David Roddenberry on AI, Entrepreneurship, Perseverance, and Building Businesses That Create Change

Yeah, that's interesting.

And then, David, you know, with your AI companies and all you've accomplished so far in your life, you know, you have a very impressive background.

You know, as we go through, you know, business, entrepreneurship and just life, we always come across different challenges or what I like to call seminars, right? You know, I'd love to hear, you know, maybe a story on a challenge you've had to overcome with these business ventures and maybe how you do things a little differently or what you've learned from that challenge you've been through.

Sure.

So when we were first getting started with Healthy Wage, the concept is innovative and a lot of people don't understand it.

So they think it's gambling.

And so we had a appearance on the Today Show where they were featuring the business.

And so we got a huge surge of traffic and signups.

And so that surge led to the risk management at our credit card processor to shut us off.

Because, you know, they didn't understand, they weren't anticipating a large business, they hadn't done, you know, whatever risk reviews and, you know, it hit a bureaucrat's desk and the person was like, I don't know about this, you know, and it's easier from their perspective, you know, the business is much larger than any individual client.

client.

And so they protect the business.

And so what that meant was we could still process payments, but they were keeping the money so that it's not like we couldn't have clients, but we didn't get

access to that capital.

And

you know, and, you know, initially they were a firm, you know, no, I'm sorry.

You know, this is just not something that we're comfortable with.

And really it took a lot of persistence and navigating and going deep into my network to find someone who worked at that company who was senior enough to, you know, have a rational conversation about like, this is a real business and, you know, this is something that's cool.

And, and so, you know, I would say, the lesson is just around that perseverance.

I think when you're getting started, there's so many reasons to say no.

And fortunately, I was young enough that I didn't listen to them.

I think the later you are in your career, You know, the easier it is to kind of grasp the concepts and to do the job, but the risk appetite and just that tenacity, I think, goes away.

You know, you're just like, oh, that's...

Because you've seen it enough times that you're like, oh, that's just how it works.

You know, that's just, you know, oh, well.