An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Listen to your elders, especially when they have more experience in a certain area– i.e. get an advisory board that really cares about your business. Give them shares in the firm when you have zero. Not crazy levels of shares but enough to keep them engaged. Or pay them little dividends like bottles of a favorite beverage, or just be nice to the right folks who care will help.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Todd Kleperis.

An accomplished serial entrepreneur, Todd Kleperis holds over two decades of business experience in both the United States and Asia Pacific Markets. One to always be able to recognize opportunity, his Asian-based start-ups brought millions of dollars of product into the U.S., proving his ability to bring technology to life. He was the first person to federally move both cannabis product and money into the federal reserve. He started what is now the largest armored distribution company in the cannabis space after working for a startup that was bought by Boeing for over 300 million dollars. The defense industry proved to be a great testing ground for the development of what is now the first fintech to support frontier finance industries like defense, autonomous vehicles and emerging markets like biofuel from hemp.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

My hometown was in a small farming area in Connecticut, and we lived very close to the Storrs Uconn campus. I remember swimming at the college early mornings to get ready for the championships in CT. When I left CT for the Army, I moved north to the Boston area and went to Babson college where I focused on entrepreneurial studies. Although it gave me a good first experience, I knew that the snow shoveling business I had as a kid would not generate the kind of lifestyle I wanted , so I began to peruse my journey creating successful companies.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Constant persistence towards a goal will always pay off. People sometimes forget the power of goals and focus only on their dreams. Goals have deadlines and deliverables. I set a goal to have my current fintech firm funded by the end of 2021 and it happened, with massive effort. Investors are fun to work with the second you have their money. Consistently grinding allowed us to bring in the largest customer in our space with over 1900 locations. Without consistent diligence in helping the customer solve problems, none of the investors would have seen the mission we were on solving frontier finance issues in wild and unique industries.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I would highly recommend every would-be entrepreneur visit YouTube and subscribe to a channel they like, with motivation from someone who has really ‘won’. I love Will Smith, some of his speeches online are extremely inspirational. Les Brown is a personal favorite of mine and his “It ain’t over till I win” discussion will leave you pumped for the next battle every time.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

Sure — an idea is just that. A concept or a possible theory. What they need to understand is, if the idea doesn’t solve a massive challenge and if they can’t ‘see’ the customer, they should keep looking. I like building things with customers already engaged. It’s easier to create when you solve a customer’s problem. Most of the time people with ideas don’t have a path forward because they lack the customer. An idea is wonderful, but execution is critical. Your best bet is validate the issue and the price point you solve. If you have a better pen to sign documents, will it be relevant in 5 years with e-signatures? Understand that the next app is not effective without massive consumer adoption.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

Looking at the market and really knowing the customer are two surefire ways. If you are 100% involved in the industry, then you are focused with the idea and will KNOW if the idea is a winner by asking the top leading people in that field. If you are not in that field, are you a user of the product? I had a young entrepreneur asking me to help him design a set of sandals that you could ‘walk out of’. I asked him how many sandals he owned? He said zero — we ended the conversation and went to the store. I said watch the first 5 people buying sandals. Now I’ve worn sandals all my adult life. I asked him — why would someone want sandals they can walk out of? He replied, because his friends thought it would be wild to have shoes that opened and closed on your foot. I knew instantly he was going to have a rough time with this. Nike, Adidas, and a host of others own the shoe space. His barriers to entry were high. The road to a sandal that you could ‘walk out of’ looked dim. I tried to show him how to build a company and he was completely lost. He had an idea and that was it, and that’s just not enough.
My advice, spend time watching shark tank, that’s business 101 on primetime. It really is the format many investors look at. Does the product solve a problem, have you solved the problem and how did you bring your idea to life.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Filing a patent may or may not even be relevant. Patents today are not as valuable as they once were because firms can grow right past a patent and the legal involved may slow you down. There are firms that help you file your first one if that’s the route you really want to go. Watch how they do it and then in the future you can cut down on the cost by removing steps. Unless you want to read a book or watch a YouTube on it — I’d say your first one should be left to professionals. Only after you determine the real benefit to patenting it. It may be that you don’t ever want to patent something as well. In fear that you may open up the patent trolls who will pounce on it and file all sorts of other patents against your original invention. Best advice, don’t skimp on a good lawyer. Find one you trust. Legal advice can be costly if done incorrectly. Do your due diligence first and then find a lawyer who specializes in your type of industry. Don’t have a guy who specializes in real estate guiding your fintech startup… Unless you’re focused on banking real estate. Just like, don’t eat at a Chinese restaurant run by people from Spain or Russia.

Securing a good manufacturer is paramount. You can even find a good Q/C firm that focuses on China for instance before you start producing products. Smart, depending on the market you are building on. Is it a consumer good? Then 100% do NOT rely on Alibaba or some source. Find a firm who makes something in that space and identify what they have in the supply chain. See if you can build it locally first to cut down on your drama overseas. Shipping your idea off to a foreign land may have worked in the 90’s but it doesn’t today. You may be amazed what local firms can produce for you.

Sometimes retail may not be the best path depending on the segment. Liquor for instance is a battlefield. Cosmetics have 600% margin but it’s a bloodbath. Online retailers can take a smaller portion of product, but you keep margin. Focus on keeping profitable. Forget Walmart out of the gate unless your brother is the buyer!

Focus on getting things made well and solving an issue. You can build from there.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

1. Use your credit cards wisely. You may never know when you need that credit line increased for that last minute purchase. I had a bank give me a 50,000 credit card and that one card saved our business when Amex decided it didn’t want to be in my industry and left me high and dry. American Express is not one to build a business on any longer in my mind. That one hurt.

2. Finding funding or resources before you need them. When your business is in trouble is the worst time to try and raise money. Try to be in front of that with orders from customers. We had many times when we used a prepayment of services at a discount to the customer instead of taking toxic funding at 20% a month in interest.

3. Find strong partners — even resources that will help you sell your idea / product once it’s out. I had one firm where my channel partner was outselling even my sales team.

4. Hire a lawyer you like. Cheap legal advice is just that — cheap, and may lead you down the wrong path. One lawyer we had suggested we take a client to court. I went and met the client and a $300.00 dinner won them back from the brink. Sometimes honey works better than vinegar.

5. Listen to your elders, especially when they have more experience in a certain area– i.e. get an advisory board that really cares about your business. Give them shares in the firm when you have zero. Not crazy levels of shares but enough to keep them engaged. Or pay them little dividends like bottles of a favorite beverage, or just be nice to the right folks who care will help.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Stop dreaming and commit to your idea. You will never make more money than your boss so go be the entrepreneur you dream to be. If you don’t, and someone else steals your idea, don’t give up. See if they own 100% of the market. If they don’t, then they just validated your idea. Go for it! Go all in and don’t look back. Be ready as this is the hardest fight of your life. Your desire and idea will be the best or worst thing you ever do. It’s up to you! Make it happen and remember, you are worth it.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I’ve never been one to hire someone to validate one of my ideas. Could it work? Possibly. Is it a 100% assurance to success? I’d say no. My bet is, find someone who has been in your space (if it exists) and have a conversation with them. That effort will be worth more than hiring some guy who charges for things like how to form a company. You can find that on google!

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

That fully depends on the market segment for the idea but — using your own money will be where you OWN the entire thing. I would rather fight to keep more of the firm then deal with firms who really don’t understand the direction I’m going. Seek advice from people who have done this before. Much smarter path.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

My current adventure puts fintech with frontier industries that might not ever see finance from banks. That has enabled firms to grow substantially. One of them is fighting for a coastal defense network that may slow or stop coastal erosion worldwide. I’d say that would be fantastic for the world! Keep focused on the path towards a better planet.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Bring forward technologies that can make this world a better place and you have done well while you are here. Pay it forward and do great things for people, stay humble ,and be kind. Try to be better than the previous 3 generations of people before you, and if you can, make people smile by doing great things.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Fitz from SC Johnson as he has a passion for the ocean and helping millions. Our work with www.tekmara.com will be the firm to stop or slow coastal erosion. I think the founder there would love a breakfast with him. Or a progressive CEO who cares deeply about the impact of what is happening in the ocean.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Thank you for doing this — people need to understand that they can do it if they focus and get it done!

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Making Something From Nothing: Todd Kleperis Of Payzel On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.