The Eccentric CEO Podcast

Today’s episode will forever change how you look at a “book.”

For example, did you know that pretty much all bestseller lists are scams?

Book publishing is a fascinating industry, with a rapidly changing value landscape, and is also very opaque — the business is pretty mysterious in its ways.

How publishing business works directly affects our culture, so much that it’s not a coincidence that the word “author” and “authority” have a similar spelling.

Over the last 20 years, this area has completely changed with the internet, and traditional publishers are struggling to keep up.

To pull back the curtain and throw some light, I invited Tucker Max, the former CEO and Co-founder of Scribe Media, which is a new-age book publishing and author marketing company focused on non-fiction. He is himself a 4-time NYT bestselling author, and has helped launch the books of some of the world’s most popular authors, from Tim Ferriss to David Goggins.

We get into many fundamental questions about the books business, dissecting everything about the publishing value chain and uncovering fascinating insights along the way!

As usual, this is a power-packed episode with content you simply won't find anywhere else:

• How many books are published each year, and where people buy them

Building new tech for the medical industry is hard — there's a LOT of regulation due to safety issues, especially when the tech directly influences treatment/surgery or diagnosis.

And then, beyond regulations, just selling that tech to hospitals and departments, and teaching (+ convincing) doctors to adopt new tools and habits, is its own journey.

But how does it look really, from the perspective of an entrepreneur who's actually in the weeds?

My guest Anna-Maria Henell is the Founder and CEO of Disior, which builds 3D medical imaging software that's used for both diagnosis and treatment planning.

As usual, this is a power-packed episode with content you simply won't find anywhere else:

01:50 — the medical industry’s “consistency problem” when it comes to diagnostics

06:25 — types of medical scans that pose special challenges to Doctors, and why

09:11 — the concept of “radiographical parameters” and why they’re important for doctors

14:30 — challenging of selling new med-tech to doctors and hospitals — how to navigate the sales process

22:10 — current medical imaging technologies are 10 to 70 years old?!

27:50 — in-depth discussion of the med-tech regulation process

36:08 — how the regulatory challenges REALLY affect an entrepreneur: the real picture

45:30 — how do you PROVE how good your medical software is?

52:30 — why Disior doesn’t use much machine learning: pros and cons

59:32 — working around data privacy and protection rules as a med-tech company

1:04:22 — the tedious regulatory process of making CHANGES to medical software

1:06:40 — Anna-Maria’s story and Disior’s founding story!

1:09:24 — Fundraising for a med-tech company: investor outlook

1:12:30 — Has the Theranos example affected the med-tech landscape in Europe?

1:15:33 — Why med-tech is extremely competitive despite the huge costs and challenges

The world of high-fashion and modeling may be glamorous, but it is still a business. How do models and their agents really make money, how is that changing, and what is it really like to make a living as a model?

My guest Briauna Mariah is the Founder of "We Speak," a new-age modeling agency in New York managing hundreds of models on its roster — with clients ranging from Victoria's Secret to Microsoft Xbox!

Join me as she gives us a peek into the "business" side of modeling agencies, and all its light (and dark).

As always, we cover a lot of ground on the podcast, so here are some topics!

01:27 — What's a "fashion week" and why it exists

06:11 — Major "market segments" and niches for models

09:54 — Surprising differences between luxury vs commercial clients for modeling agencies: luxury doesn't pay?!

15:15 — How Victoria's Secret Angels are going through a transformation

16:58 — How modeling agencies operate and make money

20:32 — Why models, despite being independent contractors, are not really "independent"

27:31 — How do agencies find models to join them?

30:31 — Why most models aren't busy throughout the year, and what agencies do about it

36:31 — Major expenses of running a modeling agency? How much do they spend on "advertising", and how does it vary over the year?

42:39 — How agencies promote and develop models for fashion week

46:57 — Starting a new modeling agency: what does it take, and what's the hardest part?

50:46 — How Briauna fell in love with modeling, and some awful experiences as a model

53:00 — How some models sustain themselves while they look for modeling work

54:49 — Life as a model manager today

Today, we're talking with Aleksey Matyushev, the CEO and Founder of Natilus, a company building unmanned cargo aircraft that intend to revolutionize the business of air freight, by making air shipping costs 50% cheaper than the Boeings, Airbuses and Cessnas of the world.

So in this episode, we’ll discuss the fascinating business of building and selling airplanes, the economics of air freight and how they compare to other shipping methods, the history of autopilot technology, the profitability of maintenance and repair, and how it all comes together!

As always, we cover a lot of ground on this podcast so here's a list of the topics we discuss:

00:47 — Different business models in the world of cargo airplanes

03:15 — Why you have to build a plane from scratch, instead of just selling an advanced autopilot

04:24 — The cost breakdown of a single cargo flight from A to B, and how that varies

09:25 — Aman summarizes the economics of air cargo and how that affects plane design

11:01 — Price categories of different cargo planes

14:09 — Profiting from air shipping: domestic air freight vs trucking, and the operations model of delivery companies like FedEx, and building the right type of plane

21:45 — The current global state of Hydrogen fuel for aircraft

24:37 — Deploying the planes: the extremely profitable business of maintenance and repair

28:39 — Choosing the right engines for the planes, and how that varies across the competitive landscape

31:48 — Coming up with the design for the plane — a little history

35:36 — Why companies like Boeing and Airbus are not competitive in cargo

36:27 — Choosing the right material for building the plane, and how it effects the economics

38:47 — The different stages of regulatory approval, and how much it costs to get from idea to manufacturing!

45:47 — Brief history of autopilot technology, and how that compares with self-driving cars in costs and performance

56:00 — Fundraising landscape for an airplane company: raising investment for "moonshot" projects

01:01:00 — Aerospace workplaces aren't funny

Pick up a jar of jam in your kitchen — can you guess all the people involved in its supply chain, and who makes how much money? Today we'll grant you "X-ray vision" into the business and supply chain of grocery brands.

Kyle Oglesby is the owner of a barbecue sauce company called Daddy Sam's, and has slowly grown to nationwide distribution in the USA. We talk about everything from the margins on different types of grocery products, manufacturing, packaging, copackers, sales and distribution channels, marketing strategies, relationships with grocery stores, and much more.

As always, we cover a lot of ground on this podcast so here's a list of the topics we discuss!

01:49 — Categories of groceries as seen from a store's perspective

05:42 — How exactly does a product get classified as "shelf-stable"?

07:46 — Distribution channels for a grocery brand: direct to consumer vs wholesaling

10:05 — Differences between supply chains for B2C and B2B sales: selling directly to consumers or to the foodservice industry

12:32 — Does selling to restaurants increase direct to consumer sales too?

15:05 — Copacking challenges of selling B2B and B2C together

20:34 — The business model of grocery stores (stocking fees etc)

24:00 — Negotiating with stores to put your product on the shelves — navigating slotting fees and free fills

28:18 — Distributors' relationships with stores; how it varies for different types of chains

35:41 — Selling barbecue sauce online: pros, cons and important considerations

41:49 — Cost breakdown of a jar of barbecue sauce

47:37 — Margins differences in slow-moving vs fast-moving groceries

50:31 — Why selling on Amazon is a mixed bag, different types of fees etc

54:03 — Business implications of using high-fructose corn syrup vs sugar, and plastic packaging vs glass

58:20 — Pricing of Gourmet vs Commodity products

1:01:27 — Important packaging considerations

01:06:35 — Storage, warehousing, shipping & transport: how product density affects these costs

01:08:44 — Selling off your grocery brand

01:12:13 — Access to capital for different purposes

01:16:26 — The glass shortage in 2020, and how it affected the grocery brands!

01:19:42 — Warehousing economics, and pricing model

You've heard a lot about self-driving cars and electric vehicles. They're cool, about to change the world, yada yada yada.

Today, I bring to you the MOST thorough and transparent discussion anywhere online about the business side of this industry.

Everything from the development, manufacturing and operational costs of autonomous cars, to various revenue and pricing models, how the state-of-the-art technical challenges can be cleverly hijacked, and whatever else you need to know as an investor or analyst in this field.

My guest today is Ain McKendrick, CEO of Faction, a company that develops self-driving fleets of 3-wheel electric vehicles. Given our shared history in this industry, this is an informative episode you don't want to miss.

0:19 — Terminology around "consumer transport," "vehicle-on-demand," etc

2:06 — Use cases in the micro-logistics and urban transport market

6:29 — Cars vs Motorcycles, from production, operations and regulatory standpoints

10:24 — Difference between the power sports and automotive industries

12:00 — Worldwide adoption of motorcycles vs North America

15:32 — Pricing, revenue and go-to-market models for Faction's driverless technology

18:47 — Faction's platform "DriveLink," how it makes the vehicles safe, and their addressable market

23:12 — The marginal costs of upgrading a vehicle to different levels of autonomy: real numbers

29:10 — Doing the cold math on manufacturing and operation costs of self-driving vehicles, and getting to a viable product

37:01 — How putting humans in the loop is better for drivers

38:21 — Building a state-of-the-art autonomy stack: what is still R&D, and what can be outsourced?

43:55 — The 3 generations of teleoperation (human control/supervision) in driverless vehicles

50:10 — Why you HAVE to build a vehicle from scratch, even if you don't plan to manufacture them yourself

52:55 — What a typical week looks like for Ain, and how he tries to make productive decisions

55:06 — Investor sentiment evolved around autonomy and electric vehicles over the last few years

Faction: www.factionmoto.com

What makes a "successful" social documentary film? How do these filmmakers measure their "impact," how do they get funded, and what is it really like to be in the middle of this journey?

Today we talk about the "business" side of making independent social documentary films.

Jennifer Huang, Founder of Treeclimber Media, is a director, producer and fascinating character. She's currently making "The Long Rescue", a film about human trafficking.

She teaches us everything she knows about navigating the film industry and the challenges faced by independent films.

2:00 — Case studies of very "successful" social documentaries

4:00 — How they define "impact" and set goals

9:43 — The thorny topic of distribution of documentary films

11:43 — ROI of getting your film into festivals, Netflix, Amazon Prime

15:30 — Traditional model of film distribution

18:34 — How film rights are negotiated

21:09 — What film aggregators do

25:03 — Getting your film on online streaming platforms

27:52 — Differences in making a film for theaters vs streaming

33:13 — Fundraising and other revenue streams

42:19 — Slice of Jennifer's life: what it's really like

Correction: The film about sexual abuse in the military is called The Invisible War, not The Hunting Ground as mentioned in the podcast — though both are from the same filmmaker.

Today we do a DEEP dive into Japan's real estate investment landscape. We discuss what makes it unique, and look at both the buyer's and seller's sides.

My guest is Ziv Nakajima-Magen, the cofounder of Nippon Tradings International - a firm that has helped broker international property deals in Japan for 10 years.

If you're a modern real-estate investor, this is probably the single-most informative piece of content you'll need to understand this market.

1:42 - Bad for capital gains, great for cash flow

3:35 - Why local realtors often don't work with foreigners

8:44 - How an old population and low birth rate affect the market

13:10 - The buildings themselves: legislations, maintenance costs, etc

16:53 - Attractive areas in the commercial sector

23:21 - COVID impact: why the residential sector still did very well, etc

27:56 - Financing and mortgages, both pre- and post-COVID

31:36 - Rents: the numbers

36:22 - Rent negotiation

40:02 - Why people sell despite low capital gains and high cash flow?

44:28 - Who typically invests in Japanese real estate?

51:08 - Other emerging markets like Latin America and Africa

53:31 - Buyer's journey through Nippon Tradings

1:00:19 - Property price negotiation and competition in Japan

1:04:38 - Challenges for Nippon Tradings as a company

Investing in the American stock market isn’t simple or straightforward for international investors, and there’s a big barrier to entry if you’re not very rich.

Abdelazim El Toukhy is the Founder and CEO of Ticr, a Robinhood-style trading platform for people in the Middle East / North Africa regions.

In this episode, you’ll learn how the industry is set up, how people in this region typically invest their money, what current solutions exist, and what it takes to solve this problem. Azim talks about the whole industry ecosystem as well as the compliance/licensing challenges they are facing right now.

01:25 – Current process of U.S. stock investing in the Middle East, different options available

07:15 – The landscape of brokers and middlemen explained

11:56 – How this expands to different countries and geographies

14:04 – Challenges of building an overseas trading platform – licensing etc

18:30 – How Ticr solves it – system, stakeholders, business model

23:00 – Costs of legal compliance

25:43 – Other ways Ticr differentiates itself, differences in investor preferences between US and EMEA

33:45 – Ticr’s education platform

35:53 – Competition

38:51 – How sanctions and international politics affect the business

41:50 – Azim’s personal journey in entrepreneurship

50:00 – Fundraising thoughts

Real Estate has to be maintained regularly just to keep it from losing value, and it costs the industry a lot of money every year. Surprisingly, most of this real estate maintenance is never recorded anywhere.

Today you'll learn about the business of real estate maintenance, and how technology can help us save BILLIONS of dollars per year in this yet-to-be-disrupted space.

Our guest is David Albrecht, and he's the Founder CEO of Shortbar. He is building a product called Dials (dials.co) which is not only a tool to track and make sense of real estate maintenance, but at the same time a unique "social media" tool for contractors!

01:41 - Inspiration for Dials and overview of industry

06:26 - What "Github" is and why it's revolutionary for other industries

08:56 - Target customers and their biggest pain points

20:15 - Business model and critical features

29:45 - Why nobody uses existing software options

32:24 - The social networking aspect, pricing model

40:21 - How Silicon Valley sees the rest of America

48:21 - The business plan and fundraising logic

1:04:49 - Aman begins nerding out over topic of engineering culture

1:08:04 - Challenges