Transcript of Teen App Millionaire to Saks to Building the Anti-TikTok | Coffeez Ep. 313

1, 2, 3!

Hi! Welcome!

Thank you, thank you.

My name is Alyssa.

Radimus.

Radimus, so happy to have you. Welcome to Coffee with Joe Shalaby.

Excited.

Do you like chocolate by any chance?

I love chocolate. Tell me you have some chocolate back there.

I have so much chocolate for you. I want you to choose.

Oh, it's right here. It's right here, please. What's your pick? I gotta go with green. I gotta go with green.

It's my favorite color.

Green. Awesome. Great choice. My favorite color too. Yeah. I want you to take a bite of it. Okay. And I'm gonna take your order as well. So what can I get you today?

I'm particular, so hopefully you have it back there.

Okay. What do you want?

I want a white chocolate mocha.

White chocolate mocha?

Yeah. With some oat milk in it.

Oat milk. I got you. I got you. While you're taking a bite of that, I'm gonna get that ready for you. Okay. So where are you coming from right now?

So I'm staying not too far. From here. I think it's an area called like, I don't know, Casa Mesa.

Casa Mesa. Is it wrong? Costa Mesa.

Costa Mesa. I'm still stuck in Puerto Rico. You got to bear with me.

You got to bear with me. That's okay. Well, I'm going to take you over to go lunch and come back. Can I finish this? Absolutely.

It's amazing.

Great. I'm so happy to hear that. Joe, we have Radimich in the house.

Radimich.

I got chocolate all over my hand, bro. Look, that's all, that's all.

Plus the jacket is—

I know, I know, bro. Look pristine.

Look pristine.

I'll be back.

What's up, everyone?

Welcome to Welcome to another episode of Kofees. I'm your host, Joe Shelby, and today we're sitting down with Radames Ramirez, a young tech founder who started his first company at just 14 years of age, who served millions of people. He now works with some of the biggest companies on the planet in over 150 companies, continues to dominate in every industry he touches. Please welcome the one, the only, Radames Ramirez.

Thank you, Joe. Thank you. I'm really, really happy to be here, man. It's an honor. Truly, truly.

Absolutely. Thanks for flying in from Puerto Rico. How was your flight down?

Easy, man. Easy. You know, I was excited to come here, feel the Cali air. So light, light flight. But, you know, how many hours? It was 9 hours, actually, because I had to fly into Miami and then I had to fly here. There's no directs. No direct from Puerto Rico. No directs.

So sorry, man.

Yeah. Yeah.

So you got up early today then?

Yeah, I got up. Well, I got up early today. I had some calls in the morning, but I flew in yesterday. So just so I can get ahead of everything, like to be like very methodical, very like precise about how I do my schedule. So, you know, feels good, like energized, ready, you know what I mean?

Let's go, baby.

Yeah.

So let's get into it. Rodimus, what's your morning routine?

My morning routine, I do not dunk it inside of ice in a bowl, I'll tell you that. But I do spend a lot of time making sure that I, I think for me, making sure that I have time to start the day. Super important, right? I think like waking up where you just have to go right out the door or just have to do anything is a little bit of, uh, causes a little bit of anxiety. I think a lot of people don't realize that. So for me, I like to make sure I got an hour. I spend like 10, 15 minutes meditating, just being still, calm thoughts, and do some skincare and cook some breakfast. And, you know, depending, I also like during that time, no phone for the first hour.

No phone.

No phone. I mean, how many— you look at your phone, right? And you're just bombarded with all kinds of things. Emails here, socials, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, right? And before you know it, you already downloaded so many, so many other people's thoughts. You don't have time for your own in the morning.

Yeah.

So you clear that 1 hour and then once you're ready, look at the phone.

Then everyone's thoughts come in your head.

There you go.

All right. Well, you know, you have quite the interesting story. I mean, just looking you up, I'm I'm shocked with what you've done. You've done a lot at a young age. You've really overcome a lot of tribulation, and your mindset now is really like trying to maintain and preserve your roots, which is really admirable. So we'll get into it. You know, you started— let's talk about your first company. You started 14 years old, man. That is like crazy. And yet millions of users. Yeah, that's insane. So let's chat about that. What was your first company? And how did you get such widespread adoption at that young of an age? I mean, what kid— you didn't even have marketing talent.

Yeah, honestly, it's funny. So 14 years old, I've always been curious. I think one of the biggest themes that have kind of walked through all my life is just innate sense of wonder, wondering why my hand doesn't go through the table, wondering why computers go whizzing and whirling, wondering these things and trying to find out why that is. I remember when I was 14, I got my first Android device. My mom had finally got it for me and it was hideous. The operating system was ugly. I didn't like how the keyboard looked. And I'm like, this keyboard is very ugly. I need to change it. So I just sat in my room for a couple of days and I pulled the app, the default app from the phone, and I reverse engineered it and I created my own version. Of the keyboard so I can change it into any color I want. I can add patterns, I can do all of this. So that's how it kind of started.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then how— so you built this app?

Yeah.

And then how did you get on the App Store?

So it's funny how it actually worked out. So I'm, you know, 14, right? So I'm in the room doing that. I'm running out. I run downstairs. I'm like, Mom, check this out. Like that ugly keyboard gone. Look at this. She's like, She's like, whoa, this is really cool. I'm like, I know, right? I'm like, I don't have to look at it again. Like, your money's saved. So she starts chuckling and she's like, you need to sell this. And I'm like thinking about it for a second and I'm like, wait a second, I do need to sell this. There's tons, there's millions of people and they all like different things. Pinks, blue, cheetah. I'll be right back. Fly upstairs. I don't come down for 2 weeks. I finish all the apps and I do all the research. How do I get on the App Store? What does the App Store need? It was back and forth. I needed to learn all these things to be like an official application. Now that I think about it, I guess they were fine with me being like 14, or maybe I lied. I have no, I don't remember, but I got on there and I launched the app and it was like overnight.

I guess it was just one of these things that everybody felt at the time no one had made a solution. So downloads were just going crazy and I put it up for $0.99 initially and it was just out of this world. I couldn't even believe what was happening, you know? It's right at the end of '14 going into '15. So I'm in high school and yeah, it was crazy time for that.

Yeah. So you built an app that you needed. You loaded the app on the App Store. It didn't need marketing. It's like people come up with apps all the time and the App Store is just full of apps. Like, how did people know to use that app?

So what I did was at the time was, at the time you could kind of label the app. Whatever the category was, right? And the customization category at the time on the, I don't, they weren't, they didn't call it Google Play Store at the time, right? So at that time it was very thin. It was like you had really dumb stuff like widgets and it didn't exist. There was no other person creating an app that allows you to change your keyboard. So it really was just that. I didn't, that's why I was just like so confused because I woke up to it because I was like, okay, I know I want this. I know I need this. Put it on the categories, flew up within them. Within 3 or 4 days, I'm in number 1 in customization, number 1 in themes and personalizations. And then I'm making more, I'm spitting them out. I end up hiring a couple friends. They start devving, they work for me now. I have my first 2 employees at 15. Yeah, it's crazy.

You had a startup at 15 years old, man. That's— you're the first person I've ever met that's done that. I mean, like, that's pretty impressive, you know?

Like, thanks, man. Thank you. It's, it's It's very dear to my heart that starts my whole career, especially because, you know, it resulted in me saving our home.

And your family was going into foreclosure at the time?

Yeah. And they weren't like transparent with me about it, right? They wanted to shield me from the stress and they wanted to make sure that I was focused on school. But When the money started coming in, you know, my mom had talked with me and she's like, hey, like, you know, it would be really nice if you could help out, you know, that kind of stuff. Still not really giving me all the things about what's going on, but I'm like, sure, no problem. And then I started thinking, I'm like, why is the house always so cold? We couldn't afford oil. Why is this? And I started putting all the pieces together. And then, yeah, our lives just changed dramatically and just a short span of a few weeks. So we were able to fight off the foreclosure and live a little better.

That's unbelievable. Like you helped your parents. I mean, I hope I get kids like that. I mean, my, my, my kids aren't developing no apps now.

I know. Well, hey, you listen, if I had AI when I was a kid, could you imagine what I would be able to build? So I'm sure they're gonna be able to be into something and look who's their dad.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

Hopefully. I mean, that, that's just unbelievable. That's so cool, man.

Thank you, man.

Thank you. Your parents must be really proud.

They are.

Now, what do you think is harder to build right now for you? Is it, is it a great product or a great company?

I think that in the day and age that we are in, you can build anything. But do you have taste? I think that's the biggest— like, that's the line. You can build anything, but do you have taste? And the taste aspect is, is really going to allow you to get this distribution, be different, stand out. Get those users, get the people to come to your restaurant, whatever that is. So I think right now it's a little bit more difficult when you have more people pushing out more applications 'cause AI allows anybody to build anything, even if the application's not good underneath, you can just talk to Claude Code, you can do all these things now. So in a never endless stream of slop that we have, specifically in the tech world, you know, I think it's now more than ever, taste is the big distinguisher between success and failure.

Now, you know, right now, what's one technology that you think people are really like overestimating?

I think AI. I think as someone who's been in technology for so long, I see what AI is doing to the world. And I think—

what do you see?

I see that it's kind of cannibalizing. Certain companies are spending more money on AI than they are employees, thinking that they're optimizing something when they're not.

There was a study that came out that said that, you know, CEOs are paying more for AI than the employee itself. Right. Actually, there are deficits, like double what an employee would cost.

100%. 100%. And I think that's mostly an organizational error. What I mean by that mostly is that people think it's like you have this super powerful sword that can cut anything in any material and you just hand it to a 5-year-old, right? They're swinging it around, knocking buildings down. You're like, whoa, calm down, right? That's where we are. We need to harness that power in a way that makes the most sense. Like, this is how you use the tool properly so you're not, you know, causing a lot of damage. So, you know, I see the tool being kind of a double edge, and I think more people need to understand that AI is also trained to please you. So you use this thing, you're thinking you're in God mode. You're like, man, this app's gonna change the world. It's like, yeah, you just did all this neural network. They're just giving you jargon 'cause you wanna feel like you're the best tech guy in the world. When in the end everything's broken, it's not really set up, you know? And this is what these organizations face because they're just spitting, they're just using all these tokens, right?

And the company's just paying for it, paying for it, paying for it, paying for it. So I think that there's gonna be a lot of opportunity for individuals who are training, real humans how to be AI augmented. It's a difference between using AI and being AI augmented. One is gonna flee, the other one's gonna thrive.

Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. It's a crazy world. Now you're developing your next, it's a next company or next app or it's kind of, it's—

Yeah.

Tell me about the next company you're starting right now.

So right now what I'm doing is it's called, it's my name, it's called Ralam Studios. And it's a creation studio. And if you look at my life and my career, I've built across every vertical you could think of. And I like to call myself a synthesist. So, you know, it doesn't matter if it's a brand, a product, or technology, I can create it. So the studio is now a testament to the exact thing I just said. How do you build with taste in the digital age? And what does that mean? For organizations, entrepreneurs, startups, anything, the mom-and-pop shop. So the studio's now open and I'm really excited. You know, I've worked, I'm already working with really, really awesome companies across, again, different verticals. So that's what the current thing is. But we can get into VALA too, the app that I launched this year as well.

Yeah. So what's that app?

So it's called VALA, V-A-L-A. And it's a new social experience. So it is a social media application with shorts on it. So short.

So it's like a YouTube or a—

Yeah, it's like a, it's like a, it's like a Reels meets TikTok meets kind of a new experience. There's a lot of different features on there that don't exist.

Is it live?

It's live. Yeah. You can go—

How many users do you have on it?

So right now we just crossed over 10,000. So we just crossed over 10,000. And they're global, right? So that's one thing that's really interesting is like they're completely all over the world. It's really interesting to see.

And how are you gaining market share versus like why would people go on your platform or stay on TikTok? I mean, you saw a lot of companies try to launch, like Bluesky tried to launch. Sure, sure. Didn't have a— it's hard to gain market share in social because attention is hard to grab.

Yeah, I see that. So we launched the second version of the application this year. There was a first V1 that was a slight different product. It was more financial focused. We have a lot of the digital payment rails already done inside the app. So we completely kind of revolutionized how you cross-section content and monetization across borders.

Is that kind of like a WeChat in China?

Well, no, not really. 'Cause I mean, WeChat, In the sense of that they've figured out how to monetize social rails, yes. In the sense that it's not really kind of like a video-based social app, no. But you asked an important question, which is the distinction between what I've built and what's out there. So I built this AI-based algorithm and it's called Vision and it uses the best technology when it comes to video understanding. So I basically created an algorithm that understands vibe. And that's a really important distinction because vibe— what is your intention of posting? Your intention? I want to flex. I want to inform. I want to promote. I know all that. What is the emotion in the video? What's in the video? What objects are in the video? Where does it go from left to right? 30 different languages are supported. And this has surfaced some really interesting things where we're moving into something called Vibe Lock. So it's like your vibe. Yeah, like your vibe.

Isn't Instagram doing that?

They do a por— okay, so they do a portion of it, but the problem is Instagram has advertisers to answer to, and advertisers want engagement that isn't necessarily in your best interest. Right? The whole thing is we want you to feel better, not bitter. And we have the capabilities. If you saw some of the toggles that I have, I wanna know what Instagram has. They're not gonna surface it though. Any of their algorithm customization stuff has only been surfaced so that they can appease the European government and stuff like that. All of these organizations that are like, we need you to be more transparent. And they're like, fine, I'll add a slider that says don't show me this. But they have all of it, right? And we're not really optimizing all of the algorithms and engagement for you to just click or rage. We want you to resonate with the content, right? And that's, that's what is the most important for us. So, you know, that, that concept is interesting. It's why I'm also here, amongst other things, is the concept of how do you get people to, to feel this new experience of content that understands you?

That's not just, I like the Ferrari, I'm going to show you Ferrari content, you know?

Yeah. So it's understanding vibe, but I feel like that's what like the algorithm is. It's like understanding the person who's scrolling?

I think when you think about traditional algorithms, when it's understanding the person who's scrolling, I think let's talk about texture. So let's say you have this musician in Portugal and this musician makes reggaetón, so Latin genre, right? And they have a certain aesthetic that they are consistently using. They wear a lot of neon green and all this stuff.

right?

And they start posting their videos, right? You'll have Instagram, it's going to go to the most basic things. What does it sound like? Okay, we're going to put it in the same bucket as like reggaetón music, right? But what if it's, what if his video gets served to some people in Japan and they're on the same wave? They wear like red neon colors and they're also making that music, but they're both not Latin, right? And it combines them and it shows them the videos to each other. So you get this really interesting mix of allowing content to flow cross-border where it's not just based on hashtags and based on rudimentary stuff. But I will be honest, like, you know, Instagram and TikTok have been getting, been getting really like up with their, with their AI integrations and stuff like that. So we'll see what they do. But, you know, really proud of it. Really proud of it.

Do you, do you think they're a threat to what you're building?

I don't necessarily see it as a threat 'cause I think I'm seeing Valla like transforming into a more curated social experience where people who really want individuals to resonate with them, they'll go there versus people who are like, I want you to show this as much people as possible. It doesn't matter what they're gonna say, if they resonate, I just want the views. So that's my thesis and my theory. And you know, I—

But like there is no big creators, like you don't have any big, influencers on there yet?

No, no big influencers, just a lot of micro-influencers and stuff like that. Like, we're very, we're very early in the stage of how we want to kind of roll out, you know, and we're also in a chicken and egg problem, right? We want big influencers, we need people who are on the app. We want people on the app, we need big influencers.

Listen, I'm a big influencer, I'll go on your app, you know, just drive me viewership.

Okay, I'll verify you. I know a guy.

You have blue checkmarks there too, huh?

Yeah, we got some blue checkmarks. Yeah, sounds good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, I said, let me know if you need help with that. I got you.

I love that. We're going to connect on that.

Let's do it.

Yeah. Like when you're 14, you're trying to figure out life. So, um, what first pulled you into coding at 14?

Uh, that's a great question actually. So the first like interaction I had with like computing was I was around, I think I was like 9. My mom comes home with this big old box. I'm like, what is that? She unopens it up. It's like this large of a screen, you know what I mean? Like this big. I'm like, she's like, it's, you know, a computer. I'm like, oh, I've seen this at school. She's like, yeah, we have one now. And I'm like, this is crazy. I'm like, I'm instantly just, I couldn't believe this.

Mind blown.

I'm like, wait a second. You tell me this magic box allows me to like press buttons and I can get information that's not from a book. So I just spent so much time. I just, I broke the computer like maybe, I don't even know, 10 times. And it was honestly because I needed to know how it worked. That's how I always worked. It was like I needed to understand like, what are applications? What makes it open? How does it know what to do? What language is it speaking? How does it know where it needs to do or how, you know? So that was where I first started. And then I translated around before I was doing the apps, I was creating like scripts and stuff. I started like scripting, doing like a little scripts here and there, that kind of thing. And I started like selling little software packets on floppy disks to students. Right. And that's like how it just started. So natural progression of being like, okay, what's the next step after? Like, you know, I'm like floppy disk, like, yo bro, you need something here. But Yeah, that's how it really started.

And then my curiosity just got the best of me. And my father, my mom, they really supported it. They, you know, they would rather me— I was inside all the time. I'm like nerding out on the computer all the time. They'd rather that than me be in the streets or anything like that. And I grew up in the South Bronx to two 15-year-olds. They were kids themselves, right? So for them, me being inside—

Your parents were young when they had you?

15. 15 years old.

They were children and they, you know, your parents are 55 right now or 57?

They're 50, 50, 50, 50, 40, 49.

That's crazy.

49. It's great. It's kind of wild when you think about it, right? Yeah.

No, I'm 44. Yeah, that's nice.

That's very cool. I have a really good relationship with them, especially.

Oh shit. Yeah, I mean, they're like your friends.

Yeah, they are, they are.

They got friends, all of them.

I do.

I actually have friends who are older than them. Like, it's crazy. It's really crazy. So, yeah. So, yeah, young parents. And they just watered me. They really watered me. And they made sure that they saw this kid who just had an appetite for the wonder and wanted to feed it. So they kept allowing me to be on the computer.

You were like a wonder kid, bro.

Yeah, I mean, I guess.

Now what, looking back, like what advantage did starting so young give you that, you know, now you're, now you're using it in your later life?

So this is a great question actually. And it, it comes, it comes actually right around the same time of, of the, the PopFizz company, the, the first company I started. I realized how ruthless the world can be in business, right?

At that young?

At that young. And I'll tell you what happened. I won't put the company on blast here, but maybe someday I will. But right now, so basically sales are going crazy. So what ended up happening was I started to realize, okay, I want to continue to expand. So I made different versions of the app and then I decided to release, I decided to release 2 or 3 free ones so that they could funnel into my paid ones. Right. I was like, let them go for free. They're the worst ones. Like, I'll have them funnel in. And that was a hit. That was a hit. It was like millions and millions and millions of downloads. It was insane. So I get approached by this company. They made one of the most popular mobile games like in history. But at the time they approached me and they're like, hey, we wanna buy the company for a quarter million dollars. I'm 15. I'm like, that's not even like, I'm— I make more than that in a year. Why would I sell you this company? You're not even giving me a multiple.

And they're like, 15.

Yeah.

And they knew I was young. It was, it was really weird. I didn't know how they would know that I was young because I didn't— unless they like investigated me and found like, you know, my Facebook or something at the time, maybe. Probably that. But I was like, you're not giving me multiples. You got to give me at least 3 times multiple, bro. Come on, talk to me nice. They're like, silence. So I'm like, okay, maybe one day or whatever. Doesn't mind. I wake up one morning and using my ritual at that time, like wake up, okay, how much money did I make? I look at it, sales are like half. I'm like, what is going on? Go on the market looking at what's going on. That same company instead spent a bunch of money and they cloned all my apps. And they released them all for free. So that was the weirdest, my heart drops. I'm clicking around and I'm like, they can't do this. So what I do, the same thing I did when I first made the app, I went, I downloaded a bunch of their apps. I looked at the source code, I decompiled them to see if they had any of my code.

'Cause if it did, I was gonna sue them. It didn't. They just, that's the thing with software too. You don't own an idea with software. Like you own how it works, you don't own what it does. That was my first like, they can't do this. I'm the one who created this, right? But then at the end of the day, no, it was all illegal. So that was a tumble. Everything fell. It fell rapidly. I'm talking about in 3 weeks, all the money was gone, dried up. They weren't buying. They weren't buying because, because remember, I was dominating. I was the only one. Now they go into that same category that I'm dominating. And then you see You see my app that's free, or you see my app that's paid, and then you see a clone that basically does the same thing and it's free. You're gonna buy the free one. But here's what I didn't realize was I missed the mark on the fact that I had built a gigantic distribution engine and I only used it to funnel to my own apps. That's what they wanted. They wanted all those millions of downloads to funnel to whatever else they wanted to funnel to.

So while I had a big mind on it, I was also very close-minded on it. And that was a big moment for me when it— you can't get too comfortable when you find success. You gotta make sure you're building your moat. You gotta make sure you're understanding the climate. You gotta make sure that when you have sharks in the water and they like what they smell, you better start preparing. However that may look for you, you gotta start preparing for that. So that was a huge wake-up call in that early stage. There's many more down the career, but that was a big point when it really was like, oh, like it's rough out here. Like success, I think that's where a lot of people mess up. They find success and they take their foot off the gas. They're like, oh, I made it. I'm it. That's it. Woo, hallelujah. Then again, sharks, blood in the water. They get replicated, they get copied, they get all these other things. You know, we could get into the topics of the, when I was creating physical products. So I had a company that was creating physical products really early, 2015-ish.

I was designing like fitness equipment and a whole bunch of stuff, importing them, getting, I was really early to Amazon, Fulfillment by Amazon, the Prime badge, all that stuff. And that world also was the same thing. Sharks in the water. I dealt with so many patent things, you know, patent lawsuits and fights, it's all kind of stuff. Yeah, the world is crazy when you find the success. I think, you know, that's the biggest thing I could say for a lot of people. Be ready before you need to be ready.

You know, that is a crazy story.

Yeah.

I mean, I mean, was it League of Legends? I'm just kidding.

One day, one day I'll shout them out, but I don't need them to be my enemies right now. Again, you know.

No, no, you don't need them to be an enemy right now. They're probably much richer than you too.

Yeah, exactly.

And you don't want that drama.

No, no. I like to know who my enemies are. And that's a big thing too. A lot of people don't— you don't want to make enemies that you don't know.

Yeah.

You know, now as your career grew, you realize people, you know, they don't fall in love with your— with products. They fall in love with, with how those products make them feel.

Right.

Right. Now, what separates brands like Cartier from everyone else? Because you've worked with these brands.

Yeah.

And do you continue to work with these brands?

No, I haven't. I haven't worked with them for a couple of years now. Is that why you have this immense sense of style, by the way? Um, I— well, I actually did. I have a fashion line that I'm launching in, uh, less than a year.

Is that your own clothes?

Uh, it is actually. Yeah, yeah, these are, these are mine. It's all mine. Yeah, thank you, thank you. Appreciate it, really. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's all, it's all, um, very—

it's, um, what fashion line is it?

What's it called? Yeah, my name, Radimus.

Yeah, it's a cool name too.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah. That's awesome. So thank you. So, yeah, it's, you know, I got sidetracked there, but—

Are you the actual designer?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm the actual designer. And it's just— yeah, I know, right? I met some guy who designed— I was in Portugal. I met this guy. He, like, started a small boutique watch company and he just reminded me about that contact. I should probably figure that out. But yeah, but yeah. Uh, he was only doing just men's, but it's always— oh, Mylan. Oh, it's unisex. Yeah, it's unisex. So the whole point of it is to— it's a resort wear, a luxury resort wear, but conscious. So everything is like sustainable, all natural, um, talking about linens, bamboos, uh, fabrics, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. The hand tag, when you take the hand tag off, you can put in soil and it'll grow a plant. Yeah, it's really cool. So that's all in motion right now and I'm excited. That was born actually from me just traveling the world. It started on the beach in Aruba. I was like, I wanted the clothes that were in my head and I was looking for them and I'm like, why? Everything was like generic, like, you know, like generic Tommy Bahama like stuff. I was like, I want to look good and feel good.

And like, where's the island version of Hermès meets Versace? I need that. So yeah, that's what I'm doing. Yeah, exactly.

I was talking to a kid who was like, I want to make really high-end like athletic gear, like, like Hermès status workout clothes. Yeah. Why? Yeah. He's like, because really rich people pay for it.

It's true. It's true. They do. They do. And we— to circle back onto the point of how we even got on this, because the fashion lines, the fashion line shares the same ethos. It's what do you feel when you interact with the world that I designed? And that means anything from application interface to linens on your chest.

Yeah.

To a drink that's going down your esophagus. What do you feel? And that is the essence of building something that lasts or really, you know, just understanding that concept is how you build really, really big products and working with, you know, Balenciaga, Tom Ford, Gucci, The list goes on. Being in those rooms with those guys and the designers and translating their clothing, their brand into a digital experience early on in my career really allowed me to build that sense of understanding what it takes for you to feel like this website is too expensive for you to even keep scrolling, you know? So, yeah.

Wow. So who was the big— like, what'd you do for these designers?

Like, so what I was, what I was doing was I was— this is— it was actually interesting how I continued to get pulled into the rooms. So what happened was I was actually hired, uh, there was a lull in my career, like after the, the apps went kaput. I went— I was like frozen yogurt. Um, by the way, I, I, I I watched the podcast, your podcast episode where we both got fired for that extra scoop. It's gotta be like that.

Did you work there?

No, I didn't work there, but I worked at an ice cream shop and bro, yes, I'm giving you that extra scoop, bro. What's the big deal? So it's the rite of passage for us to be here. I guess you gotta like give away. That's the lesson. You gotta put the extra scoop if you wanna be in a podcast like this.

Yeah.

That's just, that's love from the heart though.

Yeah, yeah.

You give from the heart. It's like, that's all you got.

That's all you got right now.

I'm offering you this extra scoop.

I'm broke, I'm 14. Yeah, I'm broke, bro. This is what I got. So yeah, just the ice cream. So it was interesting how it started. So I got it. I remember just at that point I'm like in a low, like I was like, imagine just hitting that peak like so early in your life. You're like, I'm going only straight up. Like, this is crazy. No. And then I was just working like whatever jobs I could get. And eventually the career led to me getting into web development. And one thing led to another and I got a job at Saks Fifth Avenue. If you're not familiar, if anyone's not familiar, they're a luxury department store. They hold everything, every big luxury brand. And that was like a big deal for me because I was 19 and I got hired there. I was the youngest person in the company ever at the time. and I got hired there and I was really excited. And when I started off, it was kind of just like, hey, we just need you to like build this thing. And I'm like, okay. But for me, I've always, you know, lived my life with seeds.

What does that mean? Like, I love to throw little seeds because they're so low, like friction, where if the seed dies, it's not a big deal. At least I try to throw it. But if it starts growing and planting—

Do you really throw seeds? Like physical seeds? No, I plant seeds everywhere I go metaphorically.

No, no. Like I would say I am a plant poppy. I have like 27 plants to my house, but I don't throw seeds, I tend to them. But yeah, you know, that's how it happened. And it's just like, I'm in the rooms and I start talking to my boss. I'm like, we shouldn't do like this, we should do it like this. And he's like, no, they want these. I'm like, I think this is better. And he's like, okay, you know, let's go, let's come pitch it. So this is like the first time they're walking me up to the VPs. Like, I'm like walking up, I'm like 19-year-old kid. And they kind of get in the room and I think at that time it was Alexander Wang team and they're like, Radimus has a suggestion. And I'm like, hey guys, like, I don't think we should be having this underneath the fold. We should move this over here. Like, you really want to sell this product this way, you know, we should do it like this. Like, I really think it's going to increase conversions. And one of the cool things about that job at the time was like they gave me full data, so I knew how much money was being made on the web pages or web experiences that I was creating for these companies.

So anyways, they took the advice. They made like a mil, 2 mil more than when they dropped it. At that point they were like, we need Radimich in the room. We always need Radimich in the room. So then boom, I started work. Then I sort of started— I got to work with all the bigger ones. Balenciaga, everyone was just like, You know, he's coming in the room, he's coming in the room. And I just became this translator of taste from luxury houses into digital experiences and understanding more and more, trusting my intuition a lot more, trusting, trusting myself to, you know, kick that door down and say, I believe you're doing it wrong, or we should do it this way, or I love this, actually keep it just like that. Don't change it. So that's what really started me working with these, like, luxury houses and going from just being the guy who's just a code monkey in the corner to getting respect on, you know, how the experience was going to land. So that was really, really fun, really fun experience. I really look back on that time fondly. You know, that's when I really started making big investments too into like what I believe was the next leg of civilization infrastructure.

What's the next leg of civilization infrastructure?

I think that, yeah, so the next leg of, uh, like civilization infrastructure is, uh, for me is how you have AI interact with the physical world, right? Because right now it's—

how do you envision that?

I— the first, the first thing I envision is it's as simple as this. What is this? Dexterity, right? Most robots are like, let me try to pick up this cup. right? The reason why we've dominated truly, that we're smart, we're smart mammals, like we are, but also at the same time we have opposable thumbs, we have, we can pinch stuff really, we can do really fine things, we can like sew, we can, all these things are very, very fine things that right now AI cannot do, robotics cannot do. So solving that problem, that's going to be a multi-trillion dollar company selling the actuators and the gears and everything that actually makes a robot go like this. And it's kind of as simple as that sometimes where you see, you know, we're obviously going to have like maid robots and like we're going to have kiosks that are run by robots and like this is all going to happen. There's another stage before the dexterity though, right? We have little robots that do things like clean our floors and do all this stuff. Internet of Things, Internet of Things are going to be integrated with AI before AI.

They're the first layer of how AI interacts with the physical world. So there's a lot of opportunity to invest in things that currently seem boring, but once they have, you know, AI powering or something like that, it's going to just kind of change the scope of the landscape. You know, we're in a, we're in a 10 to 15 year civilization build out. So, you know, yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's insane what's happening right now and how fast it's moving. What do you think, you know, when someone sees a product for the first time, what decision do you think they've already made before they actually realize buying it?

I think the human eye has a very distinct way of subtly judging based on like the most rudimentary things you could ever think. We know what colors clash, right? You don't have to be a designer to know that two colors clash, right? You don't have to be a designer to be like, ooh, why is that? Why is it shaped this way?

Or sometimes they clash by design.

And then that's also a statement, right? That's true. And when they clash by design, it's also this unique harmony still that's almost kind of like anti— design, right? But that's intentional. So I think, you know, you have to focus on what is the first 10 seconds of the user's or the customer's experience. That goes for everything, even humans. When you meet someone in the first 10 seconds, you're like, you kind of get a read on them. You kind of see what's going on. So I think it's really important for brands to focus on what is the first, like, thought that comes into my head when I interact with your product.

Yeah, let's, let's do a quick coffee break. I'll do a coffee too. Um, let's talk about like, after you built, after you rebuilt yourself, you started thinking differently about humans, about creativity and what technology really creates for all of us. Now, what problem is VALA actually solving that nobody else is solving for right now?

So that is really simple. It's making it just frictionless for you to earn off your content. So we don't have, it's fully self-custody.

Do you have people making money yet on it?

We do, we do, we do. We've moved, so when we moved from V1 to V2, our target audience kind of shifted a bit. So, you know, it's been a little different, but we do. And it's fun because we, so I fought Apple for like 6 months. They wouldn't approve us. They were like, you can't have a button on a video that allows people to send money to the creator. I'm like, what do you mean you can't have that? They're like, no, no, it's like, 'cause if you're doing that, then they were just whatever. I'm like, First of all, the way I built the rails, it's not fiat, right? It's not USD, it's digital dollar, it's USDC. And according to your own policy, that's kosher. They're like, well, you know, we're going back and forth consistently. The truth is they were trying to figure out how they get their 30% cut, right? And they were also trying to steer us away from saying that the consumer of the video was paying for that video. That was their whole thing. They're like, oh, are they paying for this video? I'm like, no, they— anyone can just decide with that button to just give the creator some money.

There's nothing about it. So what ends up happening is they still like, no. I'm like, okay, look, I'll pay you 30%. I'll pay you 30%. Just send me the wallet address, the Apple, you know, digital crypto wallet address. And I'll pay it. Now, what I was trying to do was set a precedent. I would be the first company in the world ever to get Apple to accept crypto, right? They obviously didn't go for it, but they approved us and they said, okay, no, we're not, we're not going to do that. It's fine. You're approved. Go ahead and continue. So it's really awesome. You see creators posting information, financial information, cooking, comedians, comedians. That's the cool part. You see comedians getting tipped through the app. That's so cool. right? And they're earning that dollar, that $5, that $10, right? And another thing is the algorithm, what I was talking about vibes earlier, is also controlled by you. We created a new system called Sparking, and that's really fun. A lot of people like to do that. So as you use the application, you earn sparks. And what does that do? So sparks allow you to boost other people's videos in the algorithm.

And it's not just like a like, right? A like is subpar intentional. You just hand those things out, no problem. With the spark, it costs you some of your sparks to spark a video. And it's not only just like a like, it's a ceremony. So when you're sparking, your phone's like getting like vibrating up, it sparks them, all this stuff happens. You feel super good about it. You're telling, hey, algorithm, vala, send this out to more people. This is amazing. It's so amazing. I put some sparks on it. And it gets crazy. It's so fun. Friends are like, yo, Rad, you better spark my stuff, bro. If you're my friend, if you're my real friend, you'll spark my stuff. And it's like cool to see that happening. And so when you start to solve the problem of monetization globally, in addition to giving the people power to feel like they are in control of the algorithm truly, some really interesting things can happen.

It's exciting, man. It's exciting to see what you're doing, what you're building. Now, do you think like AI is making us more creative or it's making us stop thinking for ourselves?

I think it's making the majority of humans stop thinking.

Yeah.

Right. And it's kind of sad because you see people who have capabilities I've seen really cool writers just kind of stop writing as much 'cause it's just easier and faster for AI to write something, but it loses the je ne sais quoi, right? Loses the oomph of you, the humanity, right? I can recognize when somebody's using AI in an instant in a copy. There's just a cadence that it uses. There's like the way it like compares things. Like it's just so, it's easy to understand it. So I think that what people need to do is, again, we're gonna go back to what I said earlier. They need to use AI to augment what they're already good at. Do not use it to replace you. Use it to augment you. Use it to, to, to, to make you better and faster, but not to replace you. Because at the point people feel it on the other end, you know.

Do you think there will ever be a point where AI replaces human creativity?

There will be AI that creates creativity in the image of man, but AI doesn't know how to make a new concept. It can't make a new concept because it needs to infer from its data points, it needs a reference. It can't just think, 'cause if it could think, what is that? AGI, right? That means it can just literally make a new thing. We're not there yet.

It will be.

When do you think we will approach AGI? How many years?

I think that we're super close. I think that some of the big LLM houses have very close models that are already doing like really out of the box things. It's still advanced infirment though. It's not like true AGI.

That's like ChatGPT 24.0.

Yeah, exactly. But yeah, that's what I'm thinking. And so humans are always going to be this. We just have this. We have a soul.

Yeah.

And we're going to— that can never be replaced. That's given from God. So you can't replace that.

What's one technology people are laughing at today that they'll depend on years from now?

I think that people are going to be like, I guess we're going to have to go back. I think people are going to laugh at AI-augmented people and say, oh, you do this. You know, that's what I feel. I feel like that's—

Hey, how's it going?

Yeah, they're going to laugh at them like, oh, like if you didn't have that, like you wouldn't be this good. You couldn't— you wouldn't close as much clients. You wouldn't do all these things. You're going to have this hierarchy that shifts between the individuals who like wake up and smell the flowers and they integrate it versus the ones who, you know, stay on this regular chat box level. They're just sending things. They don't even touch the surface of what AI can do. So that's the softball answer. Right there.

You know, we're gonna talk about, you know, when everything in your life stopped and got interrupted. One really unexpected moment that changed the direction of your life forever. And I know it may be tough, but to talk about, but I know that, you know, it's kind of paramount and I know it's really shaped your decision-making. Tell us about the day everything changed. Yeah.

So back in January, you know, right early January, life is good.

January what year?

This year. This year, actually. And, you know, we're rolling, Vala's moving forward. You know, we at that time, we still at that time, Vala still was like 8 or 10 employees or something. And we're getting ready to release the new version. Everything's going great. And yeah, the night of the 29th of January, went out with a friend, had some dinner, and that night was like really particularly icy, a lot of stuff like that. And yeah, we came out of dinner and I took a spill, a really horrible spill. And, uh, I woke up in the hospital confused, like bleeding everywhere. Doctors like stitching my ear together. Um, and it was really odd. I don't think a lot of people have ever experienced having like a happy dinner and enjoying themselves. And then next thing you know, they're waking up in the hospital. And I'm looking at my one, like my best friend, and I'm like, dude, what's going on? He's like, dude, you took a spill. Like your head is cracked open. Like they're working on you. You're gonna have to go through all this stuff. Like just relax. I'm like, what? And I couldn't even feel any of the pain.

I just didn't even know what was going on. They're like, do you remember what happened? I'm like, no, I don't. So they put me through the machines, MRI, all the CAT scan, all the scans. And yeah, pretty much I was right on the endpoint of internal bleeding. They were like, we're going to have to monitor you, see what's going on. And when I took the spill, I also hit my ear. So my ear was split in half, hanging down. Sewed it back together. You can't even notice though. You can't even notice, which is amazing. Yeah, you know, but it was a really, it's like a car crash moment, right? It's like life is amazing. You're at the top, you're at the top of your game, startup, money's coming in, life is great. New York City, young, let's go. Life comes at you fast. So from there, that was a rough road from recovery because I was no longer Rad. I couldn't think the way I normally think. It would hurt to think. The doctors are like, hey, you need to, you're done right now. You need to be like hanging out at home. You can't do anything.

You know, we're gonna monitor you, all this stuff. They're like, you can't work. And I'm like, can't work? Dude, I'm running a multimillion dollar startup right now. That's not an option. How long I got? They're like, bro, you literally can't work. It's going to hurt you. And I'm like, what do you mean? Like, it's my brain. And honestly, in my being naive, I'm like, it's my brain. Like, I'll be fine. I was not fine. I tried to go back to work a week later. I'm on the all hands with my company. I'm like, all right, guys. So they're like, we're waiting. I'm like, what did I just say? And they're like, I was looking around, like my assistant texts me and she's like, "Rad, like, maybe we should just end it." I'm like, "Am I doing?" She's like, "You can't even." I'm like, "All right, all right." I'm like, "Guys, I don't feel too well," 'cause they didn't know yet. The company didn't know, only my assistant knew at the time what was happening. So we shut down that meeting. We get on a call, she's like, "Rad, like, I don't think you can run the company.

Like, I think you really need to take a moment." So that was a moment that I had to decide, like, was I gonna put myself right now at the forefront, my recovery, and be willing to lose it all but gain my life back? And it was weird 'cause when I was think— you never really think about the fact that your brain uses legitimate energy to think about stuff. So I couldn't problem solve 'cause I would get migraines. and it was rough. It was really, really rough to, to move through it. But, you know, by the grace of God, I'm here. And, you know, the doctors say it could have been so— where it was like I was right on the cusp of like severe damage, but it was like enough where with the right recovery, I was good to go.

It's a miracle, man.

It is, it is. That's— and that's the only thing I say, I was blessed.

And that's, you know, like what you experienced, it's one in a billion, first off, the accident. And then it's even more less likely that you recovered. And, and you, you made like a full recovery, bro.

Dude, I feel better than I ever felt in my life.

Where was the damage?

Yeah, like right back here. Like, yeah, right here. And then the ear was, was the, the girl who's— shout out to the girl who stitched up my ear if you see this. Like, she did a great job. It was like completely—

was that a surgeon or a nurse? Like, what?

Dude, I was like, I don't even know. I was barely there. I was like 5% in, in what was going on. But she— no, she, she just kind of might have been a nurse. She just like stitched it back. I had like this whole thing stitched in half for quite a bit of time. My ears like blown up, look like crazy.

Yeah, UFC fighters take a pounding and come back like nothing happened.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's crazy.

Yeah, right?

Okay. Holy flower vibes going on.

Most fighters I know.

Yeah, yeah. No, it's really amazing.

It's, you know, looking back today, like what, and that was like recent, you know, this was 8 months ago. Would you change what happened? Like, do you think it was a learning lesson? Do you think— are you sad it happened? Like, what are your thoughts reflecting on it? And I know you've done a lot of reflection, but just reflecting on this, I wouldn't change it.

I think this was a way of God telling me to slow down.

Um, have you slowed down?

I have. It's— I'm much more intentional. When I realized— when I had to— when I had to choose what I spending my brainpower on, you quickly learn what matters to you, quickly. What started mattering to me more was spending more energy with my nephews, my sisters, feeding into them, realizing I needed to reframe Vala, realizing I needed to do something different. Then realizing in that whole thing, while I was in this recovery stage, I had a lot of friends and good acquaintances and contacts that always, call me up for advice. They're always like, they want my perspective on whatever it is that they're building or how they're approaching whatever. And I was doing that instead of deep work on Vala, and I'm really good at it. That's what laid the path to the studio actually. So I wouldn't change it. It really put in perspective what I believe success is, what I believe is, you know, my path to the future. And it really helped me understand that you only have one life. People take it for granted all the time. And you shouldn't, you shouldn't. And you should remove more things from your life.

Like, what does that mean? I think too many people tolerate things that they don't like, people they don't like, circumstances they don't like. And when you take a scalpel to that, you start to sculpt the life that you never knew you could have. So yeah, I think in a really interesting way, it's like the most beautiful thing that's happened to me. And that reframe has just been the energy to, to keep going. And obviously my island has been a good part of that, you know.

Yeah, I mean, you said that, you know, you moved back to the island, you didn't go into the nice part of the island, you went home.

I went home, I went into the community.

Yeah.

Like, don't get me wrong, like I made sure my space was comfortable and I got a nice ocean view and all that, but I'm in the community. I'm, you know, you're with your people. I'm with my people, speaking Spanish every day, helping people with tires, whatever I can do, you know, I'm in there. I'm spending my money.

It changed your mindset.

Yeah.

It changed your mindset and gave you perspective on what's important in life, which it's crazy that God has a weird way of telling us how to like redirect towards him.

It's so funny, isn't that?

Yeah.

My spiritual mentor once told me like, God sometimes will just like, he'll just tap you and then he'll nudge you and then he'll like shake you and then he'll slap you.

Yeah.

And you know, and you don't want him to slap you.

No, no. Yeah.

So it's like when we hear the whisper, we should stop there and like be like, he's whispering, but none of us do. So we wait till like a nudge or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's true. And that's the only thing I could say, right? Because he like— it's like he slapped me, but then he laid down like a pillow. So I was like, you know, like, I got— yeah, I got the point, but it wasn't to the detriment of my, my health and my life.

Yeah, so you have plenty of life. You're so young and you got the world, like, the world at your fingertips.

Yeah.

Um, now you've said your philosophy to leave everything is more beautiful than you found it.

Like, that's right.

And I love that. When I was listening to that, like Your life philosophy is like, leave everything more beautiful than you found it. Is that a new mantra?

It is.

Since January?

Since January.

See, you wouldn't have had that mantra.

Never, never, never, never, never, never.

And it's more like we've heard of similar mantra, like leave places better than you found it. But you're like, no, I'm taking it to the next extreme. I want to leave it more beautiful. Yeah. And it's something that was somewhat beautiful in the beginning.

Yeah. Yeah, it's true. It's the living my life like that now. It's been fun. Every little possible thing I can think of. I've made a lot of friends on the island and teaching their children to make sure they, just from the most rudimentary thing, we're hanging out on the beach, you see some trash, please pick it up. This is our island, this is our beaches. Let's make it clean, let's make it nice. And it's a sense of, it's this good sense of self, it's a good sense of community all the way to, there's a lot of good friends on the island that, I've made in this time that I've touched their lives in a way that I've helped them develop businesses that are changing their family's lives, that are doing things. And I just felt led to do that. So for me, it's like I want to be a blessing to people when they meet me and make sure that they leave with a seed that's going to plant and grow and turn into something else and always just be a good vibrational output to wherever I'm at in a room, whatever I touch. Yeah, it's a really important mantra and it really resonates now into the studio and how I approach client work and even the relationships that I have.

Can business be beautiful?

Oh yeah, it can be very beautiful.

And can failure be beautiful?

I think failure is probably the most beautiful thing that you can actually have. You know, you want to fail fast, you want to fail quick, you want to learn as much as you possibly can from your failures. Because failures give you that, failures give you that seed to really grow into the next person or to the next opportunity.

Yeah.

So you never know how a failure can just, you know, really grow, really grow into something else, you know.

Now what's something you've learned that no amount of success could have taught you?

Yeah, so what I think is, I think, cohesiveness. Building a cohesive world doesn't mean— it doesn't equal success exactly. So what does that mean? People believe that once they get a million dollars, that their life is going to be changed for the better. They're going to feel better, they're going to walk better, they're going to— everything's going to be great for them. And That isn't actual freedom. I know some very wealthy men who are very sad. And I find solace in the idea that very rarely people are allowed to build a cohesive world where they are a reflection of what's around them. Everything matches. Everything matches what they— they're designing their world. They're a part of an ecosystem that they are have essentially, you know, moved their mycelium through and really rooted in. And there's no amount of money that could have ever taught me the concept of I really want to increase my mycelium. Like, that's not— doesn't happen. Business is like, what's the margins? How much are we making? What's about— that's what it's all about. And when you start to build a world that's cohesive, when you start to build a world that's truly uniquely yours, even if you don't have the Lambo, even if you don't have even if all these other things, you start to get this sense of fulfillment because the world is reflecting back what brings you peace, what brings you joy, what allows you to wake up in the morning excited and jump on the couch.

I'm 32, I'm jumping on my couch. You guys should be jumping on your couches more.

You should.

Okay, I'm just making sure. I'm just making sure. So yeah, I know that answer is a little abstract, but It's what's on my heart.

A lot of us don't take the time to enjoy the couch. You know, like me, for instance, like yesterday was the first day I got to sit on my couch for like 3 months.

Yeah.

I'm like, man, this thing is really nice. You know, like it's just nice to sit here and watch a movie, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I got to enjoy a movie. I'm like this, and it was a hilarious movie, Little Brothers on Netflix with John Cena. So funny.

Oh, that was actually a funny film.

Yeah. That was, oh my gosh.

Yeah.

That was the funniest movie I've seen in years. But I don't do that enough and it's because I'm so busy and I I got like 5 hats and people don't stop and smell the roses. And I hope God doesn't slap me.

Yeah, me too. Me too. Me too.

Because, you know, I'm not worthy of a lot of the blessings that I get, you know. Now let me kind of pivot here. You've said that, you know, like, let's finish with the next generation of builders and entrepreneurs. If you had 1 hour with every young entrepreneur, what's the one lesson that you'd want to instill in them?

I would say you don't have the wrong answer, you have the wrong perception. Reframe the reality and the answer changes. It's really interesting what happens when you're— you put yourself in a box and you think this box has four walls and I'm stuck inside of this box. But it also has the ceiling that if you just push enough, it'll pop open, climb into a new box. Right? And that reframe always does a lot for people. You know, when they have conversations with me, when we talk, it's, it's, oh, what's the problem that you have? Oh, that's not your problem at all. Let's reframe this. Look at this angle. Look at this angle. They're like, oh, wait. Oh, if I approach it this way, this is not even a problem at all. And I think a lot of people try to find the answer to problems that aren't even the problems they need to be solving. So make sure you understand the problem before you try to solve it. That's what I would say.

Well said. Now, what's one mistake you think that founders keep making over and over again?

I think for founders, you know, we have to focus on building something that's true to us. And I think a lot of founders allow themselves to be influenced by vendors, co-founders, circumstances. And when you, when you waver like that, you, you affect the integrity of why you started building the startup in the first place. So I think a lot of founders, they start, they have all of this gusto, they have all of this, oh, I'm going to do this, I'm going to change the world. Everything's going to go perfectly planned, however. And then all the problems come and they somewhere along the line, they lose sight of what actually got them excited in the first place. And they need to get back to where they were. They need to get back to the true reason. They need to step back from all the bullshit and they need to really actually you know, zone in on why did I build this startup in the first place? Circle back on that. And a lot of the times you have the answer inside of you. And I think founders just get so burdened with everything that we have to go through.

You know, it's— and it's always a war, right? You don't know what you're going to wake up to. You finally fought— we're firefighters, right? You fought this fire. You're like, great. Another fire comes up over here. So I think that's what I would say. It's like, make sure that you don't lose sight of yourself and being true to yourself. And oftentimes it's scary to be super true to yourself, right? You got investors to answer to, you got, you have people to answer to and it's much easier to say, okay, we'll go that route. Or you know what, this decision didn't work. Because sometimes founders make a decision and there's intuition there, but then the decision starts to waver and then they change their mind because they're like, oh, it's not working. But it's not working yet. Follow through. And, you know, that's my biggest advice. And I know that there's a lot of times in my career that I went against my better judgment, what my true self felt, because I wanted to appease some investors or I wanted to, you know, smooth things over with a co-founder and it ended up being the wrong decision.

And at the end of the day, I should have stayed true to myself. So stay true to yourself on that.

I love that. Now, can great branding make people believe an average product is extraordinary?

Absolutely.

Balenciaga.

Balenciaga.

Coach or Gucci or whatever.

Yeah, yeah.

Let's talk about Balenciaga.

Uh, very, very mediocre quality, right?

So as far as like what they put out, they've the masters of, of perception, right? So it's, it's all the clothes are like black, right? And it's very like, uh, industrial, uh, meets streetwear. That's what it is, right? Industrial streetwear kind of now. And I remember when they were putting something together with Saks Fifth Avenue and I had to like help them. How do I make black like cool? Like how do I make this website look amazing when the colors are just all black? You know what I mean?

They don't have any other colors?

No, they have more colors and stuff, but most of their stuff is like very dark, like kind of like base, you know, military meets black ops type vibe that they're always on, right? Yeah, so the media— I saw, I saw this video actually the other day. It was really interesting. Everybody knows Erwan. They're like the best at making things more expensive for no reason. You know, the shakes are going crazy. It's wild. You just kind of put whatever in their cup and it's like worth a bunch, much money. So I saw a video of this, of these people. They, they took, uh, hose water and they took the hose water and then they put the hose water in an Erwan cup. And then they interviewed people and they're like, here's our Erwan. It's like their new water. Like, what do you think about it? And it's all branded nice and it looks really cold, right? So it looks so cold. And they're like, hmm, I can taste a cucumber. Is that cucumber? There's a nuttiness. There's a nuttiness in there. There's definitely— is that avocado? And it's like perception for sure.

You know what I mean?

So I'm dying laughing. And it's so funny, this human psychology on what we perceive is high quality. You know, we have this— it's really interesting because there's a certain level where the product can be super high quality and then that's going to in turn just speak for itself. But then you have brands who figure out how to get human consensus. That's a fun one because once you get human consensus, then humans are just going to agree. That's in our nature. You get enough people to agree, that's what's happening. It's also how financial markets work.

Yeah.

You know, if I can convince you enough that this is going to whatever market cap, you're gonna buy it. So yeah, definitely. I think that's one of the big skills that I can offer from the studio's perspective is, you know, I can see the thread in between what people are building and pull the best version out of it. A lot of the times the products they know what they want to be already. They already like want to be this thing and you just got to pull on that thread a little bit to bring it out. So, you know, and I also want to say there's nothing wrong with like figuring out how to make a blank white t-shirt brand that sells for $100 because I don't know, you have a little logo that's like 24K gold or something like that. I don't know. But like you can, you, if you can make people believe whatever it is you're selling has value to them, or at the very least it's a talking point, They'll buy it. It's crazy.

That's a crazy story that you just said. Now, you know, do you think, uh, do you think AI can create almost anything? What becomes more valuable because humans created it or because AI created it?

I think humans all day. I think humans. I think AIs can definitely create stuff of value. I've done it many times already in the last— since I started using AI. Um, but it still needs input, it needs guidance, it needs, it needs pushback. I fight with my AI all day long, every single day. I'm like, no, you're wrong. I'm like, you're wrong. Go, you go. No. And they're like, but no, that's wrong. And that's the basis. It's like you have to steer it again back to being like a tool. You have to steer it for it to produce something that's really good. But sometimes it can surprise you. It can spit out something that's really good.

Do you think there'll be a point in time where the base of knowledge is gone and AI just does everything for people?

Yeah, I mean, we already see, they say that all of the LLMs have already been, they've already consumed all the possible data on the internet. So much so, you have companies like Anthropic who are buying like really old books and scanning them into AI. Throwing the books away 'cause we've run out of stuff to consume. What happens when you start having AI consuming AI? That's gonna be interesting, right? 'Cause you're kind of like, you're getting dirty data at that point, right? Because you can't, like, it's just, it'll just kind of like turn into this weird mutated thing off of like AI, AI making some sort of song and this AI thinking that's good, that's a good song. So it makes a song called, and then we get this like weird.

I mean, we're already at the point where AI is talking AI, like, I'm not gonna talk to this person. Yeah. AI's calling me. Have them talk to my AI.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're there now.

Yeah, we are. We are. Have your AI call my AI. They'll figure it out.

Yeah. Yeah. They'll figure it out. They'll message me when it's, when they're ready.

Yeah.

20 years from now, what do you hope that people remember about Rodimus?

That's a great question. 20 years from now, I hope that they remember me as somebody who allowed them to look through my perception of reality and really change the world for the better. You know, where for me, I want to use these tools of being a builder and seeing where the future is going and being able to create literally anything on this planet for the good of mankind. So when we talk about how do we create How do we create top-tier affordable homes? How do we create affordable furniture? How do we fix, you know, electric grids on islands like mine? You know, I want to be remembered as someone who just refused to accept the status quo and decided this can be more beautiful.

I love that. Now, What's one thing you've built that you're most proud of right now and why?

I think right now, what I'm the most proud of is where I'm at with the studio. And it's not even Vala, 'cause Vala is just, it's something I produced, right? I made that. But the studio is from pure finding myself after the incident really honing into what makes me, me, and understanding that there's now a path for me to do really cool work and, you know, help other companies, other businesses be the best versions of themselves. And that's fun because what happens when you have more and more, you know, businesses that I've been involved with, you're going to get some really cool stuff, some out-of-the-box stuff, some different perceptions. So I'm really excited about that and the fact that You know, since I launched it, it's been a hit already. And, you know, again, it's, it's, it's mapped to the same thing that happened when I was 14. I just decided to do it. And then here we go, baby.

Let's go. What would you tell your 14-year-old self right now if you were to talk to him?

I'll be like, bro, we did it. We did it. Do you know where you live? Do you know what you're doing, bro? What? It's crazy. Yes. Yeah. So I would tell him, I would tell him that. I'd be like, dude, you did it. Like, you're living your true life. You're doing really cool stuff. You can make anything you want. By the way. And, and he, you know, cuz that, that's, I never thought that when I was a kid. Right. It doesn't.

Yeah. I mean, you don't, you don't understand, you know. So we're gonna conclude the show now with 10 business ideas. I'm gonna, I'm gonna pitch you right now and you respond with build it or break it. Okay.

Okay.

Business one, AI salary negotiation service. Build it or break it.

Break it.

Robot chefs for every home.

Build it or break it? Build it.

I want that. It's like The Jetsons. I need that actually.

Yeah, The Jetsons. Yeah, seriously.

I need that like ASAP. A platform that records your dreams and turns them into movies. Which would be amazing.

I'll say, I'll say build it cuz it's gonna lead to some other technological breakthroughs.

That's actually a cool idea. AI therapist replacing traditional therapists.

Break it.

You can't. Be human.

No, they don't understand what it is to be in these meat suits.

Yeah, you're right. Brain-computer interfaces.

Build it.

Isn't Musk doing that?

He is, he is. But can we do it so that you don't have to drill into my head, please?

Yeah, yeah, please. Subscription-only restaurants with no menus.

Build it right now.

A luxury fashion brand designed entirely by AI.

Break it.

A company that creates digital clones of you after you die.

Break it.

It's already happened.

Yeah, burn it. Send it out.

A startup that guarantees you'll never answer another email yourself.

Break it. We kind of already have.

We got—

yeah, we want control. I don't know what this robot's gonna say.

Yeah. A school where AI teaches every class and there are no human teachers.

Build it. Yeah, that's going to be a spicy one.

Yeah. Now, bonus question. You can only build one more company for the rest of your life. What problem would you spend the next 20 years of your life trying to solve?

You're going to lay it on me like that. That's a, that's a, that's a, that's an interesting question right there. One startup. The only thing I could work on for the rest of my life, basically, for the next 20 years, you said?

Yeah. I feel like you're doing it.

Yeah. I mean, like, I'm in it right now. I'm like, I'm doing this. I want to continue to work with people who are changing the world and be able to put my fingerprints all over it. And because I've built a business now that doesn't require any one vertical, it's like freedom, you know, whatever that's interesting to me, whatever problem is trying to be solved, I'm able to do it. So, you know, that I just realize now that's that really is true freedom. It's like I'm not relying on any industry. I'm relying on humanity.

One last question. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you?

I think he's going to tell me, hey, Rad, glad I gave you all that extra time and didn't take you out. And I'm really glad. I'm glad to see what you did with it.

Love that. Rad, you've been a pleasure to have on the show. Anything you wanna mention to the audience other than Dalai Lama?

Yeah, go check me out at, uh, you know, radamis.studio. You're working on something, uh, your work is better than it looks. Hit me up. Let me get my fingerprints on it. Let's put it to the top. And, uh, yeah, you could find me on socials. Radamismo. It's, uh, R-A-D-A-M-I-S-O. That's on Instagram. Come check me out. And be blessed.

God bless, man. You've been a pleasure to have on the show. God bless you, brother. Thanks for all you do. Radimus, make sure to check him out.

Let's go.

Let's go.