IAM2906 – Co-founder Provides Self-directed Retirement Accounts

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Transcription:

Thomas Young 00:00
don't just grab onto one thing, right? Don't just grab onto that one idea or that one feature or that one whatever, and, and sort of, uh, die on that hill. You know, let it, let it flow a little bit, be a little, you know, relaxed and know that things are gonna come and go. And if you miss one opportunity, there's another one behind it. And, and that I think would ease a lot of my anxiety, which would in turn have made me more effective.

Gresham Harkless 00:49
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Thomas Young of Rocket Dollar. Thomas, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Thomas Young 01:02
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:03
Yeah, definitely super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Thomas so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Thomas is the co-founder and VP of marketing at Rocket Dollar, a self-directed retirement account provider. Young's close contact with many self-directed investors led him to identify a strong need for a platform combining the best attributes of, of a self-directed account while leveraging the best technology of the day to make it easy to operate these accounts. Rocket Dollar is making it simple and secure for folks to take advantage of their oftentimes largest investable pool of assets and invest in the things they care about. Thomas, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Thomas Young 01:41
Yeah, let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 01:42
Let's make it happen. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to get started with your business.

Thomas Young 01:48
Yeah, so right when I graduated from college, uh, I went to the University of Texas here in Austin where we're based, uh, today. And just through happenstance, I didn't really plan it. I ended up in this sort of niche part of the retirement industry, which is the self-directed IRA and 401 industry where people were using their retirement accounts to do things like buy rental properties or invest in startups. And I worked at a company, like I said, just because of luck and this guy I met, and it was just, it was a lot of things that came together that I ended up working for this guy. Um, and we were selling these accounts at a price point that was high and, and it was very complicated. It was a lot of paperwork and a lot of, um, you know, tedious, uh, tedious processes and kind of going through that and, and working there and learning the ins and outs of the business. I just, I kept thinking to myself, you know, there has to be a better way to do this. This is, and, and I'm talking about it from my end, from the person fulfilling the accounts and setting 'em up and opening the structures and doing all that. And, and so after about 2 years there, I'd learned the product, I learned the operations, and I just, I wanted to do it better. And so in the process of sort of figuring out what that would be like and talking to mentors and some angel investors that I knew in Austin, you know, I got connected to my co-founders at Rocket Dollar, Henry Yoshida and Rick Dude. And that is his actual last name, which is kind of funny. And they had, you know, Henry has been in the retirement space for a long time. He had a prior exit to Goldman Sachs. And Rick is a, you know, super technical guy. And so the 3 of us just started brainstorming about how we could bring this specific product, um, sort of online, if you will. And, and that's really how it came together. Um, you know, I sort of knew the product. Henry knew the, you know, the, the how to build a business, how to fundraise, how to structure, how to do it, how to hire all, all of these things that you just don't know as a first-time founder, which I am. And, and then Rick knew the tech. He, he had had this product before. And he knew sort of the levers that we could pull using tech to make it, you know, very easy for us on the fulfillment side and letting us scale, but also on the customer end, providing a, you know, a good customer experience. So the 3 of us just sort of decided that we wanted to tackle this and, and Rocket Dollar was born. And, and now we turned 2 in February. We're at 18 employees and customers in all 50 states. So. Uh, we're having a good time over here.

Gresham Harkless 04:15
Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate, you know, you, you sharing that. And I think, you know, happy, happy, happy next, next near birthday, I guess I should say, since February is around the corner as well. So, um, it's super exciting, especially to kind of hear, you know, how you guys were able to come and you guys each have your kind of zone of genius, it sounds like. And when you guys come together, you were able to build, you know, that this company and this organization that you guys have. And so many, so many times people feel like, you have to create something completely new. But a lot of times if you build a better mousetrap, if you find something's not being done in a really great way, or there's an opportunity, or there's something blocking that ability to grow, you can kind of create that yourself.

Thomas Young 04:53
I totally agree. And we're lucky in the sort of the niche that we serve that this is a product that's been around for a long time. So it's got a lot of legitimacy and a lot of, you know, sort of traction with specific circles. But because it has been such a niche product so long, and really it's been, real estate investors that have known about these things. They're buying and holding single-family homes inside their IRA, which is just crazy, you know, crazy awesome. But so it was a niche product and so we have the advantage of a legacy product that needs to be updated, that needs to have a kind of a new skin put on it with also being sort of the first to try to bring it into the mainstream. So we're kind of in a cool little, you know, if you look at a Venn diagram that we're right in the middle between It exists, it's doable. You can go out and spend $2,000 on an account, but on this end, you know, we're sort of bringing the fintech, you know, sort of slick look and feel to it and the cost savings of good tech on the other end. So we're really happy with where we're sitting.

Gresham Harkless 05:53
Yeah, it absolutely makes sense. And I think you're absolutely right, especially that legitimacy. And if there is a market, a lot of times you have different ideas and you're like, okay, this would be really awesome if it was created, but you don't have, you know, that history that you guys have in the industry that you have where it definitely says, hey, you know, This is something that is needed and it's been used for years and years and years, and we just need to basically create exactly what that is.

Thomas Young 06:15
Right, right. Absolutely right.

Gresham Harkless 06:17
Nice. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. I know you told us a little bit more about Rocket Dollar. Could you take us through exactly like how it works and exactly, you know, what exactly, for those that may not be familiar, self-directed accounts are and how that works?

Thomas Young 06:29
Right, right. So for most people, their retirement account, you know, their IRA or their 401 with their employer is oftentimes their largest investable pool. pool of capital. But when you go to open an IRA with the Charles Schwabs or the Fidelities of the world, they'll give you an account for free, but then all they let you invest that IRA in is a preset sort of menu of their mutual funds, of their index funds, of their different products, their financial products that they've built. But the IRS doesn't say that that's all you can use it for. You know, so the list of what you legally cannot invest in is very short, but you're limited because of these providers. So what we've done at Rocket Dollar is sort of take the training wheels off of these accounts. And with a Rocket Dollar self-directed IRA or solo 401, you can actually make investments tax advantaged. So no penalties, no nothing with your IRA or 401 into assets like real estate, like startups, like cryptocurrencies, peer-to-peer lending, small business lending, you know, basically anything that you can imagine. So the classic case study for us as Rocket Dollar, when we raised, we raised a small friends and family round right when we started, And about 20% of the capital that we took in to start our business was through our own accounts. So we have investors using their retirement savings to invest in a startup like Rocket Lab. And since then, we've had, you know, people that are taking $100K out of their 401 or IRA and investing into a single-family home and collecting tax-free rent that goes right into the account. And so it's, it's just a different way of investing your IRA or 401. instead of just a self-selected menu of mutual funds. So we've really just enabled people to do everything that is legal within their IRA or 401.

Gresham Harkless 08:11
Yeah, that's huge. And it, it's always crazy. Like, again, a lot of times, you know, sometimes you can overthink like different concepts, but it's usually just something that you're frustrated with, as you talked about when you were working with that company, where if you start to work that out and, and figure out how best to kind of alleviate some of that frustration and stress, you can have a phenomenal idea. But again, you know, everybody's already investing, they already have their IRAs, they already have those 401s, and they just don't have all those different options if they're with certain companies. So great that you guys are able to kind of do that and open up people's eyes and their pockets, to have a lack of a better term, to those opportunities. Yeah.

Thomas Young 08:46
Well, and I mean, it's, I mean, how many times have you heard of people in your circle or in your family that had this just amazing opportunity come by their desk, buying land where 10 years ago, just whatever, Everybody has these investment opportunities that they come across the desk that they've had to pass on because they didn't have the money available. Because we have mortgages, we have kids, we've got student loans, we've got cars, we've got vacations, we've got lifestyle. Like, you know, this is a real thing. And so you have to pass on a great opportunity, but at the same time, you've got $150,000 or $200,000 or $50,000 or whatever amount sitting in your 401 or your IRA. Which you could have used for that investment. So that's really what we're trying to avoid is people missing out on those opportunities that come across because you don't have to, you do have the money a lot of times. You just don't know that you can use it for these sort of things. And so that's really what we're trying to bring into the mainstream.

Gresham Harkless 09:41
Yeah, definitely makes perfect sense. And it sounds like a lot of like kind of awareness and education as well too, especially if you don't know about those, you know, IRS kind of things you can and cannot do. But it's great that you guys have it set up. It's kind of like an easy button so people can understand exactly how to do that.

Thomas Young 09:56
Absolutely. Exactly right.

Gresham Harkless 09:58
And, um, so now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for you personally or for Rocket Dollar, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Thomas Young 10:05
Uh, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, going back to what we touched on earlier about the product, uh, we're sort of bringing a product online in a niche, uh, world is that we've really, you know, there's, there isn't a whole lot of awareness around these accounts. And so I would say that our secret sauce You know, it's not the tech, it's not the product, it's the awareness and it's the content that we, the educational content that we produce in-house around our products and around the opportunities and around the customers that we have. You know, we do case studies and we do all these different things. I think that makes us unique. You know, we invest an awful lot into sort of educational resources to bring awareness, but then we also have a knowledge base that has you know, a ton of information. So when you do have these accounts and you have questions, you know, you don't have to get on the phone and call somebody, even though you can, you know, we do have people answering phones or email, you know, you can actually just go online and go on our knowledge base and search for your answer. And so that's unique to us. I don't think there's anybody in the self-directed space that is investing so heavily into original content. Um, so I think that, I think that makes us, us pretty unique.

Gresham Harkless 11:16
I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Thomas Young 11:24
So I, the one thing that just comes to mind immediately, um, and there's a lot, but, but the one that just comes to mind, uh, immediately is a few years ago I read a book, um, by Gary Keller called The One Thing, and it's about focusing on the one thing that will have the most impact Across your organization, across your life, across your professional life. And that's stuck with me because being in a startup, being in a small company, you know, there's so many things that you can be doing, but really getting clear and focusing on one thing at a time, uh, has been just, you know, really important for me.

Gresham Harkless 11:57
Absolutely. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Thomas Young 12:07
I would say, you know, opportunities are plentiful. There's always going to be another opportunity. There's always going to be something that comes by. And just because, you know, you mess up or you fail or you don't do something the right way doesn't mean that you failed. It just means that you're just waiting for another opportunity. And to not, you know, I would tell myself like, don't just grab onto one thing, right? Don't just grab onto that one idea or that one feature or that one whatever, and sort of die on that hill. Let it flow a little bit, be a little relaxed and know that things are going to come and go. And if you miss one opportunity, there's another one behind it. And that I think would ease a lot of my anxiety, which would in turn have made me more effective. I don't know if that's like this amazing nugget, but that's what I would tell myself.

Gresham Harkless 12:54
Yeah, no, I think it's huge. I think so many times that especially with You know, being a visionary and having a vision for exactly like what you wanna build and how you wanna create it. Sometimes we can get wrapped up in wanting to see that work so much so that we aren't kind of pivoting. We aren't making changes. We aren't saying, well, maybe we should do it this way or that way. And it's a tough balance between, you know, having that vision, wanting to drive home and, you know, rolling up your sleeves to make that happen. But at the same time, you have to be able to say, well, maybe the shoe should go on the other foot and maybe we should try it this way and that might actually provide more opportunity. So kind of balancing between that. If, If, if I said that correctly.

Thomas Young 13:28
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 13:29
Nice. Well, Thomas, I, I truly appreciate it. I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So Thomas, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Thomas Young 13:40
You know, I'll, I, I read a really good article the other day about, you know, I'm not a CEO of my business, but I, it was an article saying that everybody is sort of the CEO of their life, right? Mm-hmm. So you're the CEO of your life. I'm the CEO of my life. And taking sort of charge, reacting to opportunities, right? But not living in a reactionary state and being proactive and going out and finding these opportunities and doing these things. I think that's what it means to be sort of the CEO of your life and be in charge of what you're doing, be in charge of, be accountable for your work, for your actions, for your health or whatever. I think that's what being a CEO means is just having a, having a handle on you and taking the time to reflect and learn about you. I think that's what being the CEO of your life is.

Gresham Harkless 14:25
Yeah, absolutely. That makes so much sense. And I think a lot of times, whether we're talking about, you know, like your, you know, working out or, you know, your job or, you know, your finances, obviously you have kind of control to be able to make those decisions. And we have ownership more times, more than we sometimes think. And I think that if we have that mentality or that perspective, that helps make you know, everything better. So I appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more, Thomas. Uh, what I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get ahold of you, find out all the awesome things you guys are working on.

Thomas Young 15:00
Yeah, absolutely. Um, and you know, first off, thank you for having me. This has been a fun, a fun conversation for, uh, you know, this won't air until January, but, but we're recording this, you know, Monday after Thanksgiving. And so it's a great way to sort of jump back into, uh, into the work week and wrapping up the year. So I've really enjoyed that. And the best way to get ahold of me, you can visit us anytime at rocketdollar.com, or you can email me directly at thomas@rocketdollar.com. And I'm pretty good about responding to emails. So if you have any questions about what we do, how we do it, about if you're thinking about starting a business and you want to get in touch with me or anybody on my team, just shoot me an email again at thomas@rocketdollar.com and happy to chat.

Gresham Harkless 15:41
Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Thomas. We will have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. But I appreciate your time again, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.