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Welcome to the Level up podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey guys, welcome back to the Level up podcast. This is Paul Alex and today we have another phenomenal interview. Guys, you guys know we always drop these badass interviews every single Saturday here on the number one business podcast on Apple Podcast. Guys. Now I'm gonna be interviewing a former door to door salesman turned investor. Now this man has gone ahead and actually help scale companies to over eight figures. That's right. All right, I'm giving you guys some sauce. All right. All right, guys. So with that being said, Justin, give him the intro, brother.
A
Oh, man. What's the intro? I guess, I guess the intro is, you know, a kid that just couldn't find his place in the world, college dropout, you know, checked zero boxes in terms of what life's supposed to look like when they tell you what success looks like growing up and. Yeah, and door to door sales kind of saved my life. And then it was off to the races from there and just always had that chip on my shoulder of, you know, the, the road less traveled and being able to do things that other people just make excuses. It's pretty much what it is.
B
No, exactly. So let's start from the humble beginnings, man. Before you got into entrepreneurship, you were in door to door sales for about 10 us a little bit about that. What, what was the foundations, the core values that you learned from Door to s salesman that led you to become an investor, to lead you to become an investing in an AI company and to going ahead and scaling these other companies as well.
A
Yeah. I think you build the resilience, the, the skills that are required to go do bigger things. You know, it's like, it's easy in hindsight. A lot of the content we see on social media is people that are further along in the journey giving their Perspective at that point. Yeah, but in the beginning, you're going to have to grind something out really hard, work relentlessly hard to become the person that can even go work smarter. This whole like work smarter, not harder. Like you gotta, you gotta go hard first to even be qualified to work smarter. So I think door to door sales will teach you that more than anything else.
B
And what were you selling when you were going to door to door?
A
I sold cutlery, cookware, water systems, air purifiers, mattresses, freezers, grills, I mean, all kinds of consumer products. And it was, it was an organic food delivery company, but the appliances were where we made the margin in the business. So yeah, it was just add ons, you know, what other health products do you need in addition to the food?
B
So basically upsells that you were able to go ahead and you see an opportunity, you're like, hey, by the way, you know, let me hook you up with this. Right? No, I get it, man, that's, that's good. So go ahead. So tell us about the latest venture that you're in, dude. And I know we're going to be talking about this especially for anybody that's looking into anything related to AI. All right, this is for you. So tell me the story behind Safe Space Global, dude, and how it's pivoting from like healthcare tech to AI powered safety.
A
Yeah. So CEO and founder Scott Boroff, he's also my partner in the private side pitch Equity, that's our private equity fund. But he had, he had a vision back in 2016. He wanted to go into senior healthcare facilities and get rid of the wearables. There was a big problem with elopements. So a dementia patient, let's say, cuts off their Wander guard bracelet because they don't know why they're wearing it. They get out of the facility, get hit by a car or something and you know, a life is lost and, or you know, these senior care facilities will be extremely understaffed and maybe grandma falls, breaks her hip and nobody knows for eight hours. So the idea was we're going to use ambient technology, which is cameras, and integrate AI software that can detect a fall, or let's say use bio facial recognition to say this person should not be able to go through this door and lock it or open it because it's a nurse versus a patient. So that's what it started from. And that's why it was called Healthcare Integrated Technologies, because it was a healthcare use. And then just recently we got approved by FINRA to change the Stock symbol and the name to Safe space. Because the tech has evolved to work in so many different verticals from schools, prisons, transit authorities. Really any public space where a camera can use AI to make that space safer.
B
Yeah, no that makes sense man. So what's your guys vetting process when investing in emerging tech like safe space, ambient AI, what made this opportunity a, how you could say a level up moment for your portfolio?
A
Yeah, it's interesting. I mean for me coming into this company because I'm a capital raiser, you know, fund manager, I'm looking for competitive advantages in the safe space example. It's really the team in an early stage startup which I would still consider the company early stage, somewhat pre revenue, you know, because we're public, you know, can't tell you what will be coming out in the Q10s but at that stage you're betting on the team. And when you have people that you know were executives at Google that are leaving Google to come to the company, you know, that are have cushy seven figure jobs and they want to go to a startup that tells you something. When your CFO has gone public four times, you're your CEO has done it four times. These are people that you want to bet on. So for me having nothing to do with the fact that AI SaaS is also the best multiple you'll get in a public market?
B
Absolutely.
A
You know, everything just stars kind of aligned. So it's super new. And when you look at the development side, I mean nobody has more than 3 years experience in development with this. So it really is the wild west. It's kind of a space race with AI and I think we have the right team to win that race.
B
No, absolutely. I mean you guys look like you guys are heavily stacked man. So it's a good thing. And success loves speed. So you guys are on it. I love that. So let's talk about scale. Safe space now operates across sectors like education, transportation and prisons. Right. How do you see this diversified model helping future proof the business.
A
Future proof. Yeah, I think it's, it's the back to the space race, it's the mass adoption of this. I think there were, we won't be the only player. Securing patents is pretty important. One of the big mag sevens has already tried to buy us just based off the patent because the tech's got to be developed and there's going to be more and more tech development. So yeah, it's, it's really cutting edge stuff and, and I think there'll be a bunch of players that are doing this. Some people will dominate, you know, the auto industry, some will dominate prisons or whatever. There's plenty of space. I mean, the addressable market here is just massive. So I don't think we'll be the only ones.
B
No, absolutely. And it's just like any other industry, Right. You're always going to have competitors. People are always going to say, oh, it's already done, it's saturated. It doesn't matter when you start. But is there a certain section that you guys want to dominate?
A
Yeah, I think schools is probably the most passionate one for us. We're a Tennessee based company. Marsha Blackburn has very close ties with our president. They come from the same company where he was the CEO of that nine figure business. And we were on Capitol Hill a few weeks ago talking with Marcia and she's in charge of this safe school bill that passed. There's a ton of government funding to make schools safer. So we're leveraging those relationships. We met with Kash Patel, Dr. Oz, I mean, we're, you know, Dr. Oz, by the way, has a $2 trillion budget. It's double the the budget of the military.
B
Wow.
A
So, you know, they only solve billion dollar plus problems. We're trying to solve billion dollar plus problems or we will solve billion dollar plus problems.
B
That's what I'm talking about.
A
So, yeah, that's where we are. I think the school thing is, is also hits home for everyone. You know, if you can be the company that stopped school shootings in the United States, that would be quite the thing to put on your resume, dude.
B
It'S game changer, dude. Because, you know, I remember as a kid, you know, the first school shooting that ever happened and, you know, ever since then, how many more dozens, if not hundreds of school shootings have there been? You know, so if you guys are able to stop that problem, man, that's massive.
A
We were literally, we had our entire team at a lodge in, in the sticks of Tennessee. And the day we were driving there, there was a school shooting down the street.
B
Wow.
A
And the person who did it was in the parking lot for 16 minutes with the gun brandished. And if our AI had been on, on the facility, it would have seen it, it would have taken a video, sent it to the school resource officer. It can lock down the school before the shooter can get in. It would have never happened. So that's, I think, the immediate priority.
B
That's huge, man. I know there's going to be a lot of Americans that are going to want to invest into this, you know, as soon as it's out there in the, in the stock market, man, it's already out there.
A
It's already public.
B
Well, there you guys go. You know, if you guys are looking for a stock to invest to. Right. Okay. So Safe Space has panned it's ambient AI system. Can you break down what makes that tech so unique and valuable in today's AI gold rush? So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text, but which u do you listen to is it we could buy a house in Tulum, get optioning those options. We could lose everything. Or let's do a little research, get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more@finra.org TradeSmart yeah, the tech side's really complicated.
A
I should have the CFO or the CTO here to do that. Yeah, but we do. I didn't know this. In India, they rank all the developers from like one to the end of the thousands. It's like a competition thing. So we have, I believe it's number 34 and number 130.
B
Out of how many?
A
Hundreds of thousands.
B
That's amazing.
A
So we have two of the smartest developers in the world on the tech side. And our CTO already sold a business for a billion and a half a tech company. So he's just running his playbook again, hiring tons and tons of developers and putting it together. So yeah, they're applying for patents left and right. I can't even keep track of it because it's such a rapid acceleration of adoption with AI, it's moving so quickly.
B
Wow, that's amazing, man. So let's talk about this, man. I want to dive in a little bit more into like mindset and leadership. Okay. I'm big on that, dude. Especially coming from law enforcement. So how do you lead through uncertainty, dude? Both as an entrepreneur and an investor.
A
I've always been a lead by example type of human. I love that I shouldn't have to convince you to show up the way you should, but I would never expect you to show up in a way that I won't. So I've always led from the front. I do a whole lot more than what I say. I think it's really important. And then as you get bigger, you know there's going to be certain skill sets where you got to insert a leader to take the role of something that you just don't have the skill set on.
B
Yeah.
A
So it's a combination of leading from the front. But also knowing where you suck and putting the right person in that seat and just having no ego about it at all.
B
Brother, man, you are preaching to the choir right now, man. I mean, this is my brother from another mother. I'm just saying. I always say that. Yeah, I'm a visionary guy, man. I'm a startup guy. Other than that, I don't like management. If you were to be like, hey Paul, what about the finances? Let me hire a cfo. Let me hire somebody that has the education on that. Right? So no, I got you on that, brother. So okay, what lessons from hedge fund management? Or you can even use your experience from doing door to door sales that's helped you lead teams or build back startups like this one.
A
Number one thing I learned from door to door sales was the vehicle's everything. We had a small margin product. So in a way, the business was somewhat flawed in terms of how we could scale it because how am I going to recruit top door to door salespeople that can go to a roofing company or a solar company and make double the commissions that I can pay in the food industry?
B
Yeah, right, right.
A
So I think it was a blessing in disguise battling through how tough it was to make a very low margin business work where you could be doing 10 million in sales and barely making any money. So I took all those lessons and said, okay, what I do next is going to be monster margins, recurring revenue, right? Like we're going to do this work once and get paid forever. All the, all these different things that, that you learn for the future business that, that you're going to do. So for me it was, there's nothing better than the money world. There's no bigger margins than the capital world public markets. I mean, we just moved our, Our market cap $100 million in a week and it didn't cost very much to do it. So that's a huge change from, you know, working six months door to door, driving 50,000 miles a year to do a million in sales.
B
Path of least resistance, my friend. I love it. I love it. Okay, so let's go ahead and talk about impact, man level of podcast. It has a lot to do with self help, helping others and their mindset and impacting the world, dude, that's what it's about, right? It's entrepreneurs. What fulfills you, dude, like how you guys are trying to go ahead and, and secure all the schools in America. I, I think it's phenomenal. So let's talk about safe space now has reached in the U.S. singapore, India and Europe. Okay, the global vision for the next three to five years. What do you think and how are you structuring the leadership to meet that demand or that your team is.
A
Yeah. So we're opening up offices all over the world, and Theo Davies is leading the global expansion. He did it at Google. Nobody better to do it. So, yeah, it's just putting all the right people in the right seats, having the right products to implement and modeling things correctly where, you know, you can handle the scale. You know, fulfilling at a high level is different than small business that hits these breakpoints and the systems fail. So when you have people that have gone, you know, $2 billion unicorns before, and they know how to implement those systems, it's really, it's incredible to me to watch some of the confidence and just how simple it seems for them. And the vision is so clear because they've done it before. Yeah, it's, it's, it's hard. It's hard to explain what it's like watching this thing come together. And, you know, CEO Scott's like, yeah, you know, $10 stock price, billion dollar unicorn, three to five years max. Like, just 100% sure it's going to happen.
B
You know, it's that level of confidence, man. And I feel, you know, once you do it once, you could do it again and again and again. It's almost like when we were talking about entrepreneurs. Sometimes some entrepreneurs, they lose their shirt and then they gain it all back and then they lose it again. But they know how to gain it back. Right? So it's good, man. Skill set. I love it.
A
I used to, I used to feel bad when I would see people take big Ls until I took my first huge L. Yeah. Now it's like I wish it upon you. Like, I wish it upon all of you.
B
Yeah.
A
Like, if you haven't had that, you know, just face in your hands moment overnight, crying, not sureing if you're going to make it, if you've never been there, you're not trying hard enough.
B
Yeah.
A
And you got to go through it.
B
I'm going to tell you something, dude. And, you know, I'm pretty sure if you guys even want to see me at this state of the game, you know, this was in the very beginning when I started this podcast, dude. And in the very beginning of this podcast, it was like early 2024. I started with just the vision of going ahead and providing value. That's it, dude. I didn't want to monetize this podcast. I didn't want to do any of that. I was running three companies at the same time, hired two COOs, a CEO all at the same time, dude. I had One of the COs take six figures in cash from one of the businesses. I had the other COO almost bankrupt one of the businesses, dude, I was in like depression and I gained 40 pounds. It was crazy, right? And I remember I was interviewing somebody and I was just like, bro, you guys never want to be the founder. You guys never want to be a CEO. Stick to sales. You don't got to deal with the problems, dude. You know, you're not taking the liability. So. But with that being said, I had to go through that. I had to go through that to find myself, dude. Because if I never would have done that, number one, never would have focused on my health. Realistically, dude, I was making money and I was happy and all that. I was eating, dude, I was just like, whatever, I don't need to be fit. Yeah, dude, save my life, save my life. 42 pounds lighter now, like in six months, dude, which is amazing, right? You know, you work out, dude. So, so, you know, health is wealth, you know, it's being successful in every aspect of your life, right? Your values, what you believe in, your health, your mind, everything, dude. I'm a big believer in that. So let's talk about, continue to talk about global expansion, bro, because this is some exciting stuff. You're getting me pumped up about this. I love this. What do real world results look like, dude? For safe space, Real world results, it's.
A
Big contracts, it's, you know, getting. Because it's a per camera model, very SaaS model, you know, so, so recurring monthly.
B
Are you guys going to have it for just massive corporate accounts? Are you guys thinking of actually if you guys and Will and when you guys dominate, you know, that area? Because I don't say maybe, I say will. Are you guys thinking of actually expanding probably to like residential as well, like, you know, for, for home use?
A
Yeah, I would think so. Definitely. With the fall tech on the healthcare side, I can definitely see that being a use case for homes, not just big healthcare facilities. You know, if you've got, you know, mom and dad don't want to leave their house and you want to make them safe instead of getting them life alert, which they may or may not be wearing, you could have this tech working and then you would get a text message if something happened with a video.
B
And brother, I'm telling you, that's a billion dollar idea right there, right in.
A
That one little vertical.
B
Yeah. And just that. Hey, if you guys are watching this, don't take that idea.
A
No, good luck.
B
We got it already. Good luck.
A
You're going to be, you're going to be getting some slap with that patent law.
B
Some, some letters for me. But no, no, yeah, just that in that vertical, dude, it's, it's a game changer because I always worry about my parents. They're like in their 70s and even though you know they're very capable, there's those oopsies do where they fall and they can't get up. Right. Like in the commercials. So. So I can get a camera, get 911 on the way. Cool. Get an alert. Just like my alarm system, you know, it's a game changer. Yeah. Puts me at ease. Okay, so let's talk about capital raising and vision for Safe Space, brother. So how are you helping Safe Space structure its next capital raise or uplifting opportunity right now?
A
Yes. We wrapped up our friends and family raise. Company has no debt, didn't need to raise the money.
B
Yeah.
A
In terms of, you know, for burn rate. But when you're up listing from the pink sheets where we are now in the over the counter market, there's all these boxes you have to check to get up listed onto a NASDAQ or in New York, you know, one of the main exchanges. So one of those is you got to have a couple of years of burn rate sitting on your balance sheet. So that's why we did a funding round just to check that box and put 10 million on the balance sheet. So we didn't go to any institutions, no family offices. We've given 0 of the company to any VCs. This was all friends and family and we brought in about 10 million in three weeks.
B
That's badass. That's badass. I love that.
A
And I've raised capital for private deals now public company and some of them couldn't get a dollar in some of them. I raised 10 million like nothing. And what it taught me is that when you really do have the best deal or a great deal and it's better than everything else that's out there, the money will find it.
B
Yeah. When it's a no brainer people see it. Do you think the person that's actually going ahead and finding the investors has anything to do with it? Like the person behind the actual vehicle?
A
Of course.
B
Yeah.
A
It's like, it's like any sale, right?
B
Yeah.
A
You know, put down the sales books. You know, you don't need to Learn tie downs, word tracks, things like that. It's just maybe you do in the beginning but eventually the master salesperson is a master of authenticity and being a subject matter expert on the product. Right. You got to be able to educate to confidence that's going to get you a sale more than anything else. And then whatever those common objections as people call them, but they're really more the complaints. They're not really objections but whatever people are going to be concerned with, you get ahead of it on your terms and you diffuse it. So when you get to the end of any sales process, you should not have to close.
B
Yeah, my personal opinion, no, it should be very easy and I agree. You know, I'm a ver. I'm a very nurturing type of guy when it comes to business and at the end of the day I like to use the formula, it's called H2H. Human to human interaction, my friend. I'm old school, you know. So at the end of the day, if they like you, you're providing value and you're educating them. Oh dude, you got it in the bag all day every day. Right. And it's a no brainer, right. Which this is. I'm excited about this. So talking about excitement, what are your investors more most excited about right now?
A
I think the fact the stock has tripled in the past two weeks.
B
There we go.
A
My personal goal was we raised from about 100 private investors into safe space in January at 10 cents a share. And I wanted to make 100 millionaires off of just the stock and we did that last week. So that was a huge moment for me. You know, when people trust you and they give you their money, it's one of the most biggest responsibilities I think you can have. So to be able to provide that result. And then we blasted through a dollar and we were in the top three of overbought companies by the 14 day RSI in the world as of Monday morning. So that's just a huge testament to the team, the product, the future, the buy in and our ability to execute.
B
I love that man. I love that. So a safe space is working towards an uplifting. How do you prepare a company for that type of transformation and what does it unlock for the mission?
A
So on the way to uplist institutions can't buy your stock. Registered investment buyers, broker dealers, like there's no activity from Wall Street. It's a straight bootstrap in terms of just spreading the word. Doing media like this, it's all retail buying. So once you do get that up list and you check all those boxes and the New York says, yes, you can uplist. You ring the bell. Now it becomes a game of fundamentals. Like, now it matters in terms of your revenue, the addressable market, your recurring revenue. Like all of this modeling that goes into ultimately what the market will say is your multiple. So we, we could be as close as two, two to three months away from, from doing this. And at that point, it's going to be a game of just worldwide enablement and sales.
B
Yeah, no, absolutely, man. And I like the fact that you guys are bootstrapping it. I mean, it's family and friends that were like the investors. I think that's key, dude. Coming from somebody who bootstrapped every single company that have started in the past seven years, man. Much respect, definitely for that. So let's go ahead and talk about some great motivational aspects of you. Okay. Because this is the level up podcast. You being a door to door salesman. There's a lot of people that are aspiring to go ahead and level up in life. Okay. So from going from door to door sales to now being an investor yourself with a great AI company with a great impact and purpose like this, man. I mean, this is. This is awesome. What would you talk about? One daily habit. Okay. That you use to stay sharp and grounded.
A
For me, it's all physical. I like to break my day up into two working sessions.
B
Yeah.
A
I like to work out. Cold plunge, sauna right in the middle of the day, lunch, and then get back into another, like, work block.
B
Yeah.
A
But I'm a slave to my calendar in a good way. It's just there's so much going on. There's so many different businesses. You know, we've got a whole private equity firm separate from this that actually takes a whole lot more time than the public side. And without organization, I would just crumble. So I think if you haven't gotten to the point where you can't manage your own calendar, you need to go harder until that happens. And then, then you really realize how to gain capacity within the blocks that you have where you can do a whole lot more than you think you can. It's interesting to me that people are either struggling to do one thing or they seem to be able to do a lot of things.
B
Yeah.
A
So there's a barrier that you'll cross at some point when you get that cadence down and you can just focus on increasing capacity and efficiency.
B
I think the time blocks is key, especially in time management, because you're able to go ahead and Put a little bit of urgency behind what you're doing. Right. If you give yourself four hours to do an assignment, compared to an hour, guess what, it's going to take you four hours. Right. So it makes a lot of sense, man. I love that. What's one trend in AI or investing that people are underestimating right now, man?
A
What are we underestimating?
B
You're like, besides the company that I just told you guys about for the past 45 minutes.
A
I think right now there's a ton of negativity around investing because we just came out of the most frothy free money period, where you could invest in anything and you made ridiculous, ridiculous returns.
B
Yeah.
A
So it's kind of washed out. All the free money, all the pretenders, you even see it on social media, there's a whole lot less like, you know, invest in my coaching and 120.
B
Thank God. Thank God.
A
Yeah. So it's been interesting because all of a sudden I'm like, oh man, it's going to be harder to raise money and. And it's not. No, it's just. No, it's just, it's actually a good thing for the real operators because if you have a real deal. Yeah, you know, there's a lot of money on the sidelines. We have a, we have a record amount of money sitting in money markets making 3%, like, what is it, $7 trillion right now sitting in money markets. And I mean, I got a debt fund where I can give you 16, you know, so it's a matter of just people getting some, some confidence again and deploying capital.
B
No, absolutely. And you know, just like you said, man, it's one of those things that people are going to do business with, people that do good business. The real operators. Right. And that's what it comes down to is if you're a real operator, you have nothing to worry about. There's always money. We're always going to find solutions. So at the end of the day, I love that you said that, brother. So what advice would you give to one of our listeners or viewers who wants to break into high level investing or future tech but doesn't know where to start? What would you recommend?
A
So the first, first thing I see is when people start making money, they get their first five grand, ten grand in the bank account. Now they want to go be an investor. And I was guilty of this, right?
B
I was.
A
Now I put like $500 in a stock and I'm watching it all day instead of focusing on the thing that got me the 500 to begin with.
B
Yeah.
A
Right. So you got to really look at this realistically and say, okay, maybe I got 50 grand. Well, if I get a home run and I double it Now I got 100, like, is that going to retire you? Absolutely not. Right. So I think the longer you can wait in terms of focusing on the main thing and the earning capacity before going to be an investor, the bigger you'll be able to go in investing.
B
Yeah.
A
So I just think people dilute themselves way too early and they start dollar cost averaging into crypto and like $100 increments. It's just like. Yeah, you're training your mind that $100 is worth investing. It should just sit in cash until you have at least six figures to deploy. And I think the benchmark here is the accredited investor guidelines. So if you are not an accredited investor, to me, if you want to play at higher levels, you're not qualified to be an investor yet. So you should just sit in cash or reinvest your cash into things like skill sets or your marketing. Whatever's going to make you earn at a higher capacity. That's what you have to invest in before even thinking about being an investor.
B
Yeah. So AKA start your own business, possibly start something that's going to generate you cash flow. Right, Cash flow, guys. So you get enough cash flow, you have enough to play with, go ahead and invest instead of gambling that money. So with that being said, this is the level of podcast, and we go deep into people's whys. So what is your why?
A
You know, the why has been a tough thing for me to figure out over time. I just know that I got to go and keep going for it, and eventually I'll really figure out the ultimate why. But I think for me, it's been different at every level. Like when we were doing Heartland Foods, it was all about getting junk out of people's houses, teaching them how to eat, giving them access to a source of food that was good for their family.
B
Yeah.
A
And then we. We did, you know, meal matches with Feeding America. We fed millions of people, you know, from the charity side. So that was really rewarding. It's different. And then you start to realize, okay, if I really want to make a big impact on the world, the worst thing I could do is go volunteer my time.
B
Yeah.
A
The best thing I could do is get stupid filthy rich and use that capital to do good in the world.
B
Right.
A
You know, the people who make the biggest impact have the most dollars to put behind it.
B
Resources, man. All day Every day. You can't do nothing if you don't have the options, right? Yeah, yeah.
A
So I'm focusing on that now and I'm like, okay, when, when I come back into like whatever's the next thing, you know, obviously saving lives and safe space is a huge mission. We're going to do that regardless. But with my personal wealth, I'm still kind of searching for what I want to do with it.
B
Yeah, no, and that's good, man. I mean, to me, fulfillment's everything, dude. And if I can help other people accomplish their goals, their dreams, dude, that makes me happy. You know, I'm a startup guy, so at the end of the day, I like taking ideas, making it happen and then on to the next. Right. So that's great, man. So anything you want to leave as far as words of motivation, encouragement to our audience that's watching right now. You have a very compelling story, dude. I love it. The fact that you were able to go from door to door sales to now being an investor, especially with a company just like safe Space. And I think it's going to change the world, dude, to be honest, because you guys have the right goal in mind of actually helping people. That's what it's about. So where can people find you?
A
And I'm everywhere, in every social media. There's only one of me in the world with my crazy last name. So it's at Justin Freistad. It's F R E I S H T A T. I love it.
B
I love it. And guys, there you go. An amazing interview with Justin. Now, guys, if you guys are looking to go ahead and investing with his company Safe Space, go ahead and make sure to shoot Justin a message on Instagram. Make sure to follow him on all socials. Guys, my name is Paul Alex. This is the Level podcast. Make sure to leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Guys, we are ranked number one in business and Apple Podcasts and ranked top 25 in all categories. Thanks to you guys, we'll catch you on the next episode. Don't forget to level. Thanks for listening up to the Level up podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.
Podcast Summary – The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
Episode: The Investor Betting on AI to Protect Students in Schools – Justin Freishtat Explains
Date: August 31, 2025
Guest: Justin Freishtat, Investor and Capital Raiser
Host: Paul Alex Espinoza
This episode explores the transformative role of AI in school safety and public security through the entrepreneurial journey of Justin Freishtat. From humble beginnings in door-to-door sales to investing in Safe Space Global, an AI-driven safety company, Justin shares insights on resilience, scaling startups, the future of AI in public sectors, and strategic capital raising.
The conversation delves deep into leadership, overcoming setbacks, navigating uncertainty, and maintaining a mission-oriented mindset while achieving massive business success.
“You gotta go hard first to even be qualified to work smarter. So I think door to door sales will teach you that more than anything else.” (Justin, 02:12)
“The tech has evolved to work in so many different verticals from schools, prisons, transit authorities. Really any public space where a camera can use AI to make that space safer.” (Justin, 04:23)
“If you can be the company that stopped school shootings in the United States, that would be quite the thing to put on your resume, dude.” (Justin, 08:24)
“You're betting on the team. And when you have people that you know were executives at Google...have cushy seven figure jobs and they want to go to a startup, that tells you something.” (Justin, 05:25)
“The vision is so clear because they've done it before...$10 stock price, billion dollar unicorn, three to five years max.” (Justin, 15:07)
“We've given 0 of the company to any VCs. This was all friends and family and we brought in about 10 million in three weeks.” (Justin, 20:32)
“My personal goal was...make 100 millionaires off of just the stock and we did that last week.” (Justin, 22:46)
“I'm a slave to my calendar in a good way. It's just there's so much going on. Without organization, I would just crumble.” (Justin, 25:33)
“Now it's like I wish it upon you. Like, I wish it upon all of you...if you've never been there, you're not trying hard enough.” (Justin, 16:05)
“If you are not an accredited investor, to me, if you want to play at higher levels, you're not qualified to be an investor yet...invest in skill sets or your marketing.” (Justin, 28:49)
“The master salesperson is a master of authenticity and being a subject matter expert on the product.” (Justin, 21:30)
“The best thing I could do is get stupid filthy rich and use that capital to do good in the world.” (Justin, 30:34)
“You gotta go hard first to even be qualified to work smarter.” (Justin, 02:12)
“If you can be the company that stopped school shootings...that would be quite the thing to put on your resume, dude.” (Justin, 08:24)
“When you have people that have gone, you know, $2 billion unicorns before...the vision is so clear because they've done it before.” (Justin, 14:49)
“If you've never been there, you're not trying hard enough.” (Justin, 16:05)
“The master salesperson is a master of authenticity and being a subject matter expert.” (Justin, 21:30)
“The best thing I could do is get stupid filthy rich and use that capital to do good in the world.” (Justin, 30:34)
The episode is authentic, energetic, and purpose-driven, with both host and guest sharing hard-won truths, practical strategies, and a shared appetite for mission-driven business. Both remain candid about the pain points and fulfillment of entrepreneurship at high levels.
For listeners:
If you want to understand how AI is reshaping public safety, how to vet and scale tech startups, or how to align big business with big purpose, this episode gives rich, actionable insights — and a shot of real-world motivation.