Investing in SMBs with Paul Strachman from SPAR Ventures [Ep 33]

This episode focuses on investment strategies for small and medium businesses (SMBs) and explores innovative tools and technologies that can enhance their growth and operational efficiency.

1. SMBs are a massive part of the economy and represent significant potential for investors.
2. Influencer marketing and social media platforms like TikTok are becoming crucial for lowering customer acquisition costs.
3. AI and digital transformation are key to enhancing efficiency and service delivery in SMBs.
4. There's a shift from traditional sales-driven approaches to product-led growth strategies in the SMB sector.
5. Understanding and leveraging technology can significantly impact SMB sustainability and growth.

1: Introduction to Investing in SMBs

Paul Strachman discusses his investment philosophy and the importance of SMBs in the economy. He emphasizes the role of technology in transforming these businesses. Paul Strachman: "SMBs represent a huge part of job creation and market opportunities."

2: Emerging Tools and Technologies

The episode explores innovative tools like Tango and how they use platforms like TikTok for growth, showcasing the shift towards digital marketing strategies in the SMB sector. Paul Strachman: "40% of Tango's leads have come from TikTok, utilizing productivity influencers."

3: Challenges and Opportunities in SMB Investments

Strachman discusses the potential of AI in SMBs and the importance of strategic investment approaches, particularly in technology-driven solutions. Paul Strachman: "AI can significantly improve the operational efficiency of SMBs, offering a copilot in their daily operations."

1. Consider influencer marketing to reduce acquisition costs and increase market penetration.
2. Explore AI and other digital tools to streamline operations and improve customer engagement.
3. Stay adaptable to emerging platforms and marketing strategies to remain competitive.
4. Leverage technology to create efficient workflows and training processes.
5. Regularly evaluate and adjust business strategies based on technological advancements and market feedback.

In this episode Harry speaks with Paul Strachman. Paul is an early-stage technology investor based in NY. After 8 years as General Partner at different funds (Red Sea Ventures, ISAI), Paul is now launching his own fund SPAR Ventures.SPAR Ventures is an early stage fund (Pre-Seed and Seed) investing in tech-enabled B2B companies serving the SMB market. Illustrative investments include Novo (neobank for SMBs), Tango (Product-Led Growth productivity tool) or Solo (super app for gig workers) amongst others.Paul brings a proven investment track record, deep operating experience as well as key B2SMB expertise through his existing portfolio (50% investments in B2SMB). He also brings his understanding of “consumer” acquisition and retention strategies applicable to SMB tech (from his consumer investing track record, to his experience working at Bain & co in the Consumer Practice and his role as the head of strategy at Equinox).

People

Paul Strachman, Harry Campbell

Companies

Spar Ventures, Tango, Solo

Content Warnings:

None

Paul Strachman

My framework was very basic. It was either know the person very well, and so I can bet on that person, or I know the space very well, so I feel like I can actually help or understand what they're doing. If I didn't meet one of those two criteria, I just felt like I wasn't necessarily like, you know, able to make that investment.

Harry Campbell

You all right? So Paul is an early stage technology investor based in New York. After eight years as general partner at different funds, including Red Sea Ventures, Isai Paul is now launching his own fund, Spar Ventures. Paul brings a proven investment track record, deep operating experience, as well as key B, two SMB expertise through his existing portfolio, which have been 50% investments in B to SMB. He also brings his understanding of consumer acquisition and retention strategies applicable to SMB tech.

Paul, how are you doing today? Great. How are you doing? All right. Well, I think you might know one of the first questions I'm going to ask you is, what is SMB?

For those who may not know, but I did manage to get through your bio without messing it up, so I'm already off to a good start. It's great. So SMB is like small and medium businesses, okay? So it's going to be like, for me, I think it goes from even the solo entrepreneur or even the gig worker, who often are basically functioning as a small unit of company all the way through more like medium businesses from that standpoint. And so that's kind of like the nature of companies that I'm interested in, the software companies that are tailoring to those specific companies.

Right, got it. And do you think that's a combination, more of your experience working with those, or you think there's more opportunity in that space? How do you kind of think about the two? I think that from a point of view of why the space is really attractive, the space of the SMB is massive. Right.

Paul Strachman

Represents a huge part of the economy. It represents a huge part of the job creation. And so I think that there's a lot of massive markets into each of those SMB market like verticals. Imagine whether it's like HVAC, plumbing, home services, or other types of industries. But the other thing that I think is interesting is that if you think about where they are right now, a lot of them are still without a lot of technology in terms of digital usage.

Right. The second thing is, I think a big unlock that has happened over the past, like, two years is the fact that historically those were not very attractive markets because the cost acquisition was so high and the average contract value was too low to support having a salesperson trying to reach those people. And I think that what I've seen changing over the past few years, but really the past few years, is the ability to leverage more consumer tactics to acquiring some of those small businesses. Right. You and I have a company, a portfolio company in common.

But there's two examples that I think are interesting. One is, like a company that's called tango. And Tango is a productivity tool that has done amazing. They've grown really very rapidly and despite being a productivity. So it's a b to b, typically product led growth type of solution.

So to enable to share a, how to guide and capture it easily and then be able to share it. 40% of their leads have come from TikTok. And I've done the exercise to ask people, what do you think is the largest lead generation channel? Most people don't land on TikTok as like an answer. Right.

Harry Campbell

What is the company? This is Tango. Tango. And what do they do? They basically enable you to capture your workflow so that you can share that as a how to guide to other people.

Paul Strachman

So think about whether it's like small companies or even sometimes large companies, the ability for you to not have to do webinars, to not have to train or retrain. And oftentimes the people who have to train those other people are the best producers because they're the ones knows how to use those tools. So this enables to cut through that by having those tools. Right. But the thing that was interesting with them is that they didn't just use TikTok, they basically used influencers and TikTok.

So there's a lot of people that are now influencers across many different verticals, right. So for them, they identified productivity influencers that typically just cover the new tools. Max was like a TikTok kind of like growth engine, and that took off for them. Right. A few years ago, that was not possible for most of those.

This is something that enables to reduce the cost of acquisition for something that fundamentally doesn't have an annual contract value that's high enough to support a salesperson. That I think is a good example is solo, which I believe you're also an investor in. And they also have had some of those similar strategies around TikTok, right. Around influencers. They've identified influencers.

And you obviously, to a certain extent, have been a massive influencer from that standpoint. And I think that when you think about SMBs, what's interesting about the influencer is that there's obviously an aspect of lead generation. The owner of an SMB, the gig worker, the person who works around the clock, doesn't really have the time to do the diligence around a certain solution. So when it comes on top of that from somebody that they trust, that also facilitates the conversion a lot more than just reading about it in a paid ad on Google, on Facebook. So I think those are like new techniques that are actually being unlocked.

And that's what, first of all, makes it interesting in terms of a new way to attract some of those SMBs as clients. Yeah, that's actually a really good point because I think the paid channels have always been there for acquisition. And of course, if you're in a spot where you've got a lot of money and you need to scale up, that's the great thing about paid marketing. It's. Right, you've got this channel and you can scale it typically.

Harry Campbell

Right. Within reason. And I think the one thing we've seen with companies like solo and others is that when you start to look to these alternative channels like influencers or affiliate, you can start reducing that CAC. Right. So it's like, hey, we're starting off at 20 to acquire users, and now let's start adding in these other channels as we start to mature the product, mature the business, even though it is funny.

So I helped solo set up their affiliate program and reach out to their first few group of influencers, and I think there's three or four that are doing much better than me in terms of affiliate revenue and generation now than my rideshare guy business. And even like a couple of them, I was kind of surprised. I was like, oh, wow, they don't have as many maybe monthly views, but they have less companies they're talking about. They have maybe a deeper connection with their audience. Right.

And so when you talk about some new product or highlight something, it really can be effective and maybe they get compensated. Maybe it just sort of raises the pie. But yeah, I like that as a sort of strategy for lowering the CAC over time, too. Yes. And so I think those are like new things that I think have emerged and that more and more b, two b companies understand the second thing.

Paul Strachman

And I think right now there's a lot of craze around AI as a huge area for investment. I think that a lot of the AI companies right now are getting too much money at too high valuations. So I'm not interested in investing in some of those because I want to remain disciplined in terms of the valuation. But I do think that when it comes to small and medium businesses, there's a lot of AI features that are going to become really interesting. Again, those people don't really have the bandwidth, the time, and so having some kind of copilot element in their day to day work because they're just making their routes or they're making the route or speaking to their customers, how do you facilitate and help them?

You can build a lot more interesting products for them than was in the past. So I think two unlocks that lately I have felt like are really interesting. That's why I said about that space. Yeah, no, I think AI is a good example. It's obviously there's a lot of hype right now, so I think it's a tricky one because a lot of things sound good on paper and then in real life not so doable.

Harry Campbell

Why is Siri still so bad? Apple is a pretty big company and Siri barely works. It's like creating events and meetings. I just had a meeting with a security alarm company and I was like thinking about, it's like, oh, 08:30 a.m.. Meeting.

I'm like, no one's confirmed it. I checked my email, like no confirmation. I'm like, oh God, is this guy going to show up? And I had to drive to a new house that we're building. And at 820, when I was driving over there, I got a call from the guy and he said, oh, I just realized I added this to my calendar, I'm not going to be able to make it.

And this is a big security company in LA doing probably tens of millions of dollars in revenue. And I'm thinking to myself like, wow, how did this happen? That's kind of crazy. I think a lot of people are familiar with that kind of like SMB tech layer that can be added to optimize a lot of these low hanging fruits. Right?

Paul Strachman

Yeah. So that's why I think it's interesting to leverage that, like the technology itself, I think is actually really progressing massively. And some of the things that, and you're mentioning, Siri, some of the things are not possible that were not possible really a few years ago, specifically from a language standpoint. But yes, I agree with you. I think that the trickiest thing right now in some of the AI companies is, is this a feature or is this a product really building?

And if it's just a feature in a market where you already have incumbents, the startup will not have enough time to build the distribution before they're going to be swallowed or competed against by the incumbent. So the thing that I think is interesting again in some of the SMB market is for a lot of those, you don't necessarily have massive incumbents, technology incumbents that just to turn on the switch for AI. And so it also gives a little bit more the opportunity for a startup to come build a distribution network before basically having a large company come around. Cool. Love it.

Harry Campbell

Well, I like that we started with two great examples of companies and some concrete. Like, I feel very knowledgeable already and actionable. Let's talk about your background a little bit. So I was on your LinkedIn earlier and you had a lot going on. You're at Equinox for a while and looks like some investing.

When people meet you, or over the years when they've met you, what do you tell them? That they say, oh, hey Paul, what do you do? What's your mean? For the past eight years I've been doing VC. So usually I speak to them.

Paul Strachman

I'm a VC and I manage a fund, or I was managing a fund when I was a GP at other funds. So that's primarily I tell them. I think the thing that's interesting was like, for example, companies like Equinox, especially even when you think about b, two b, is that fundamentally subscription business. And a lot of the similar techniques around cohorts, retention and engagement are no different than what you see in a SaaS, especially when you look at SaaS for small and medium businesses. Right.

It's like type of mentality. How do you get them to really use a tool so that they're engaged enough that they're not actually churning? So I think there's a lot of similarities. So that's also how sometimes I use that background. And some people are big fans of Equinox.

So some people, no matter who ask me, often passes for Equinox. So discounts. Yeah, Equinox is a good example. I love the kind of parallels from adjacent industries. Obviously, I focus on Uber and Lyft drivers and gig workers, but they're really independent owner operators.

Harry Campbell

So anyone that has their own business or kind of operating independently. Right. I think there's a lot of that you can kind of learn from Uber and Lyft drivers and gig workers and vice versa. So talk about some of the, you mentioned subscription with Equinox. Is that kind of relevant to some of these SMBs or what are sort of one or two of the parallels you found there?

Paul Strachman

Well, I think a few things. One is like when I worked at Equinox, we rebuilt the entire CRM system. And one of the things was really kind of like moving away from a marketing standpoint, moving away from a point of view that was basically marketing based on who you are, to marketing based on what you do, right. So it was a lot more behavior based than just like demographics based. And I'm big proponent, big believer of the fact that when you do it on what you do than who you are, you're going to be better served because who somebody is doesn't necessarily fully imply what they're going to do with your tool.

So I think that was one first thing. And the second, what's a good example of that? Was there like a type of ad you guys are running before that you changed? So if you think purely about fitness in a very kind of like gender biased way, there was this idea of women love good fitness and men love weights and everything. But the reality is that's not exactly what works.

And so if you apply your entire marketing just on that basis, you end up missing a lot of opportunities around that, right. So I think that's one big thing. And being able to really track and analyze how somebody behaves with your service and has been really critical. The second thing that I think was like a massive thing is at some point we had an issue around it was during the recession, the personal training business was declining and there was a question around, should you reduce a price so that you can try to attract people? And again, if you do it on a broad basis, that might sound like the best idea.

And other companies that I'm working with in the SMB space, that's something that we're working on right now, which is basically, if you reduce the price, the problem, if you look at it on an average basis for your consumer, it might sound great, but some of those people are like heavy users and others are not that heavy users. And so even if you reduce the price, the low users who are low engaged are not going to maintain, they're not going to stay with you no matter what, doesn't matter how you reduce the price. But for the hep users, you're basically just like losing money on those because they would probably be willing to pay more from that standpoint. And so discriminating from the price standpoint based on the engagement was a big lesson that I think sometimes a lot of the b, two b companies don't do as often because they're afraid to increase the price. But the reality is that sometimes increase the price will discriminate against people who, no matter what, will turn versus reducing the price is something that's a little trickier.

And so even there, I think that when you set your first price, even in SaaS, to me, I've always been more of the proponent, like setting the price high, even if it means discount bit, than setting the price low, because the move of increasing the price is a lot harder than removing discount. Got it. Well, so let's talk about your investing journey a little bit. I think I mentioned, or we've talked about you've done some angel investments, you kind of went to the GP route, and then you now have your own fund. So how have you thought about your investment journey over the years?

When I started as an andro, I think that for me, it was a question more of, like, testing myself a little bit in terms of seeing when. Did you make your first angel investment? The first was 2011, but really, the bulk of the ones that I did started in 2014. Got it. And I've done about, like, I would say ten angel investments.

Okay. I would say most of them have honestly done particularly well. And to me, that was one of the big lesson, which is, and I've told many people who are trying the Android route, my framework was very basic. It was either know the person very well, and so I can bet on that person, or I know the space very well, so I feel like I can actually help or understand what they're doing. If I didn't meet one of those two criteria, I just felt like I wasn't necessarily able to make that investment.

And the thing I just also realized is that the thing I tend to tell people is that if you don't become a professional Android investor, you're not having the deal flow necessary to be able to identify what's the best out of all the companies that you're seeing. So that time, I wasn't necessarily maximizing my deal flow. I was just primarily speaking to my classmates, friends, or people who approached me because of my expertise in, say, wellness or other things. And I could look at that. But that meant out of those ten investments, maybe I had looked at, like, 30 companies, not like 100 companies.

Harry Campbell

I don't know that I've ever heard it that simplified. But I like that framework a lot because it's kind of hard to mess up. I mean, obviously, angel investing is still lots of risk and all of that, but it's like, if you know the person really well, it's like, okay, I've seen what they can do. That's a key element. And then if you know the space for it, there's only so much you can screw up when one of those two criterias are met.

And I think this kind of resonates with me because I think a lot of the first few or a lot of the angel estimates I did were basically the same. I had to know them well or kind of the space well or be adjacent to what I knew really well. And I feel like I said yes a lot. Everyone's like, oh, you got to see 100 deals, and you say yes to five or ten. I'm like, I saw 20 deals, and I say yes to, like, 15 of them because they didn't even come into my top of funnel.

If they didn't meet those, if it was some random cool thing, I'm like, I don't know anything about this. I'm not going to talk to you. Right. Yeah. But I also think that if I had to redo it, I think I would value more the quantity than the amount per company got it.

Paul Strachman

So I basically would put 10,000 in each of the companies. I didn't necessarily have a ton of liquidity. So that was already, like, a pretty significant check. And rule was the minute the money is out, I consider the money gone. Yes.

For me, that line is worth zero because the chance that it will become something are so low, which makes it better from that standpoint. But if I had to redo it, I would probably do more deals than higher amounts per deal, just because I think you learn more from seeing how each of those companies are doing. If you're trying to build your network, it's probably better for you to have founders that you know and you connect with, just purely like, I've made three bets and that's it. Right? Yeah, I think that's a very common thing that I would agree with.

Harry Campbell

And I think most of our guests, almost all of our guests have basically said that they would do fewer deal or less money. More deals, basically. So I think what was the reason you got into angel investing in the first place? Did you kind of want to go down the VC route and this was dipping your toes in the water? I think it was like a mix between some of the people were my friends, and they asked me, and I was like, that sounds like an interesting idea.

Paul Strachman

And then I just felt like, yeah, I should try to make some bets to learn from it. So, yeah, the whole time I had the idea around potentially finishing starting more of a career in VC. And so this was, again, a learning experience that was helpful. Again, retrospectively, it would have been even more helpful to do more deals so that you have this kind of frame of reference. And then the reason why I decided to also join VC is because I think this is the only time, unless you're a professional angel, this is the only time when I feel like you basically start thinking about this deal flow.

Do I maximize my coverage? How do I really understand? Because I invest in precedent seed, and the time to see and get any type of feedback is incredibly long, right to the next round. And again in 2021 to the next round wasn't particularly a great feedback because everybody was somewhat getting an x round, but to the next round is like about two years, right? To some kind of real exit is about eight years.

So it takes a long time to see did I have the Right, made the right decision or not. And so I just felt like at least seeing enough companies and really building this deal flow was the right path to go for if I wanted to become like an investor. Got it. And what was the firm you joined when you went into VC? I joined Red Sea, yes.

And so I started as a venture partner, then I became a general again. It was, for me, it was really incredibly helpful because I could basically join someone who was on his second fund. And so I contributed to that second fund, but at the same time I was sitting next to someone who had already done, I think he had done by the time, like 30 investments, and some of them had enough feedback loop that you could see what was good and what was bad. And so that's also why I joined that then it was a very natural thing because it wasn't like we decided that at some point it will be GP, it was more like, okay, we'll work a little bit together and we got to know each other, and then we basically decided to go in together for that fund. Got it.

Harry Campbell

And how many funds is Red Sea up to now? Red Sea, it's a third fund. So when I joined, we're still finishing the first fund. I contributed two and fund three. And then now we're basically kind of like taking a slightly different direction.

Paul Strachman

Mainly because I really want to be. Red Sea is more of a generalist fund. We like sub teams from that standpoint. And I really wanted to be more focused personally within the theme. That's why the kind of b to SMB market, also because I just feel that at some point, to be able to support your companies, the more focused you are in terms of the team, the easier it is for you to build some kind of support structure for your portfolio company.

Harry Campbell

Yeah. So for the new fund, I put together a group of advisors that have experience in product led growth SMBs at very different companies. And the other thing I put together is kind of like a code, like a go to market foundation platform. It's like agencies that are in growth, content legion, influencer and brand to help those companies set up the right foundation. Because go to market is the hardest thing when you go to those small businesses.

Yeah, and so these are sort of more referrals or people you've worked with because I definitely know that this is obviously not obvious, but I think actually one thing that is very helpful to a lot of these early stage are kind of like referrals. And I know a couple people who basically do kind of consulting for early stage startups. Colin, my partner, be angels, that's one of the big things he does. And a lot of the times he kind of makes really good referrals to people he's worked with, his experience as an operator and seems like I didn't realize just how valuable that could be, but it's like extremely valuable. Like good referrals, PR, SEO, product, everything.

Paul Strachman

But the idea is at some point they might become referrals, but in the beginning they will actually provide more like audits, brand audits, discussions one on one, kind of like mentorship. Some of those companies are real at the beginning of their go to market kind of like strategy. Some point this might become more of like a contractual relationship, but that's not the idea of just purely referring them, it's more educational. In the beginning I did one or two webinars with some of those companies and most of the portfolio was always in awe of how much they learned, even in just in 1 hour, which I thought was super interesting. Very cool.

Harry Campbell

And so, I mean, I think that we kind of already talked about a couple of the companies that you've invested in in the past. A little bit about the thesis. Is there anything else you want to share on the kind of new fund and sort of what you're thinking about there? Yeah, I mean the idea is to raise the fund will be 20 million. We focus probably on precede and seed and the idea is to do about 20 companies.

Paul Strachman

So we mentioned some of the themes. One of them is like the vertical SaaS theme which is like for those private market. The second one is around horizontal solution and the third one is around this idea of SMB next gen. So like the tools to help people build their own companies. Right.

Harry Campbell

Let's talk about that because I think that's one where you and I have a lot of crossover. What tools are you sort of seeing that are out there? Like if you had to identify maybe a few categories or maybe even something that if there's any founders listening that you'd like them to build, what do you think could kind of have the biggest impact? I think that if you look at this SMB next gen, right. There's some of the people who are, again, this gig, workers or side that want to become full time.

Paul Strachman

I think there's a lot of segments where people want to kind of not be dependent on one platform. So any tool that enables some of those people to go from one platform to multiplatform, a good example of that is apparel or clothing resell, right? So a lot of them are usually on one platform, and having tools that enables them to do one listing that enables to go across like ten platforms is something that makes them step up in terms of their revenue and maximize also their inventory. So I think that's like one example. Solo is another example where I think for now they're helping you to optimize your gig work, right.

When they make it possible for people to go much easier. From Uber to DoorDash, from DoorDash to Lyft, just a turn on of a button that will be interesting. So that some of those people aren't as dependent on one platform, for example. So I think there's that one thing that becomes really important, right. I think franchise is going to be a big thing, whether it's like franchise in terms of the tools for the franchise to manage when they have multiple franchises, but also just like people offering the opportunity to independence to basically leverage a franchise to be able to build their own business, right?

And I think that historically people have thought about franchise as more of like a four wall, food related, kind of like, or like wellness related type of franchise, but there's a lot of them that are now created in the home services, for example, where really you just need to have the tools so that you can manage your customers, you can manage your lead flow, you can manage some of those things, which I think is interesting. And the last thing that, and I haven't found anything yet that I'm as excited about is around what I think is SMB succession, right? So a vast majority of people who own small and medium businesses are 65 or plus, and those people are looking for people to acquire those companies. And there's a big churn reason specifically at your ten among small businesses, and that is usually because no one was there to buy the company. And there's a comparison that I think is super interesting, which is right now there's this generational gap between the boomers and even the millennials who don't have the money or the capex to be able to acquire those businesses.

But if you look at a parallel in these single homes, this is what happened. So the next generation did not have enough money to acquire the homes. So what happened is a bunch of private equity firms like Blackrock and others came, scooped a ton of single homes and turned them into rentals. And this has become like a really huge industry. And so I think something similar for SMBs is really going to be interesting.

So I'm interested there to solutions around brokers. So broker market, because right now a lot of brokers are kind of like a little antiquated in terms of the way they do things. Even something as simple as like can you give me roughly how much I could expect from my company? It's funny you mentioned this because I was just helping someone look at this fleet owner business, right? Someone who's renting multiple cars to Uber and Lyft drivers.

Harry Campbell

And they're this exact, they've been in the industry for 2030 years or 65 plus. They're looking to sell and they hired a broker to put a package together. I'm looking at this package and I'm like, oh my God, it looks like not great to be honest. There's so many moving parts and moving pieces and I think, I'm sure the guy has kids, but they probably wanted to go into more of a sexy field or tech or whatever, right? And they didn't want to take over their dad's.

But I mean, it's making money. It's an interesting business. There's quite a lot going on though. So I think that SMB succession is really interesting. And I think it kind of ties into what you mentioned earlier in the sort of tools, the hiring, the getting help.

Right. Basically, I think everyone knows digitizing SMBs basically kind of like we already talked about. But I do think that sort of like there's probably some combo there, but I like those two categories a lot and I just looked at one. So I sort of can empathize with. I agree with you.

Paul Strachman

I think that a lot of the brokers put together packages that are like, again, they don't fully understand your business. They put you get as best packages they can. And again, it's not very different than mortgage broker, than apartment brokers. Their goal is to get you sold as fast as possible. And I guess for those wondering, you can find a lot of these SMBs, I don't know if you've ever been on biz by sell or bizquest.

Harry Campbell

They have everything from laundromats to whatever. And you can look at these and sign an NDA and take a look and potentially bid on. I think there are a lot of. These SMB types, by the way, because we were speaking about influencer. There also have been a lot of influencers that are basically speaking only about one thing, which is how'd you acquire a small business?

Yeah, I don't know how active you are. I looked at your twitter, I don't know how active you were, but I feel like there's a bunch of these SMB guys now and girls on Twitter now that are talking, know, starting little mom and pops or buying or taking over or new ideas. So, yeah, it's cool. I think if I was a little younger and had a little more energy, I might be dive in. Some of them want to have their own business, but it's very different between acquiring something that's profitable and starting a company from scratch.

Paul Strachman

So I think for a lot of them, it is attractive to think about that. And even for those people, my last investment is called Share Willow, which is helping small businesses set up profit sharing. Again, that's something that not everybody knows, but even for people who don't have any employees, when you do the tax deferred profit sharing, this can be much better than any type of 401K plan that you set up for yourself. And I think that bringing also some of those solutions. And then when you add to that the SMB influencers who are speaking a lot about how to maximize your money beyond acquiring the company, I think a lot of convergence like that also.

Harry Campbell

Yeah. All right, well, selfishly, I'm going to totally be on your page now because I think a lot of the things you mentioned would help me in my business with the rideshare guy. I've got a lot of my contributors. They see a video is doing really well and they're like, hey, got to get a little bonus or a little rev share on the ads. It's very difficult, though, to set a lot of this stuff up when you're kind of a smaller size, a solo person, or you've got a small team.

So I think these are all really cool categories, and maybe we'll have to share a few deals on this side. So really appreciate you sharing your journey, everything your kind of take on some of these thesis. Anything else you want to mention before we sign off here? Where can people find you, or I guess will leave links to some of the companies we mentioned, like solo and Tango and maybe your LinkedIn and the fund information for Spar. Yes, that sounds mean.

Paul Strachman

You know, again, you can ping me directly. Happy to take cold emails at paul@sparventures.com but I'm assuming you also add the email and yeah, feel free to reach out to me. Cool. Thanks, Paul. Awesome.

Harry Campbell

Awesome.