit of the ending so that everybody can judge the story by the ending.
- [03:22]
Tulin Tran
Okay.
- [03:23]
Preston
And then right as we got them, Judgy will go beginning to end.
- [03:27]
Tulin Tran
Okay. So I've had two exits, and these were my first two angel investments. So two out of two, which is like almost unheard of. So one was acquired by private equity. My first angel investment that I joined as the first investor and co founder, and the other, my second angel investment, IPO'd.
- [03:54]
Preston
Wow.
- [03:55]
Tulin Tran
So that was both at the end of 2021.
- [03:59]
Preston
Two exits. That is unheard of. I think I've done three different angel investments, if you want to call them that. I call them devil investments because I've had no exits and I don't think the money's there anymore. Do you have a guardian angel that I could tap into for my next one? That's awesome.
- [04:24]
Tulin Tran
Well, we're going to hear how did a lot of things wrong. And in both situations, they were kind of like lightning in a bottle. And we're going to talk about how I know how to pick them, and I'm going to teach you how to pick them. But that's only a part of the investing story.
- [04:42]
Preston
Okay. I love it. I'm excited. So two exits, big money, exciting stuff. So now that we've got everybody like Judgy and. Okay, well, she's young, she's cute, she's rich. I hate her. Now let's go through the. How did we get here? How do we go from problems to the prophet you are today?
- [05:03]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love this. I love this. So I was a very broke teenager. We had grown up poor. We were refugees from Vietnam.
- [05:15]
Preston
Okay.
- [05:16]
Tulin Tran
And we were in New York City. So anybody that lives in the outer boroughs of New York City always dreams of going to Manhattan. And that was also my dream. And how was I going to do it when we were getting, like, you know, government food, you know, how was I going to have, like, a downtown apartment? And so minimum wage was like $4 and change or something at the time. And I was just saving, like, $20, $40, like, towards this apartment. And maybe after a year, I would have saved, like a thousand or $2,000, which is like one month's rent, you know, that you're sharing with, like, four other friends. So I'm like, how is this going to work? And so because we were so poor, we had no babysitters or nannies. And our instructions after school, me and my brother was to go to the library, and they would pick us up when the library closed. And so my first investing teachers.
- [06:22]
Preston
Okay, so you were literally the babysitter. Was. Was the public library employee.
- [06:28]
Tulin Tran
Public library, yeah.
- [06:30]
Preston
Okay. I'm already gelling with this story. Keep going.
- [06:35]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. In, like, pre Giuliani New York City. So these were, like. It was like rough streets, you know, for, like, little kids to be walking around.
- [06:43]
Preston
So we're not gonna ask you your body count then.
- [06:46]
Tulin Tran
You mean how many people I've shanked?
- [06:48]
Preston
Yeah, yeah, but you don't have to tell, like, we' you know, this will be on air, like, after. After the show. Okay.
- [06:53]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, after the show. Yeah. Yeah. So my first investing teachers were like, Peter Lynch, Charlie Munger, you know, like, books that I had borrowed from the library. And because it was New York City, so it was a little bit like, in the. In the water that, like, we swam in, like, wall. The backdrop of Wall Street. And so I had in my mind, like, I want to get into stock market investing, because as a middle schooler, we did, like, that stock market game, and I was. I was pretty good at it. I remember my performance was like, the third in the class or something like that. So that's. That's what I did. I saved, like, a couple hundred dollars, and I asked my dad if he could invest for me, and then I was off to the races.
- [07:47]
Preston
How old were you at this point where you're doing your first stock market investment? You saved a few hundred bucks. What's the age range there?
- [07:54]
Tulin Tran
17.
- [07:55]
Preston
Okay. And so by the age of 17, living in pre Giuliani New York, which, by the way, Giuliani nowadays is probably looked at differently because of politics and who he's associated with and all of that. But, but Pre Juliani, New York, for anybody that doesn't know, like, the history, Giuliani solved a crime problem that, that looked terminal to the city at the time. And, and he did so radically, quickly. Like, it, it had gotten so rough and so bad that, like, it was literally unsafe to walk down the streets depending on the area of town you were in. And so New York City, which is kind of like the, the shining jewel of New York State, it's kind of the only thing that keeps it worth being a state, was falling off a cliff. And so when she says Pre. Giuliani and I was babysit by the public library, like, there's some stress there, there's some pain there that there's like, like that's, that's a big thing. Like, and I, I, my question. You said Vietnamese refugees. So were you already born when your parents came over or, like, how old were you for that journey?
- [09:09]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, so I was born in Vietnam, and we were one of the boat people that came over after the war because my father had fought for the South Vietnamese army, the losing side. And so they were sending people that supported the south to, like, re education camps. I don't know if you learned about that in history class.
- [09:34]
Preston
Very briefly mentioned.
- [09:36]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, well, they would collect people that supported the south and send them to these re education camps, never to be seen again. And so, you know, my father, after I was born, you know, he knew he had to get us out.
- [09:55]
Preston
Talk about a hero story. But probably a tremendous amount of stress there as well.
- [09:59]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah. Leaving in like, the middle of the night, you know, selling all of your belongings to get passage on, like, a little dinghy that he told me would capsize over and over again.
- [10:11]
Preston
I have a very close friend that remembers the boat ride and the boat got lost at sea and, you know, she, she were, she and I were part of a group together, and she's like, you know, about three days into getting lost, and it was three days past when we were supposed to get to where we were going, and there was nothing but water and you couldn't see the horizon. We all kind of knew that we were going to die. And, like, she has this story and I think she was, she was super young at the time, like 10 or 11 years old or less. And I'm sitting there as, like, you know, I'd never loved the word privilege, right. But, like, I'm realizing for the first time, like, what privilege means. Like, I didn't have that level of stress. And I'm sitting, oh, my God. Like, how are you 10 years old or less? I don't remember exact age. And you're already accepting, like, well, this is probably the end. I'm. Wow. So your story is starting out. Wow. So we're. We're going from getting out of what is absolutely a living hell. Like, we're at least your father and potentially the family is not gonna survive. We're getting on a little dinghy and probably going through something who's not un perilous on a journey.
- [11:26]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [11:26]
Preston
Lots of high risk getting to the United States somehow.
- [11:31]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. Well, we went around to, like, Southeast Asia because it's a little dingy, so it can't cross the Pacific. Landed in Singapore, Indonesia, where they had lots of refugee camps, you know, because there was, you know, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who were fleeing. So we were in refugee camps, which, you know, you've seen. They're. They're very difficult. And my father had to barter with, like, physical labor or whatever to, like, get some food for my mother so that she could, like, breastfeed me. So not easy. But that's why I'm so grateful to this country that gave us political asylum.
- [12:17]
Preston
I am like, so it's you, mom and dad, or are there other siblings, too?
- [12:25]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, me, mom and dad.
- [12:27]
Preston
Just you, mom and dad. Okay. You're a baby at this point. If mom's breastfeeding. And how long was the journey out of Vietnam to the United States? Was this like six months, a year? Three years? What was like, this process?
- [12:41]
Tulin Tran
Like, eventually we got to the Philippines, and then, you know, there's a military base there. So then we got a plane flight to Lower east side, New York City.
- [12:56]
Preston
Wow. How cool. And then from. From, like, here's probably where it starts turning. Getting better. Here's a man who's literally a, survived war, B, survived a refugee situation, like, C, protected his family through the refugee situation and found a way, like, all of these things are significant, and many people don't survive any single one of them. And then he gets all the way to New York. So, like, this is where the story starts becoming some level of upside. He's able to get some type of job, career, like, maintain some level of stability at this point. So it probably. Even though you're growing up poor, like, I want to, like, capitalize on this part of the story for everybody who's going to be watching, because you're Growing up poor, but you're growing up in heaven compared to the hell that you started it.
- [13:46]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. It really was very much the land of opportunity.
- [13:51]
Preston
And then you're getting babysat by librarians because there's no money to pay librarians. But what a fucking gift because you're sitting down and reading books by Charlie Munger. You're reading about the greats. You're learning about the possibilities in this crazy country that accepted a bunch of people that were on a dinghy or a raft, you know, 10 years earlier. How cool. Talk about, like, both sides of the equation.
- [14:20]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [14:20]
Preston
Getting mentorship off of pages from a man who'd be untouchable to anybody that didn't realize he's written everything he's ever done in a book.
- [14:29]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. And that was, like, born from my dream of wanting to live in Manhattan. You know, shiny Manhattan, Broadway and Fifth Avenue.
- [14:42]
Preston
Well, if they started out judging you with your two exits and, well, she's rich and she's pretty, you know, I hate her. Now we're going to be moving into, like, holy fuck. I'm glad I didn't have to survive that story.
- [14:53]
Tulin Tran
We grew up in the projects.
- [14:56]
Preston
Maybe your problems would make you a prophet, and your story could be amazing as well. The biggest problem most of us have in life is we think we shouldn't have any fucking problems. It's a real issue, you know? So now we're sorry I had to, like, keep on that side. I'm having so much fun with you, Tulin. This is really cool. And there's just crazy polarities there. To my buddy who, like, you know, we. We literally traveled the world together. She became a wild success story, and she was literally lost at sea. Similar situation, like, exact.
- [15:29]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, the immigrant story is. Yeah.
- [15:34]
Preston
Well, the immigrant story is interesting because, like, you come in and you say, I love this country. I'm so grateful for this country. And we haven't even gotten to some of the other bumps on your path, which you'd have reason to be frustrated. Right. But almost every immigrant that I've ever talked to is grateful to be here. People that are born here criticize this place so much. And the common theme is none of them have ever been anywhere else. And if they have been anywhere else, it was at a resort, which is not a great depiction of what the place really looks like.
- [16:07]
Tulin Tran
Yes, yes.
- [16:08]
Preston
Like, you know, I. I love going to Mexico. Like, I love doing it. Go to the resort, Have a great time. It's fine. I like to stay at the resorts.
- [16:18]
Tulin Tran
Eat their version of Fajitas.
- [16:21]
Preston
Yeah. But then, you know, go to the projects and, you know, maybe see what it really looks like. Like, see how people live in riverbeds and things like that. That during flood season, their houses are gone. Like, and. And this is just a standard. This is a normal thing. Like, people haven't traveled out yet. They hate it here where we have it all. And. And. And you're coming on my show. I'm so grateful. Already saying I love this country, like, land of opportunity. And we've only gotten to, like, your 17 years old with $100 in the stock market. We're nowhere close to the two exits yet.
- [16:59]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah.
- [17:01]
Preston
So a hundred bucks in the stock market. 17 years old. Take us further.
- [17:06]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, well, it was $500.
- [17:07]
Preston
Oh, 500.
- [17:08]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [17:08]
Preston
I'm sorry, I'm undercutting you.
- [17:09]
Tulin Tran
It was $500. And one of my first investments in 1997 was Amazon. Okay. So I think the average cost per share was under a do. I think it was way under a dollar. But I can't remember now. And I remember my dad saying. And I think they were considered, like, Web 1.0, like, stocks. And he was like, these are so risky. And I'm like, no, dad, these companies are changing the world. Like PayPal, eBay. And I knew that. And this is gonna get a little interesting, too, because I was a gamer, so I always had my eye on technology because better technology meant better gameplay. So I meant, like, better graphics, a more immersive experience, high latency, you know, no lag. These are, like, terms any gamer knows. So I always had my eye towards technology. So when it was like Amazon, I'm like, oh, my God. And I was, of course, a prolific reader. So I was like, you can buy books on the Internet, you know, instead of, like, you know, anybody that spent time in New York knows the weather is not great there. It's like winter six months of the year. I don't have to go to, you know, Barnes and Nobles to get a book. I don't have to go to the library. I could, like, buy it online. That, to me, I knew was going to change the world because it was something that I was interested in. And then we'll get into, like, some more of my, like, early wins and how that formed the basis of my framework called Intuitive Investing.
- [18:58]
Preston
Okay, I like it. Intuitive Investing sounds spiritually leading in. Okay, so you had, like, a knowing on Amazon, but it was from the framework of something that wasn't necessarily connected to business or books. It was connected to the tech side.
- [19:16]
Tulin Tran
Of gaming and play and my real life.
- [19:19]
Preston
Wow. Play is such a fascinating thing. I think any company with good culture has figured out that the companies that need a bad guy, you got to have some enemy. Oh, I'm in the foxhole against that guy in that foxhole. And, oh, you're on my team. So we're in this foxhole together. All the employees and the leaders must not have had kids. It's funny because if I take my kids to the park, they're not in a foxhole against any of the other kids at the park. Like, they have 10 best friends. They're all playing later. And so here's this play story, which is really cool. Sorry, I want to point out this little synchronicity because I think we're going to go on a kind of a spiritual business investing show here.
- [20:03]
Tulin Tran
Oh, my gosh.
- [20:04]
Preston
This should be a little fun. But you start with play, and it gives you a knowing on something that becomes an investment that gets you a reward. Is there any theme here? How did some of your other investments start?
- [20:18]
Tulin Tran
Well, what is genius about that? You know, like, the play part is that it really removes a very big barrier to investing. And that is the fear part. I would say most people who are not investors now, they would tell you their number one. Their number one excuse is fear. And so if you, like, noticed something with your powers of observation or could be through play, then that you're not thinking about, like, if I put money behind this company, that I'm going to risk losing my investment. It feels like I'm supporting this company that has, you know, given me so much.
- [21:09]
Preston
Awesome synchronicities. I was literally talking in a previous show we just filmed about this, and I think there's, like, four languages. Business is a spiritual game. If you play it right. Investing, I think, could be a spiritual game, too. Although I've not done that spiritually. I just pay somebody to do it for me. But it's the mind divides, the heart connects, the body feels, the soul knows. And these are these four languaging channels that I think we can hit in every direction. Direction. And I think the beginning of spirituality is removing this question, like, what about me? From every aspect of your life. Now, the kids that don't go play at the playground, they're like, ooh, what if I get judged? What if this? What if that? They don't have it. They don't have that. What about me? They've replaced. It's like they're born with this. What about we question? Oh, I'm gonna go be included.
- [22:12]
Tulin Tran
Oh, yes.
- [22:12]
Preston
And then as people, we develop a what about me question and we lose some of that spirituality that kids Natur truly have. And it's just, it's fascinating to see. And when you can remove the what about Me and you can play, it's just worth mentioning on multiple shows. Like you removing what about Me takes you into this really delicious space where you're not going to be angry and you're not going to be scared. You can't be angry without the need to be right. And you can't be needing to be right without the need to feel righteous. And you can't need to be right or feel righteous if you're removing what about Me? And you can't fear loss if you're removing what about Me? If you're asking the what about we question, I mean, it's just, it's so profound. Like, we're mentioning it on multiple shows and like I'm, I'm. I love the common themes. I love the synchronicities. Like, I have to like just gravitate and stop there a little bit. Like, play removes fear. Like, talk about a great trigger. Yeah, I'm having fun. Like, keep going. What else?
- [23:15]
Tulin Tran
So I mean, the shamans will say, spend their entire life trying to remove the feeling of self importance. Because like you were saying, if you are afraid of judgment, if you're afraid of fear, that really does impact the way you see the world, whether it's the playground or to investments, how you look at investments. And I'm sure, you know, scared money don't make money. And so if you, you know, you might have done all the due diligence and have put maybe what you consider like a small amount, $200 on Google stock or whatever, but you're so scared of losing it, you know, chances are you're gonna manifest that, you know, there's gonna be a down day and then you're gonna be like, oh my God, I knew it. The sky is falling. And then you pull out only to have it rebound, you know, the week after.
- [24:12]
Preston
And then It'll be up 20% in six months. Why did I sell?
- [24:16]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah. Yes. Because that fear and that judgment and all of this like self importance really does affect how you perceive things in the real world, including investments.
- [24:27]
Preston
Okay, so I'm, I'm, I'm really enjoying this. And, and like that scared money don't make money. I hadn't heard it put that way before, but I love that. So I'm going to totally steal that quote.
- [24:36]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [24:37]
Preston
So 17. 500 bucks in the stock market. Amazon's the first big play. You're welcome, Jeff Bezos. Now we're plugging you on our show. And this leads to what? Where do we go from here? You saved a little money. You're looking at a goal of this apartment. But where are we at now?
- [25:00]
Tulin Tran
So I went down the path of where millions of good Asian daughters have gone down. And that was. I was gonna be a medical doctor. And, you know, to make my parents proud for all, you know, their hard work to get us here and, you know, put clothes on our backs and a roof over our head. And I. I just could not do, like, physical chemistry. I, like, I couldn't do it. My mind didn't work that way. And what I really wanted was just to help people. And so I dropped pre med. My mom cried for like, a week. But I discovered something else. I was like, oh, there's something called social work. And I was like, I can help people without having to go to, like, too much more schooling. I could just, like, graduate and, like, start helping people right away. But nobody told me, Preston, that they don't make any money.
- [26:05]
Preston
I was thinking that. No, that was in my head. I was like, so you chose being broke?
- [26:10]
Tulin Tran
I know I chose being broke, but I was, you know, I was naive. I had no, you know, other than the books that I myself was picking up, there was no one guiding me. And my parents were working, you know, 12 to 14 hours a day. And so that was such a big wake up call. My first salary was like 18 or $20,000 a. In New York City.
- [26:34]
Preston
Yeah.
- [26:35]
Tulin Tran
Before taxes. So, like, the dream of the apartment is, like, getting, like, further and further away.
- [26:42]
Preston
The social workers get to help people, but they might also need the help.
- [26:47]
Tulin Tran
I know. And then I was like, wait, how is this gonna work? And that's when I really doubled down on investing. Because I had seen with my own eyes the power of compound investing and compound interest, which is the eighth wonder of the world. And so I now that I was making a little bit of money. It was more than I made before, but it was still very small. I just really doubled down on the skill of investing.
- [27:16]
Preston
Okay, I like that. The skill of investing. Let's dive into that a little bit. I believe there is a skill in business. I believe there's a skill in everything. If you were to have become that perfect Asian daughter medical doctor, you know, you want go to the doctor with the skill, not the one without. Right. Like, you want to be the doctor with skill. But let's talk about the skill of investing, because that's a specific set of words that, let's dive into that a little bit.
- [27:44]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, so like, for example, I feel like I have this incredible skill of like, knowing how to pick them. Like pick founders to back or stocks, you know, to start trading positions on. I feel like I have that ability through my intuition and some of the other things we'll talk about later.
- [28:09]
Preston
Okay, so knowing how to pick them.
- [28:11]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, but then there's also, like, knowing when to sell and managing your own cash position so that you're not being forced to sell or you don't freak out when there's like a big drawdown. Like with the tariffs, you know, earlier this year, that was a huge buying opportunity. But I can't tell you how many people like, freaked out and, you know, probably sold when, you know they should have been buying.
- [28:40]
Preston
Yeah, that makes sense. I really had some fun with Tesla through those tariffs.
- [28:45]
Tulin Tran
I know, I saw and there. So those are all skills that you will learn through, you know, through your own experience of investing.
- [28:58]
Preston
So the skill of investing is kind of picking stocks, knowing when to sell, and then understanding like some cash management. Like, if you're using margin or something, you don't want to get squeezed down to the point that you're forced. I think that's. Is that what you meant by like, being forced?
- [29:14]
Tulin Tran
Yes, because when you're forced, you know, like your investment hypothesis could be correct. You know, like take Tesla, for example. Like, you repurchase, like at a low price, but say, you know, you weren't making, managing your own cash position and you got hit by, I mean, either by accident or because you weren't looking like a huge tax bill. And then now you're like, oh, crap, I owe the IRS a hundred K I have to sell Tesla at. Maybe they had one down day and you would have taken a loss, but your investment thesis would have been correct. It's just that you didn't manage your own cash position and now you're forced to sell, you know, to pay the IRS or.
- [29:58]
Preston
I feel like that's a common theme in, in most investors or amateur investors. Like, like myself, like, I, I, I am a hell of a businessman, but I would call myself an amateur investor. Like, the only investments I've really done very well on are businesses where I can like, look at, reach out, touch sometimes grab and shake the owner who I am investing with, because there's like a level of proximity. Those investments I've done phenomenal on.
- [30:25]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, when it comes.
- [30:27]
Preston
I want to pick your brain and know what's the magic in the stocks.
- [30:31]
Tulin Tran
Well that's what, I'll get to that. But that's kind of like what Warren Buffett does with his like baseball analogy that cigar butts.
- [30:39]
Preston
Right?
- [30:40]
Tulin Tran
Well I don't, I don't know. I hadn't heard the cigar butts. But he says that you don't have to swing at like every pitch if like you just stay within your strike zone, which is like the businesses that you like. And when the, when the ball comes within your strike zone then you can go pretty heavy. You don't have to swing at every pitch.
- [31:01]
Preston
No, I love it. I love it. Yeah, I read a book on Warren Buffett and he made that reference and he referenced like, what did he call him when he was buying Berkshire Hathaway? I thought it was cigar butts and I might be off, but it was like cigar butt companies like people to light the cigar but leave it there. And so it was like you could almost cut off the burnt end and sell it as a brand new cigar. If it was a long enough cigar. There was still plenty of burn rate through this company where you could buy, buy em, merge em, like stock em up, sell em all this. And I can only now picture that. That's a horrible analogy of people picking up cigars out of ashtrays. I don't know why that analogy stuck in my head. So okay, so knowing how to pick em, at what stage did we get the dream of the apartment in New York or.
- [31:54]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. So one day in my mid-20s, I woke up through the power of compound interest with a six figure portfolio on a $20,000 salary.
- [32:09]
Preston
Wow.
- [32:10]
Tulin Tran
And so yes, I got the apartment which is very expensive still to this day. It was a two bedroom on Avenue B right next to a men's halfway house.
- [32:31]
Preston
We're selling it.
- [32:32]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. And it was 2,500 for me and so 2,500 for my roommate. So it was a $5,000 a month apartment.
- [32:43]
Preston
Now we're for context, sitting in Austin, Texas, where Austin's a more expensive market.
- [32:51]
Tulin Tran
But Austin is a more expensive market.
- [32:53]
Preston
5000 bucks buys you a decent amount of real estate monthly here. You know, like to think about a two bedroom apartment for 5,000 bucks next.
- [33:03]
Tulin Tran
To a men's halfway house.
- [33:04]
Preston
And next to a halfway house, like I mean that just tells you like this was a while back, like yeah. What New York real estate was doing even at that point and is still doing at this time. It's just that like that Wasn't the most expensive flat you could buy, but we hit the dream.
- [33:24]
Tulin Tran
We hit the dream. Yeah.
- [33:25]
Preston
Do you still have it?
- [33:26]
Tulin Tran
No.
- [33:27]
Preston
Okay.
- [33:28]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [33:28]
Preston
Are you a local resident now in Austin?
- [33:30]
Tulin Tran
I am.
- [33:31]
Preston
Okay.
- [33:31]
Tulin Tran
I am, yeah. It's been four years and I love it.
- [33:34]
Preston
Awesome. Welcome. As a home builder. Welcome to Texas. I like to joke that, you know, I drive to California every time they're working on getting Gavin Newsom reelected, and I vote for him. So he keeps sending more people and I should go to New York and do the same there. Like I said, like, we are getting so many people that are not from here that are just such welcome additions because they have such cool stories and they bring so much to the table. And. And look, we don't want to replicate the $5,000 bullshit apartment next to the halfway house. You just let us know, like, your feedback, and we will keep building better, nicer. So. Okay. So cool. So we. We. We've got the dream. We've got the apartment. You came here. So the dream wasn't all it was cracked up to be or was or how did this impact the investment journey where'd.
- [34:25]
Tulin Tran
I got married, became pregnant with twins. And this was about the GFC. Great financial crisis.
- [34:37]
Preston
Okay, so right around 08.
- [34:39]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, 08. 09. And I decided to take a break because twins are a lot of work. And so we went back and forth between New York and Florida and then decided to make Florida full time in part to the beaches and the taxes. I know. And we have to really beautiful life there. And then one day in 2015, I was in Savannah just talking shop. I was there on, like a family road trip, and I met up with an old business associate there. And so we were just like talking shop. And. And he showed me what he was doing. He was helping a small company run ads. And I looked at them, I looked at their social media, and I just really took a shine to them. And that became my first angel investment in which I took half of my stock market profits. Like I said, I did everything wrong. I took half of my stock market profits and put it into this company. And, you know, most books are like, don't put all your eggs in one basket. You know, whatever. I teach differently. But I put half of my stock market profits, which is like 20 years of work, into this company because I took such a shine to them. And then I moved them to Miami, which was where I was and, you know, helped helped grow it.
- [36:18]
Preston
Okay. And this is after having moved to Florida. So we've got. I mean, I don't know how old you are, and I make a rule of trying not to ever ask, but, like, we've got a decade or more of, like, invested capital, compounding interest, things doing well, constant investment, twins, new marriage, place in Florida. So obviously you're financially not bad off. You're doing pretty good. Okay. Twins. Start getting old enough, you bump into a business.
- [36:57]
Tulin Tran
And then I had a son, so now it's three.
- [37:01]
Preston
Three.
- [37:01]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [37:02]
Preston
And. And, and at this stage, roughly plus or minus a year or two, you're meeting an old business associate. And just, just half. Like, if the portfolios really any size, like, you've worked on this for multiple decades to put it together. Half.
- [37:22]
Tulin Tran
Half.
- [37:23]
Preston
Half.
- [37:23]
Tulin Tran
Half, yes. And that comes into play, like, later.
- [37:31]
Preston
I'm thinking you're a little crazy right now.
- [37:33]
Tulin Tran
I'm a little. Yeah, I'm a little crazy.
- [37:36]
Preston
But I gotta understand this. Like, half.
- [37:39]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [37:39]
Preston
I don't care if, like, you've worked 20 years to save a hundred grand or a million or 10 million. What? Half is a big fricking number.
- [37:46]
Tulin Tran
Well, I think you. You have noticed or you found with your guests and especially with your philosophy of problems to profits is that when you've overcome a lot of hardship in your life now you have, like a belief in yourself, you know, that can't be bought. And so that is. Has. It was not in my awareness at the time, but I remember thinking, well, it's my money and I am me. There's no way I would let it fail.
- [38:29]
Preston
So. And what I'm correlating it to, because it's just. Is where you started with the knowing on Amazon, as a gamer, which here's your dad saying, high risk, whatever category it was in or whatever, don't do it. And you knew. And now later in life, you know, mom of three transition from New York to Florida, like, there's not. It's not like there's nothing going on. And half. So there's some kind of knowing.
- [39:03]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [39:04]
Preston
Okay.
- [39:05]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [39:06]
Preston
Describe that.
- [39:07]
Tulin Tran
That's really a great awareness. So the company sold. They sold men's jewelry, which is a very niche market, but it was very. It was specifically gold chains. And like I said, I grew up in New York on the streets where, you know, Goombas to the Russian mafia to, you know, 50 Cent. Everybody had a gold chain. Like, it said something. And so I knew that, and I knew that it was like a timeless style. I mean, if you watch the Godfather, that was made in the 70s, they're wearing gold chains. If you go to, like, Italy now, They're wearing gold chains. You know, like all the rappers, they have gold. It's just a timeless style that says something about, you know, the wearer. And so, you know, I immediately had this dream of what this company could be. Kind of like Ray Kroc, where he's like, they didn't Even know what McDonald's, you know, was, but he had the vision of, you know, McDonald's. So it was similar to that.
- [40:27]
Preston
So there was a. I mean, I love that you pointed out the niche. Like, there's riches in the niches. And you knew that there was something that was very specific where there's not too many competitors competing for the same space.
- [40:37]
Tulin Tran
No, it's not true. There was a lot of competitors.
- [40:41]
Preston
Yeah.
- [40:41]
Tulin Tran
Because the margins are insane. They're like 90%, 95%. Yeah.
- [40:45]
Preston
Okay.
- [40:47]
Tulin Tran
But there was no clear leader.
- [40:50]
Preston
Oh, okay.
- [40:51]
Tulin Tran
So just like Ray Kroc with the burgers. There's a ton of burger joints, but there was no McDonald's like, the way he envisioned McDonald's.
- [41:00]
Preston
So from a standpoint of a 90% margin, you're looking at the niche. And I'm projecting here, correct me if I'm wrong, as we have so much margin here that we can leverage this to take the lead space and better serve this market. Is this. Am I close on where.
- [41:25]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [41:26]
Preston
Yeah. Okay. And you had an awareness of what the market was because you'd seen it.
- [41:31]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [41:32]
Preston
Okay. And then obviously, you said you moved the company, so you kept them in proximity. You didn't just give them money and let them go about their way.
- [41:40]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [41:41]
Preston
You kept them in proximity. And so it wasn't necessarily all an angel investment where you were like, here's some money. I trust you. There was a. You had a level of input and guidance.
- [41:50]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [41:50]
Preston
Based on the size of your investment and whatever else was in the negotiation to where. Okay, so you sound less crazy now. You were investing in yourself, but that number, 50%. I was like, wait, what? I know we have to play there. Okay. But I mean, any investment in yourself, because you had a level of control, like where you can operate certain levers in the company. That makes sense.
- [42:15]
Tulin Tran
Yes. Yeah. But that was kind of like, in hindsight, because it was like, oh, my God, I gave them so much money. Like, what are they gonna do with it? I need some control.
- [42:28]
Preston
Okay.
- [42:29]
Tulin Tran
And so that's how decisions got made. Well, Miami was our second biggest market, and so the founders, they were like young men in their 20s, early 20s, so they were happy to go down there anyway. And I was you know, like in a startup, everybody wears like a ton of hats. And so, you know, we needed a lot of help. And because I was so enamored with the company and with the vision that I had for them, you know, I. It enabled me, you know, to go in every day and work, work on the business.
- [43:07]
Preston
Okay, this is cool. This is a fun business story. And so give us some of the journey of that, like. Cause this is one of the exits, I'm assuming as well.
- [43:14]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. So here's a story. Within six weeks of landing in Miami, moving everybody, the founding team to Miami, one of the founders got addicted to cocaine and hookers. Oh, because it's Miami, Just cocaine and hookers. Yeah.
- [43:35]
Preston
How could you judge?
- [43:37]
Tulin Tran
So he was our shipping manager. And because it's a physical products company, like, you know, we need the shipping manager to be like on point, you know, especially when we're brokers.
- [43:49]
Preston
Might like gold chains. I mean, they probably retail great at pawn shops.
- [43:52]
Tulin Tran
Absolutely, absolutely. And so we bought them out, kicked them out. Back. Back to mommy.
- [44:01]
Preston
So early. Partnership lessons.
- [44:04]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I said, it was, you know, I had so much belief in myself that I made a lot of mistakes. Like not really looking at the founders, I was just looking at what I could make the company. And so I wouldn't really recommend that.
- [44:26]
Preston
No. But everybody, I see a gold nugget of a lesson here. Like you, regardless of how you made the investment, maybe you didn't put enough controls in the investment on the initial one. You were able to, with your own charisma and your own ability to leverage whatever you leveraged, take control, and you invested in yourself and you were able to navigate what would have been very rough waters. I mean, somebody told me once when I made a huge mistake, I made a horrible mistake with my bride. Okay. Treated her wrong, didn't handle things well.
- [45:08]
Tulin Tran
Your bride?
- [45:09]
Preston
My bride, My wife. And I was pretty sure she was going to leave me. I was like, man, I said some dumb shit. It was bad, right? And I didn't want her to leave me. I had focused on work. She had criticized it. I had made some choice comments. I was young and arrogant. All men are stupid at points, okay? And an old, wise mentor. You know what he said to me? All you gotta do is whatever the fuck it takes. And I was like, what does that mean? And he said, I don't know. That depends on her. And you just do whatever the fuck it takes and she can't leave. You can't fail if you do whatever the fuck it takes. You underestimate the power of the human spirit. It's like how much do you want this? And we are happily married today with two beautiful kids and a great life and plenty of fuck up stories because.
- [45:59]
Tulin Tran
You did whatever it took.
- [46:01]
Preston
Whatever the fuck it takes is all you have to do and story in this company, which I would probably have. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't advise anybody to go through and give 50% of their wealth to one company of 20 year old testosterone filled men that like hookers and cocaine. But you know, on, on the other side of that, like I would definitely tell them you need to go listen to somebody who not only survived that but thrived as a result of exiting from that. Like you're not starting with the story of a great relationship to a company. You're starting with a story of like, you know, if this was dating, well, I started dating a dumbass but I turned to this dumbass who was cheating on me. Who was this, who was that, who was everything else into a gold mine and you know, now he's a perfect husband. Right?
- [46:49]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [46:50]
Preston
Like business and life are not that dissimilar. They can just operate faster. Right. So I'm loving where this is going. Okay. Keep, keep going on. I'm having so much fun with this and I know our listeners are going to eat this up.
- [47:05]
Tulin Tran
So we steadily grew, you know, by doing things like good business, you know, org charts, operations, you know, paying close attention to like how much we're spending, you know, like just good business practices and things like that. Yes, Controls.
- [47:26]
Preston
I'm assuming you brough brought a lot of this to the table.
- [47:29]
Tulin Tran
I was the only adult in the room.
- [47:32]
Preston
What's the age difference between you and the young men?
- [47:36]
Tulin Tran
It was like 15, about 15 years.
- [47:40]
Preston
And you've got kids?
- [47:43]
Tulin Tran
I've got kids.
- [47:44]
Preston
You've got a family. You're seeing the requirement of balancing and organizing this structure.
- [47:49]
Tulin Tran
Yep.
- [47:49]
Preston
You've made investments. You've learned some of the fundamental laws of money and compounding. You've probably lost on investments in the short term and maybe be ridden them back up in the long term. So you know how to not stress how many partners are there.
- [48:05]
Tulin Tran
So at that point there were three founders left.
- [48:09]
Preston
Okay, okay. So after exiting the cocaine hookers guy.
- [48:12]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [48:13]
Preston
Okay.
- [48:13]
Tulin Tran
And then some other. They kind of just like fell away, you know, they were like 22 years old. Yeah, no, I mean look like a lot of them were not that interested in business.
- [48:26]
Preston
How many partners were there in this firm at the end, at the exit?
- [48:33]
Tulin Tran
2Founder4.
- [48:35]
Preston
Okay. And you're one of them.
- [48:37]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. Yes.
- [48:38]
Preston
Okay. I. I'm, I'm. I'm loving the story of how you took what almost certainly would have been a raw deal like this. This would have been a doll.
- [48:49]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [48:50]
Preston
And you turned it into a great deal. But, like, the magic was you, like, hopefully those other. Those other founders, if you guys are still in good terms and everything, they're probably gonna be calling you for their next investment.
- [49:02]
Tulin Tran
They know.
- [49:04]
Preston
So you said you exited too. Like, what was the other one? You said?
- [49:08]
Tulin Tran
So the other one. It was also. It was similar in that I saw something in, like, what they could be. And it was a digital marketing company. And over.
- [49:20]
Preston
I mentioned this.
- [49:20]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. And this time I did take a shine to the founders, who I thought were extremely creative. And as an art collector and a lover of art, I can tell when someone has sort of like that spark of creative genius in them. Not just genius, but creative genius because that means, you know, that they would be able to. Yeah. Be problem solvers and that they can create something in. In a world where. And now we're transitioning into, like, web 2.0. So the Internet was, like, expanding in many ways. I. If I was going to take a bet on somebody, they had to be a visionary in some way, and that were these two guys.
- [50:13]
Preston
Okay.
- [50:13]
Tulin Tran
I.
- [50:18]
Preston
You call it picking. So I want to use your word, but it's like a picking with a knowing.
- [50:23]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [50:23]
Preston
Like whether it's your first Amazon investment.
- [50:26]
Tulin Tran
So in both of these situations, they were not looking for investments. They were not looking for investors. It was something I saw in them, and I came to them and said, hey, I think I can help you here.
- [50:37]
Preston
But there's also. You loved it.
- [50:40]
Tulin Tran
I loved it.
- [50:41]
Preston
Yeah. And I think there's a correlation and lesson there that I want to stay on for just a second before we go into more of this story, because this is going to be a good one, too, I'm sure. But when there's a relationship built on. I mean, love is an essence. We call it an emotion. We're absolutely wrong. Love creates lots of other emotions that create biochemical functions in our body, and we can feel those biochemical functions, and then we associate it with love. But love is more like fire than any single emotion. It's like a compilation of emotions. Fire consumes. Fire creates. Love consumes. Love creates. So you're entering all of these knowings with, like, this. This level of passion and intensity that, like, you're loving the product, you're loving the outcome, you're loving the now you're loving the future. Like, you're not just hitting, like, picking. Like, there's a difference. I think a lot of people hear picking, and they're thinking, oh, she's gonna talk to me. Picking stocks, you're vibing with something. Like, your love of art is making you fall in love with aspects of this business where there's an emotional connection. And you're picking like, you're looking at fundamentals, but there's also a passion which kind of goes back to the whatever the fuck it takes.
- [52:05]
Tulin Tran
Whatever the fuck it takes.
- [52:06]
Preston
You're not gonna have to worry of. Do I have the energy to rise to the occasion and handle this?
- [52:11]
Tulin Tran
If you're passionate about the thing, absolutely. Yes. I couldn't agree more. And, you know, because I loved it. I cared. And, you know, as someone who I'm sure has hired lots of employees, the employees that care, the people that care, like, they. What they bring to the organization is, like, incalculable. It's two things versus, yeah, the people who are just, like, dialing in.
- [52:40]
Preston
It's two things. And I tell them. I tell everybody when we hire them, I'm like, if you want to be running this company, like, if you want to be making millions of dollars a year, there's two things you have to be better at than anyone else. Common sense and caring.
- [52:53]
Tulin Tran
Wow.
- [52:53]
Preston
If you can do those two things. And, I mean, I love having women on my show because when they're talking, y' all are. Men are so productive and performative and everything's, like, really cool. But, like, women, you. You. You bring an energy to it. All my companies, by the way, are run by women.
- [53:09]
Tulin Tran
Oh.
- [53:10]
Preston
Because they're better at common sense, and they're better at caring.
- [53:13]
Tulin Tran
You are such a smart man.
- [53:15]
Preston
Thank you. Thank you. Stop it. Keep it coming.
- [53:17]
Tulin Tran
More.
- [53:17]
Preston
More.
- [53:18]
Tulin Tran
But, like, brilliant.
- [53:20]
Preston
More.
- [53:20]
Tulin Tran
More. Genius.
- [53:22]
Preston
You're awesome. But it's. It's. It's interesting to see, like. Like, kind of the. The nature of that, like, female shopper. Like, people identify women as, like, shoppers, Right? Like, you guys are better, arguably, at being consumers than us men are. But you also have, like, wild common sense compared to us men. Like, if 10 men go out to a restaurant, some men are going to go with the decision of, I'm going to try to not. I'm going to go to the bathroom right when the check is ordered to escape the check. Other men is like. Like, I'm gonna compete to be the first to buy the table. Like. Like, there's some level of competition. And Performance in Ego, you go out to lunch with 10 women and everybody's like, I'll take my check, please. And like, separate checks. And it's just like, it's so. Like, there's no weirdness about that. And like, like it's. It's interesting to take like five men and five women to lunch and just not orchestrate who's paying beforehand and see the psychology of what happens at the end.
- [54:23]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah. And yes, it's.
- [54:25]
Preston
Women are better at consuming. They have more of a common sense relationship to money and interaction and trade and exchange. And by the nature that y' all give birth, you're a little better at caring too. Like, anybody who's had a baby has had 10x the oxytocin in their body than anybody who hasn't.
- [54:44]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [54:44]
Preston
So you can understand the caring. And so anyway, I keep coming back to these common themes, but I think these are gonna be some of the common themes of this episode that I really want to point out. Everyone pays attention to.
- [54:57]
Tulin Tran
Well, that's a lot of what I talk about on why women can be such great investors. And you touched on that. That they have the common sense and that they interface with the world in a lot of different ways because they are the nurturers. So whether it's, you know, scheduling kids activities, talking to the school's, the school teacher, cooking or shopping for the family, they interface with the world in so many various ways. And so because they do that, they have a more complete snapshot of the culture scape. And also because they have that, they are more likely to predict or forecast six months, two years, five years from now, which then makes them perfectly positioned to be good investors. If only anybody had told them that.
- [55:59]
Preston
I think they're also, with the forecasting piece in mind, more realistic.
- [56:06]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [56:06]
Preston
Like, I can tell you, I've done plenty of investments. That's why I call myself a poor investor. I'm a great businessman. Thank God I've made enough money to survive the investments I've made. But the investments that have been brought to me by women more often than not go the way that they talked about it going. The ones that have. That's what you want, right? Yeah. Or at least, like, if there are bumps, they're within their margin of error or close to it. Right. Like, the men have this like, delusion of grandeur, which. It's part of our nature. Like we're supposed to do that. I mean, like, you go look at society, you're like, you know, how come all the men have you Know, like the, the highest net worth are mostly men. Well, most of them are married. They work a lot, their wives spend. Who's richer? You know, they're not all married to men. Most of them are married to women. So like, let's just, you know, are all the people on top men? No, some of them are just quieter and smarter and spending those men's money like it's, it's not necessarily a bad place to be. You know, like my, my kids. Kid was like shocked when he was like, dad, are you rich? And I was like, no, your mom's rich. I was like, why? What dad. But you earn all the money. I'm like, and I go to work every day.
- [57:27]
Tulin Tran
She spends all the money and you're rich in other ways.
- [57:30]
Preston
Exactly. Like it's, it's, it's this, I don't know, like it's.
- [57:36]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. So women are like you said, they're innately built to be good investors because of the common sense and the caring part. So they're less likely to blow up their trading accounts or whatever.
- [57:53]
Preston
The ego doesn't play the same significant factor that it does with men. There's not a posture in there. There's not a look at me. It's more of a. I'm doing this because it makes this level of sense which plays into the common sense. Sometimes our ego's part of our mind. If you want like the mind yells, the soul whispers. I think naturally women can be a little more spiritual than men and they can listen to both sides of that equation.
- [58:22]
Tulin Tran
Yes. Yeah. So I provide a lot of guardrails so that they can use their intuition and their powers of observation to pick and then, you know, like I said, because they're more innately suited to be investors, like the ego part, less risk taking, you know, things like that, all of that makes them very suitable to be like astute investors.
- [58:57]
Preston
You know what's interesting and it's, it's almost like the paradox of it because I think women are, are fascinating in the business and investing world is women may have advantages in the investing space, but it's very rare for us to see that because women also are generally going to be traditionally a little more fearful than men. Women are not going to be on the front line as soldiers as often as men will. Women are not going to, you know, take some of the, like, there's more men in prisons for violent crimes than women. They're not going to have some of the, a more risk taking approach. So that fear based nature a lot of times Keeps women from being willing to invest.
- [59:41]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [59:41]
Preston
And I think when someone like yourself can come out and say, hey, you know, like, of course there's risk, but there's actually more risk in not doing it. Here's why. Let me break it down. No different than the lunch we would all go to. Like, I think it makes it possible for them to express in that way and overcome the issue. Like, if you're predisposed to have more success based on your nature, but you're also predisposed to have a little more fear of risk.
- [60:09]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [60:11]
Preston
There needs to be more leadership coming out and saying, hey, look, it's not as bad as you think. Like, how many women survive childbirth? This is less risk.
- [60:18]
Tulin Tran
Absolutely. Yeah. And a lot of, A lot of women have the story that money and especially investing or finances is not their domain. You know, leave it to their brothers, fathers, husbands. But if they were empowered by simply just understanding by somebody who's been in the game, like me, if they were empowered to understand that, hey, how I'm built actually makes me suited for investing, then, you know, they might not be as fearful.
- [60:59]
Preston
Yeah. And would probably have disproportionately more success than their equally educated male counterparts due to less. Well, I would call it more emotional maturity.
- [61:12]
Tulin Tran
Yes, 100%. I mean, if you look at like the greatest investor, like Warren Buffett, like, not only does he know how to pick it, but what does he do? He just like sits on it. He just sits on it. And he's very trading.
- [61:28]
Preston
He's very relationship driven to what he's doing as well. He won't go into it unless he loves it. He has massive common sense. He generally goes into things that he has enough capital to go in and control it if he needs to. Like, See's candy, like Coca Cola, like Geico. I mean, he's, you know, he's following almost the exact metrics that you're describing in your exits.
- [61:52]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [61:54]
Preston
So, okay, this is awesome. Yeah, I'm loving all the, like, pieces that are coming out of this. So walk us through this company and like, take us through kind of the exit of this one.
- [62:04]
Tulin Tran
Okay. So when I found them, they were making, I think about 2 million annual revenue. And then last year it was 150 million. Wow. Yes. Just making websites.
- [62:23]
Preston
That's a lot of websites. Or a lot of money for websites. That's amazing.
- [62:26]
Tulin Tran
Well, now they, you know, they host things. Advertising and, you know, a lot of. I think maybe at 2024 or 2023 Super bowl, we had like 13 or 14 commercials. That's a cool story. They were very creative.
- [62:46]
Preston
Well, and it's a different level than like the, you know, know, hookers and cocaines from the first time.
- [62:52]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. Even though they were not. They were only a few years older. No, no, no. They were like 10 years older. Okay. There was a difference.
- [63:00]
Preston
10 years makes a big difference for us men. Trust me. Like 20 years is like magic. 10 years is a big difference.
- [63:06]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah.
- [63:07]
Preston
Find us in our 20s, maybe, like hold off on the investment till we're in mid, late 30s. Like, let us have some maturity.
- [63:14]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. They were, they were like married already. Okay.
- [63:18]
Preston
Some level of balance, stability, willingness to accept a woman's influence in some aspect or area of our lives. That's awesome. So they're doing 2 million to 150 million in revenue. What's. What's this timeline?
- [63:37]
Tulin Tran
It was. Yeah, it was. Well, 2000. It was about the same time. 2015, 2021.
- [63:52]
Preston
So we're talking about a six year path. That's gorgeous. What were some of the trials and tribulations you saw working with them on like, I mean, a six year path to 150 million. That's very aggressive. I mean, it's awesome. It's exciting, but there's some bumps in the roads here. Take us through that. I guarantee you have some good stories there.
- [64:16]
Tulin Tran
Actually. No, not really. Yeah, it was, it was just sort of like the growing pains of like needing to hire, you know, very quickly. So I did not work with them as closely as the Miami company who I felt really needed the benefit of like a. A mother hen slash school mistress, you know, headmistress.
- [64:43]
Preston
So as investments, I would, I would go with this one. Sounds like a much better investment. It's a much more capable set of entrepreneurs.
- [64:49]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. Yes, they were, they were very ser. They were very responsible. And it was in a growing industry, digital marketing. And so, yeah, that was a lot easier to not give me headaches.
- [65:06]
Preston
But six year timeline, more mature investor. Not 50% of your portfolio, I'm assuming.
- [65:12]
Tulin Tran
50% again? Yeah, that's what I did.
- [65:15]
Preston
You did 50% twice.
- [65:17]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, I did that and I split it in half, so.
- [65:22]
Preston
Oh, it was the same time.
- [65:23]
Tulin Tran
It was the same time.
- [65:26]
Preston
You did 100%?
- [65:27]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [65:30]
Preston
Geez, you're awesome. And you exited both.
- [65:36]
Tulin Tran
I know. Lightning in a bottle. Wow. Yeah.
- [65:42]
Preston
You have a guardian angel.
- [65:43]
Tulin Tran
Angel.
- [65:45]
Preston
I'm pretty sure you have like a very aggressive guardian angel. Like that is cover. I mean, that's. I love the pivotal points of the story because, like, there is a knowing there is a Love, but a hundred percent.
- [66:02]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. So, like, at least with me, if there's like, the love and the knowing, as I've seen, you know, with my stock market investing, I want more exposure to the upside.
- [66:16]
Preston
Can I participate next time you have a knowing?
- [66:19]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [66:20]
Preston
Okay. Like, I want to be your first call.
- [66:22]
Tulin Tran
Okay.
- [66:23]
Preston
Golly. So, you know, this is super cool. Now, you've made other investments along the road. You've had wins, you've had losses. We've talked about two huge wins. Tell us about some losses.
- [66:35]
Tulin Tran
So the biggest loss, and this is not related to investing, is the death of my husband in 2019. So when that happened, there was no will. There was nothing set in place because we didn't want to look at it. You know, it was, like, too morbid. And we had talked about it, but we didn't want to, like, really put anything on paper or whatever. And so when that happened, because there was no will, everything got locked up, like, immediately. And I had no access to cash or credit cards or whatever. And where we were living, our expenses were almost like 40,000amonth.
- [67:31]
Preston
And you're basically going right into some type of probate situation.
- [67:35]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [67:35]
Preston
Wow.
- [67:36]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, Immediately. And so I moved back to New York because that's where I had some support in the form of my parents.
- [67:50]
Preston
Well, and your. Your businesses were like 2015 to 2021. So this is like mid growth cycle.
- [67:59]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. Yeah.
- [68:01]
Preston
How's all that? They're not gray. Like.
- [68:03]
Tulin Tran
I know.
- [68:05]
Preston
Well, God, this is like.
- [68:07]
Tulin Tran
Okay, yeah, we had, like, 10x and then 10x then, you know, like, you think you only 10x once. You know, usually that's the case. So, yes, we were growing very fast, and then this happens. But then the partners that I talked about in a jewelry company, they actually betrayed me. And so, yes, they got greedy and wanted my part of the company back.
- [68:36]
Preston
And of course, they're using this timing and your circumstance.
- [68:39]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, they did it. Yeah, it was all calculated.
- [68:43]
Preston
All of a sudden, the guy with the hookers and the cocaine is looking like the ethical one.
- [68:47]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was emotionally a very hard time. And when I got to New York, and so they did things like they took my credit cards and, you know, we would do Facebook ads, and they ran it up to, like, I was like 200, $300,000 on the American expresses didn't pay them, so my credit score went straight to 400. It was unbeknownst to me.
- [69:19]
Preston
Yeah, you're dealing with something.
- [69:21]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. And months before, you know, I mean, they had been paying it but they just kind of took an opportunity because I think they thought, like, oh, she's weakened. So no cash, no credit, and mom of three. Mom of three.
- [69:42]
Preston
Major loss.
- [69:43]
Tulin Tran
Major loss.
- [69:44]
Preston
Moving.
- [69:44]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. And I was like, how am I gonna do this? And I applied for government assistance, food stamps.
- [69:55]
Preston
So from millionaire to right back down. Wow.
- [70:01]
Tulin Tran
Almost overnight. And didn't see it coming. So completely unprepared. And this was like, right before the pandemic when people were working in the offices. And so I would say, mom hours don't fit into office hours because I couldn't take the kids to school and then pick them up from school and kind of be a mother that they needed during this, like, very delicate time of grief and heartbreak, you know? So I was trying to piece together, like, a living with Starbucks, driving for doordash, you know, maybe waitressing on the side or whatever. But it's New York City. Like, we talked about, how expensive is New York City? So I couldn't get the math to work. And then I remember, like, I got a lot of offers from people, like, you know, with startups and whatever, and I'm like, but, you know, you can't eat equity, you know, So I needed cash money. So I'm like, what the fuck do I do now? I mean, there were days, like, I couldn't buy dinner for the kids. I couldn't afford groceries. My friends would, like, Venmo me like, a hundred dollars, and then, you know, like, to buy dinner. So what I did was I sold my wedding ring, which I didn't want to, and I had you do what you have to. Yeah, I had a little pot of money, and then I put it back into the market.
- [71:47]
Preston
You went back to investing?
- [71:49]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, and at that point, you know, I had not ever invested for income. You know, I. Yeah, like the. I never invested for income. I never that way.
- [72:06]
Preston
Probably options trades, swing trading, day trading, all.
- [72:10]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, all sorts of things.
- [72:13]
Preston
You have bigger balls than any man I've ever met.
- [72:16]
Tulin Tran
Oh, Preston.
- [72:21]
Preston
You are a fascinating person. This is really good. Like, so you sell your wedding ring, you have a small pocket of money, come from hell, like, straight out of love, like, like on the boat, overseas, like, rise all the way up to the top. Investing in startups, taking, like, massive risk, unlimited opportunity. Life gets derailed by, like, loss that. That most people don't expect to experience. Especially not like, at. At your age. Right. And at the stage of life you're in, like, that's supposed to be 40, 50 years later.
- [73:00]
Tulin Tran
Yes.
- [73:00]
Preston
Right, right. And everyone rushes for security you do the contrarian thing and you have another knowing.
- [73:11]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. Do you want to hear a story? Yeah.
- [73:17]
Preston
I'll break up four more hours for you. Let's go. This is fucking like gold. Do you have a cape on behind your shirt? Like, this is so great.
- [73:27]
Tulin Tran
So it was end of 2019, and I had resigned myself that I could not find office employment. And I wasn't gonna go work for a startup. Cause I needed cash. And so it was the end of 2019, and I saw an article on CNBC about Disney, the streaming service. And I was like, oh, wow, that's interesting. Disney has such a huge library of content and that is, you know, their own ip. So I'm like, this will be interesting. And then I was like, I bet when news of the this was on cnbc. But I was like, I bet when news of this gets out on, like, mainstream media, that Disney is launching a streaming service. Who is the king of streaming services? Netflix. Their stock was gonna take a hit because now we have this huge competitor. And then I was like, the stock is gonna take a hit, and then months later, people will see, well, Disney is just Disney. Disney's not gonna have the Ozarks. Disney's not gonna have Peaky Blinders. They're not gonna have Strangers. Netflix has. And then Netflix's stock will go back up. So then I. So that was my investment thesis. So I used this tiny pot of money and I put it into Netflix right before the lockdowns. And then, you know, you remember what happened to all of these?
- [75:16]
Preston
Yeah, I made a bunch of money on Netflix.
- [75:19]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. And that, to me, I felt was like a tap, like, from God.
- [75:24]
Preston
And I was mad that I hadn't bought more Netflix because I had a friend that basically said, you need to buy Netflix. And he was like a guy that had given me some coaching and mentorship in the past. And years later, he had a similar thesis to you that he told me. And I was like, bro, why didn't you tell me that then?
- [75:47]
Tulin Tran
Wow.
- [75:49]
Preston
So you just have this knowing that, like, this is coming out and you're.
- [75:52]
Tulin Tran
Yeah, yeah. Plus, Netflix was a company that I invested in, you know, way earlier.
- [75:57]
Preston
Yeah.
- [75:57]
Tulin Tran
So it was a company and stock that I knew.
- [76:03]
Preston
And so this is 2019, 2020 timeframe. Okay.
- [76:09]
Tulin Tran
And then so, you know, we locked down. I then leave. I left New York City also because of a knowing. I. I told the kids, like, in January when it was just like, in Wuhan, I was like, this is a big deal. China's locked down. We have to leave New York. And then my mom and all my friends were like, you're a single woman. You have three kids. Like, you're the biggest target. You know, you can't leave and go into the unknown. And I'm like, no, you don't understand. New York is going to be like a shit show like you've never seen if Covid gets discovered, like, on our shores, which I already knew was, like, there. And so we drove south to Florida and I bought, like, a camper van. And then, yeah, we saw New York City was decimated.
- [77:04]
Preston
How did you get to Austin? Because here we sit now.
- [77:07]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
- [77:08]
Preston
Four or five years later.
- [77:09]
Tulin Tran
Like, so I. It was also. I felt like a tap from God, me buying this trailer, like, in Salt Lake City before everybody decided to get into, like, van life. And then there were, like, waiting lists and everything. But I ordered it, I think, like, in also end of 2019. And so it was ready, like, early 2020. And so we left New York and drove to Salt Lake City to pick up the trailer, which I towed with my Model X, then really cut the mileage down to, like, 90. Like, 90 miles. The whole battery anyway. And so because the whole world was locked down, except for national parks, we just camped for, like, two years. Well, I'm like, I'm trading. You can't actually trade in, like, Yellowstone because there's no Internet. But yeah, mom and the kids doing van life.
- [78:10]
Preston
And probably homeschool.
- [78:12]
Tulin Tran
And homeschool. Yeah.
- [78:14]
Preston
And trading.
- [78:15]
Tulin Tran
And trading. Yeah.
- [78:18]
Preston
This is brilliant. God, I wish I had, like, three more hours for this.
- [78:22]
Tulin Tran
We'll do a part two.
- [78:23]
Preston
You have a Pillars of Investing course that I think you're. You're.
- [78:29]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [78:29]
Preston
You're looking at launching or you're. You've launched, right?
- [78:32]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. So I'm going to do it again live. It might be the last time that I do live. And what it is, is it teaches my framework of intuitive investing, like how I was able to pick winners like Amazon in 1997, Apple in 2001, Nvidia in 2002. Like, a bunch of IPOs, like Google, Chipotle, Palantir IPOs. So it's going to teach that. Netflix during COVID Netflix during COVID No, Netflix right before COVID So we're going to. We're going to start with that all the way to when to buy and when to sell. So I'm probably going to launch that near the end day, the of. Of the summer because we're. Me and the kids are doing some traveling.
- [79:22]
Preston
You're literally that rare exception to all the standard rules. Like, I'm excited about your course. I might want to take your course as well. Like, that sounds.
- [79:36]
Tulin Tran
Yeah. And send your kids. I teach a lot of kids how to invest.
- [79:41]
Preston
I think that would be something very interesting. Like, because you actually lived it. Like. Like, now you have these two exits, which I think are like. You know, it's funny. There's the analogy of the flower. Like, you know, how do you grow the most beautiful flowers? Well, you start with a seed and a pile of shit, right? And the pile of shit buries the seed. The seed is literally buried in shit. And later, six weeks later, eight weeks later, just a little water, you know, just that life fluid. You see all these beautiful ladies walking down, leaning right over 6 inches, 8 inches above a pile of shit, to smell a flower. And, like, your life, especially from, like, 2019 on, mirrors that, like, you not only traded your way back into success, but then, like, God, the universe. I call him God. I. I think uni means one. And verse is only just a single part of a song. Like, I don't want one part. I want the whole song. I want the whole songbook. But, like, God comes in and blesses you with two exits, One on a crazy investment and the other one on what sounds like a really good investment, and one where guys literally did you wrong and you still came out ahead after you didn't need it.
- [80:55]
Tulin Tran
Yeah.
- [80:56]
Preston
Wow. What a magical story. And you have a framework that you're going to teach to show people how not to need the miracle. Like, you're literally a story. Do you know what's better than a miracle?
- [81:07]
Tulin Tran
What?
- [81:07]
Preston
Not needing one. You know what's better than not needing one?
- [81:10]
Tulin Tran
What?
- [81:11]
Preston
Getting one. Anyway, it's called a blessing. And so you have. You became the miracle instead of needing one and, like, invested your way through it. And then here comes the blessing. And normally the blessings come when you don't need the miracle anymore. And it's just, like, it's this magic story, and you're going to teach it. I'm so excited for you. Thank you so much for coming on Problems to Profit. I'm excited for everybody to be able to listen to this, like, hear your story. Like, thank you for your vulnerability, by the way, and, like, hopefully learn from you in the future.
- [81:40]
Tulin Tran
Thank you, Preston.
- [81:41]
Preston
Thank you.
- [81:42]
Tulin Tran
It was so much fun.
- [81:43]
Preston
This is an honor, guys. We don't go that vulnerable, that deep, that fast with most people. What an angel who's getting angel investment, angel exits, and just an angelic story of problems. To profit that she's giving to you with ultimate vulnerability, which I think adds to the credibility she already deserves on her track record, but just the authenticity she shows. Wow. Tulan, thank you so much for coming on the show. You're amazing, and you guys have an amazing day on purpose. We'll see you next time.